The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science

Peter Harrison provides an account of the religious foundations of scientific knowledge. He shows how the approaches to the study of nature that emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were directly informed by theological discussions about the Fall of Man and the extent to which the mind and the senses had been damaged by that primeval event. Scientific methods, he suggests, were originally devised as techniques for ameliorating the cognitive damage wrought by human sin. At its inception, modern science was conceptualized as a means of recapturing the knowledge of nature that Adam had once possessed. Contrary to a widespread view that sees science emerging in conflict with religion, Harrison argues that theological considerations were of vital importance in the framing of the scientific method.

Author: Peter Harrison
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 07/30/2009
Pages: 316
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.02lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.71d
ISBN: 9780521117296

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