The Fowls of Heaven and the Fate of the Earth: Assessing the Early Modern Revolution in Natural History

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Miller
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
The Earth ◽  
John Ray ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Natural Histories ◽  
Modern Era

AbstractIn recent years scholars have begun to question in various ways the traditional notion of the Scientific Revolution, which has long been seen as a fountainhead of modern Western approaches to nature. One line of questioning involves the suggestion that there were significant, and perhaps revolutionary, developments during the early modern era not only in the realms of astronomy and physics but also in the field of natural history. This article takes up this suggestion and begins by examining the seventeenth-century transformation of natural history in relation to the work of two representative English naturalists—Edward Topsell and John Ray—by looking specifically at their contrasting ornithological descriptions of cranes. It then analyzes how the different theological orientations of these two devout naturalists shaped their natural histories and contributed to the shift from a symbolic to a literalistic understanding of natural entities. This change of mind is examined in light of the phenomenon of secularization and the loss of "the dimension of depth" and in relation to the promise and problems of a utilitarian orientation to the natural environment, with observations on cranes as they have migrated through history in the thought of some leading naturalists and across some changing natural habitats.

The Challenges of Empirical Understanding in Early Modern Theology

2014 ◽  
pp. 563-576
Author(s):  
Stephen Gaukroger
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
New Developments ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Scholastic Philosophy ◽  
Modern Era

By contrast with its Patristic formulations, Christian theology in the early modern era is intimately caught up with empirical questions and questions of the sensory basis of knowledge. Some of these date back to the introduction of Aristotelianism into scholastic philosophy in the thirteenth century. But there were also a number of new developments in the seventeenth century, marked by a search for a mutually reinforcing combination of Christian theology and natural inquiry. There was one area in particular in which this approach was pursued, namely the history of the earth. In general terms, Christianity is very distinctive in its stress on doctrinal questions, and in the early modern era this doctrinal concern fits well with attempts to develop comprehensive theories about the natural realm.

Not Dead Yet

Teleology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 150-179
Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. McDonough
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Mathematical Physics ◽  
Main Section ◽  
Early Modern Science ◽  
Teleological Reasoning ◽  
New Science ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

It is often maintained that teleology was undermined in the early modern era by the scientific revolution. Hoping to correct this misperception, this essay looks at three areas in which teleology was upheld and developed by three pioneers of early modern science. The first main section argues that teleological reasoning is woven into the very fabric of William Harvey’s revolutionary work in biology. The second main section takes up Robert Boyle’s explicit and systematic defense of teleology and especially his effort to reconcile the methods and views of the new science with a deep-seated commitment to divine teleology. Finally, the last main section explores Pierre Maupertuis’s bold attempt to find a place for teleology in the heart of modern, mathematical physics.

The Changing Persona of the Justices and their Quarter Sessions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norma Landau
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Justices Of The Peace ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

The standard portrait of the justices of the peace of early modern England is that of gentry, landed provincials, conducting their counties’ local government and so personifying ‘self-government at the king’s command.’ This essay disputes that depiction. First, it argues that it was not until relatively late in the early modern era that local gentry determined the persona of the county bench. Second, it argues that it was not until the later seventeenth century that the early modern state sufficiently differentiated its functions so as to create ‘local government.’ In so doing, it created a sphere of government fit for provincial rulers.

Theatrical torture versus dramatic cruelty: subjection through representation or praxis1

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans-Willem Korsten
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Political Event ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Peculiar Case

The distinction between the theatrical and the dramatic is pivotal for different modes of subjection in the early modern era. Institutionally speaking, society was organized ideologically, theatrically by the introjection of what was shown publicly to private, but equally collective, theatres of the mind. This could be described as a logic of torture. In contrast, and on the other hand, the dramatic application of punishment on ships, and the pain it involved, served what Robert Cover called a ‘balance of terror’, based on a logic of what Deleuze defined as ‘cruelty’. In order to clarify this distinction, and the implication it has for our ideas on gouvernmentalité, this chapter will propose a close reading of a painting by Lieve Verschuier that either depicts a peculiar case of keelhauling or, allegorically, the lynching of the brothers De Witt in 1672. Although the painting is clearly theatrical, formally speaking, it superimposes a dramatic logic on the traumatic political event of the lynching of the brothers De Witt. This will be considered in the chapter as one instance of a more general shift in the seventeenth century: a shift away from the theatrical logic of torture to the dramatic logic of cruelty.

Scholastic Approaches to Reasonable Disagreement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolf Schuessler
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Reasonable Disagreement ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
European Intellectual History ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
First Time ◽  
Modern Era

The scholastic controversy on probable opinions in the seventeenth century was one of the most extensive and acrimonious debates of the early modern era. Historiography has treated it as a quarrel over moral casuistry, but this underestimates its import. The scholastic preoccupation with the ‘use of opinions’ should be understood as a search for a general framework for dealing with reasonable disagreement between competent evaluators of truth claims (not only moral ones). In the early modern era, scholastic analyses as well as regulations concerning the prudent and legitimate use of opinions acquired an unprecedented scope and depth. For the first time in European intellectual history, detailed theories of reasonable disagreement emerged, based on explicit characterizations of competing probable opinions as reasonably tenable.

THE SEMANTICS OF ‘PEACE’ IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 127-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Withington
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

ABSTRACTThis paper begins to consider the meanings of a word that was ubiquitous in early modern culture, but which has been surprisingly neglected by historians. Focusing on printed sources and taking advantage of recent advances in digital technology, it outlines the changing uses of ‘peace’ between 1500 and 1700 and its predominant meanings at particular moments in time. The paper suggests that while these meanings were clearly derived from Christian and civic republican sources, the political conflicts of the seventeenth century saw the term politicised, appropriated and popularised in new and unexpected ways. It also argues that the semantic confusion which often attended ‘peace’ – most evident, perhaps, in its capacity to legitimise and sanction violence after 1640 – stemmed from its simultaneous role as a descriptor of society and self, and of spiritual and civil life. As a result, who should define, police and enforce peace became deeply contested issues of the course of the period. In tracing the semantics of the term in this way, the article serves as a contribution to the burgeoning historical literature on the paradigmatic vocabularies of the early modern era. It also illuminates the complicated relationship between words and concepts and the importance of both in motivating and legitimising social and political action.

The Cambridge History of Philosophy of the Scientific Revolution

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Institutional Influences ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Reciprocal Influences ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Present Understanding

The early modern era produced the Scientific Revolution, which originated our present understanding of the natural world. Concurrently, philosophers established the conceptual foundations of modernity. This rich and comprehensive volume surveys and illuminates the numerous and complicated interconnections between philosophical and scientific thought as both were radically transformed from the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. The chapters explore reciprocal influences between philosophy and physics, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and other disciplines, and show how thinkers responded to an immense range of intellectual, material, and institutional influences. The volume offers a unique perspicuity, viewing the entire landscape of early modern philosophy and science, and also marks an epoch in contemporary scholarship, surveying recent contributions and suggesting future investigations for the next generation of scholars and students.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 164-166
Author(s):  
John-Mark Philo
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Tudor England ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

The conclusion draws together the main themes and concerns of the book: namely how the translation and application of Livy in Tudor England was intricately connected to the most pressing political and cultural concerns of the day. So too it reflects on Livy’s impact on the vernacular literatures of the period, including William Painter’s novellas and Shakespeare’s poetry and prose. It also underlines the fact that, rather than a diminishing interest in Livy, the seventeenth century saw the historian at the heart of the constitutional debates underpinning the English Civil War. The translation of Livy in the early-modern period, as the conclusion underlines, functioned not only as a reflection of the political concerns of the moment, but also as an active attempt to reshape, refashion, and urge forward those concerns. Though Livy’s part in the Classical Reception of the early-modern era is sometimes underplayed, it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of Livy’s contribution to the culture and politics of sixteenth-, and indeed seventeenth-, century England.

Men of prowess and women of piety: A case study of Aceh Dar al-Salam in the seventeenth century

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sher Banu A.L. Khan
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
Successful Leadership ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

Studies on leadership in Southeast Asia's early modern era have tended to centre necessarily on men, and in particular, on O.W. Wolters' concept of ‘men of prowess’. The concept of female leadership is still little researched. This case study of Sultanah Safiatuddin Syah of Aceh (1641–75) provides some insights into female leadership in the Malay-Muslim island world of Southeast Asia. Contrary to the received view that successful leadership tended to be male (men of prowess), this article demonstrates that female leadership and the justification for the position of the ruler relied less on notions of sacral and charismatic power based on male prowess, but instead shifted to Muslim notions of piety and the just ruler.

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