The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science

by Peter Harrison

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.

Genres: Science, History, Theology, History Of Science, Philosophy, Religion

316 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of the Centre of the History of European Discourses at the University of Queensland (born 1955)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ha...


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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Tynan Brooks]

Interesting thesis; belief that, prior to the Fall, Adam was possessed of all earthly knowledge lies behind a turn to experimentalism in 17th-century science, as it limited the deprivations of the Fall upon reason.

[Paul Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough discussion of the thesis that the foundations of empirical (experimental) science rest on theological foundations including a particular anthropology surfaced by Reformation debates.

[Mz · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://bookpress.gr/kritikes/idees/1...

[Russell Ince · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read which elucidates the changing philosophical attitudes which allowed Francis Bacon's scientific philosophy to emerge.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read. Very well written, lucid, and compelling. A serious and scholarly challenge to the typical religion against science narrative.

[Alan]

http://creation.com/the-fall-inspirat...