Robert Boyle and the Limits of Reason

Author: Jan W. Wojcik  

Publisher: Cambridge University Press‎

Publication year: 1997

E-ISBN: 9780511821622

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780521560290

Subject: B561.2 The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of philosophy

Keyword: 自然科学史

Language: ENG

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Robert Boyle and the Limits of Reason

Description

In this study of Robert Boyle's epistemology, Jan W. Wojcik reveals the theological context within which Boyle developed his views on reason's limits. After arguing that a correct interpretation of his views on 'things above reason' depends upon reading his works in the context of theological controversies in seventeenth-century England, Professor Wojcik details exactly how Boyle's three specific categories of things which transcend reason - the incomprehensible, the inexplicable, and the unsociable - affected his conception of what a natural philosopher could hope to know. Also covered in detail is Boyle's belief that God had deliberately limited the human intellect in order to reserve a full knowledge of both theology and natural philosophy for the afterlife.

Chapter

Boyle's Early Responses to Religious Controversies

Liberty of Conscience

"Love of Truth" and "Love of Peace"

Part I The Theological Context

1 Things above Reason: Medieval Context and Concepts

Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria

Thomas Aquinas

Double-truth and the Law of Noncontradiction

Lorenzo Valla

Two Approaches Summarized

Anglicans and Puritans

2 The Threat of Socinianism

The Protestant Background

Early Socinianism

The "Englishing" of Socinianism

Boyle's Response to Socinianism (c. 1652)

Other Responses to Socinianism

Conclusions

3 Predestination Controversies

Arminians versus Calvinists

Doctrinal Issues

Boyle's Seraphic Love

Howe's Reconcileableness and Hammond's Pacifick Discourse

4 Theology and the Limits of Reason

Style of the Scriptures

Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion

Things above Reason

The Charge of Enthusiasm and Advices

Conclusions

Part II The Context of Natural Philosophy

5 Philosophies of Nature and their Theological Implications

The Aristotelians

The Cambridge Platonists

The "Chymical" Tradition

6 Sources of Knowledge

Scriptural Revelation

Personal Revelation

Abstract Reason and Innate Ideas

Sensory Perception

7 The Limits of Reason and Knowledge of Nature

The Incomprehensible, the Inexplicable, and the Unsociable

The Task of the Natural Philosopher

Evaluation of Alternative Theories of Matter

The Question of the Falsity of Rejected Hypotheses

The Question of the Truth of the Corpuscular Hypothesis

Advantages of the Corpuscular Hypothesis

Some Things not Explicable By any Means

The Question of Progress in Natural Philosophy

8 Boyle's Voluntarism and the Limits of Reason

The Seventeenth-Century Background

Specific Aspects of Boyle's Voluntarism

God's Will and Human Reason

The Christian Virtuoso's Final Reward

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

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