But Ure’s geological work was not merely another case study in fundamentalist folly. The same evangelical faith that inspired his geology also galvanized his managerial thought, for Ure considered his “philosophy of manufactures” a vindication of God’s mechanical ways to human beings. An apparently mechanistic ontology underlay both Ure’s promotion of industrial technology and his case for managerial prerogative. God’s universe was a vast machine composed of moral and material parts. Thus, in The Philosophy of Manufactures, Ure could admonish the wise manufacturer to “organize his moral
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