Newton and Spinoza

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-133
Author(s):  
Eric Schliesser
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Empirical Success ◽  
Henry More

This chapter investigates several arguments against Spinoza’s philosophy that were developed by Henry More, Samuel Clarke, and Colin Maclaurin. In the arguments More, Clarke, and Maclaurin aim to establish the existence of an immaterial and intelligent God precisely by showing that Spinoza does not have the resources to adequately explain the origin of motion. Attending to these criticisms grants us a deeper appreciation for how the authority derived from the empirical success of Newton's enterprise was used to settle debates within philosophy. The arguments by More and Clarke especially help to discern the anti‐Spinozism that can be detected in Newton's General Scholium (1713). Ultimately, the Newtonian criticisms of Spinoza offer us a more nuanced view of the problems that plague Spinoza's philosophy, and they also challenge the idea that Spinoza seamlessly fits into a progressive narrative about the scientific revolution.

‘But where shall my soul repose?’: Nonconformity, Science and the Geography of the Afterlife, c. 1660–1720

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 268-279
Author(s):  
Andrew Cambers
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Religious Cultures ◽  
Henry More

Life, the afterlife, and life beyond the Earth are matters of scientific inquiry as well as religious belief. As we might expect, in the wake of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the afterlife was subjected to new scrutiny. Such scrutiny, notably the demonology of Joseph Glanvill and Henry More, both fellows of the Royal Society, was undoubtedly scientific and serious, even if it has rarely been treated as such by scholars preferring to treat belief in witchcraft as a hangover from an earlier age. Far from being opposed, or necessarily pulling in opposite directions, the conjunction of science and religion in this era breathed new life into old problems and opened up new questions for debate. One such area, with a long history as a philosophical conundrum, was the possibility of life beyond Earth. It is this question, its place within religious cultures, and its relation to traditional ideas about the afterlife, that is the subject of this essay.

Book reviews

1997 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-348
Author(s):  
Alan Cook
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Robert Hooke ◽  
Humphry Davy ◽  
Henry More

Eight book reviews in the July 1997 edition of Notes and Records : Anna Cassini, Gio: Domenico Cassini Uno scienzato del Seicento . A. Rupert Hall, Henry More and the Scientific Revolution . Ellen Tan Drake, Restless Genius: Robert Hooke and his Earthly Thoughts . Edward G. Ruestow, The Microscope in the Dutch Republic: The Shaping of Discovery . Maxwell Craven, John Whitehurst of Derby: Clockmaker and Scientist 1713–88 . David Knight, Humphry Davy, Science and Power . Karl Popper: Philosophy and Problems , Anthony O'Hear (Ed.). David, Ian, John and Margaret Millar, The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists .

Language Matters: ‘Counsel’ in Early Modern and Modern Medicine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Sabroe ◽  
Phil Withington
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Successful Scientist

Francis Bacon is famous today as one of the founding fathers of the so-called ‘scientific revolution’ of the seventeenth century. Although not an especially successful scientist himself, he was nevertheless the most eloquent and influential spokesperson for an approach to knowledge that promised to transform human understanding of both humanity and its relationship with the natural and social worlds. The central features of this approach, as they emerged in Bacon’s own writings and the work of his protégés and associates after 1605, are equally well known. They include the importance of experiment, observation, and a sceptical attitude towards inherited wisdom (from the ‘ancients’ in general and Aristotle in particular).

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