William Whiston, the Universal Deluge, and a Terrible Spectacle
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Cotton Mather's Relationship to Science
Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Theses Department of English 4-16-2008 Cotton Mather's Relationship to Science James Daniel Hudson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hudson, James Daniel, "Cotton Mather's Relationship to Science." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2008. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/33 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COTTON MATHER’S RELATIONSHIP TO SCIENCE by JAMES DANIEL HUDSON Under the Direction of Dr. Reiner Smolinski ABSTRACT The subject of this project is Cotton Mather’s relationship to science. As a minister, Mather’s desire to harmonize science with religion is an excellent medium for understanding the effects of the early Enlightenment upon traditional views of Scripture. Through “Biblia Americana” and The Christian Philosopher, I evaluate Mather’s effort to relate Newtonian science to the six creative days as recorded in Genesis 1. Chapter One evaluates Mather’s support for the scientific theories of Isaac Newton and his reception to natural philosophers who advocate Newton’s theories. Chapter Two highlights Mather’s treatment of the dominant cosmogonies preceding Isaac Newton. The Conclusion returns the reader to Mather’s principal occupation as a minister and the limits of science as informed by his theological mind. Through an exploration of Cotton Mather’s views on science, a more comprehensive understanding of this significant early American and the ideological assumptions shaping his place in American history is realized. -
University of Pennsylvania Press
University of Pennsylvania Press Newtonian Science, Miracles, and the Laws of Nature Author(s): Peter Harrison Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 531-553 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2709991 Accessed: 30-10-2015 01:34 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Ideas. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.102.42.98 on Fri, 30 Oct 2015 01:34:15 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NewtonianScience, Miracles, andthe Laws ofNature PeterHarrison Introduction "Newton,"writes Richard Westfall, "both believed in and did not believe in miracles."It can onlybe concluded,Westfall continues, that the greatscientist, unwilling to relinquishhis beliefin a providentialand inter- posingDeity, "abandoned himself to ambiguitiesand inconsistencies,which gave theappearance of divine participation in nature,but not the substance."' Newton'sapparent ambivalence -
Mathematical Language and Mathematical Progress by Eberhard Knobloch
Mathematical language and mathematical progress By Eberhard Knobloch In 1972 the space probe Pioneer 10 was launched, carrying a plaque which contains the first message of mankind to leave our solar system1: The space probe is represented by a circular segment and a rectangle designed on the same scale as that of the man and the woman. This is not true of the solar system: sun and planets are represented by small circles and points. We do not know whether there are other intelligent beings living on stars in the universe, or whether they will even understand the message. But the non-verbal, the symbolical language of geometry seemed to be more appropriate than any other language. The grammar of any ordinary language is so complicated that still every computer breaks down with regards to it. 1 Karl Märker, "Sind wir allein im Weltall? Kosmos und Leben", in: Astronomie im Deutschen Museum, Planeten - Sterne - Welteninseln, hrsg. von Gerhard Hartl, Karl Märker, Jürgen Teichmann, Gudrun Wolfschmidt (München: Deutsches Museum, 1993), p. 217. [We reproduce the image of the plaque from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque ; Karine Chemla] 1 The famous Nicholas Bourbaki wrote in 19482: "It is the external form which the mathematician gives to his thought, the vehicle which makes it accessible to others, in short, the language suited to mathematics; this is all, no further significance should be attached to it". Bourbaki added: "To lay down the rules of this language, to set up its vocabulary and to clarify its syntax, all that is indeed extremely useful." But it was only the least interesting aspect of the axiomatic method for him. -
Watson-The Rise of Pilo-Semitism
The Rise of Philo-Semitism and Premillenialism during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries By William C. Watson, Colorado Christian University Let me therefore beg of thee not to trust to the opinion of any man… But search the scriptures thyself… understanding the sacred prophecies and the danger of neglecting them is very great and the obligation to study them is as great may appear by considering the case of the Jews at the coming of Christ. For the rules whereby they were to know their Messiah were the prophecies of the old Testament… It was the ignorance of the Jews in these Prophecies which caused them to reject their Messiah… If it was their duty to search diligently into those Prophecies: why should we not think that the Prophecies which concern the latter times into which we have fallen were in like manner intended for our use that in the midst of Apostasies we might be able to discern the truth and be established in the faith…it is also our duty to search with all diligence into these Prophecies. If God was so angry with the Jews for not searching more diligently into the Prophecies which he had given them to know Christ by: why should we think he will excuse us for not searching into the Prophecies which he had given us to know Antichrist by? … They will call you a Bigot, a Fanatic, a Heretic, and tell thee of the uncertainty of these interpretations [but] greater judgments hang over the Christians for their remises than ever the Jews felt. -
Where, Oh Waring? the Classic Problem and Its Extensions
Where, Oh Waring? The Classic Problem and its Extensions Brian D. Beasley Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC Brian Beasley (B.S., Emory University; M.S., University of North Carolina; Ph.D., University of South Carolina) has taught at Pres- byterian College since 1988. He became a member of the Mathe- matical Association of America in 1989 and joined ACMS in 2007. Outside the classroom, Brian enjoys family time with his wife and two sons. He is an enthusiastic Scrabble player, a not-so-avid jog- ger, and a very shaky unicyclist. In the 2009-2010 academic year, one of our mathematics majors, Olivia Hightower, became interested in the history of Edward Waring and his famous conjecture about expressing positive integers as the sum of kth powers. Olivia's investigation eventually led to her honors project on Waring's Problem, in which she focused on the history of the conjecture, the eventual proof that all positive integers may be written as the sum of at most nine cubes, and the work of Hardy and Wright in establishing lower bounds in the case of sufficiently large integers. Her research renewed her professor's own interest in Waring, leading to the following article. This paper will sketch brief outlines of Waring's life and the history behind the eventual solution to his problem. In addition, it will present some of the related questions currently being studied, such as expressing sufficiently large integers as sums of powers, sums of powers of primes, and sums of unlike powers. We begin with a short summary of the biography of Edward Waring. -
Arianism in English Nonconformity, 1700-1750
Perichoresis Volume 17. Single Author Supplement 1 (2019): 21–36 DOI: 10.2478/perc-2019-0002 ARIANISM IN ENGLISH NONCONFORMITY, 1700-1750 DINU MOGA * Emanuel University of Oradea ABSTRACT. During the time of English Nonconformity, Arianism was not only embraced, but openly acknowledged by most of the Presbyterian ministers. That generation of ministers, who contended so zealously for the orthodox faith, had finished their labours, and received from their Lord a dismissal into eternal rest. Those champions among the laity who, at the begin- ning of the controversy, stood up so firmly for the truth, had entered as well into the joy of their Lord. Though their children continued Dissenters, too many of them did not possess the same sentiments or spirit. Among those who succeeded these ministers were too many who embraced the Arian creed. To this unhappy change contributed the example and conversation as well of many from the younger Presbyterian ministers. In consequence Arianism spread far and wide in the Presbyterian congregations, both among the ministers and the people. This unhappy controversy proved the grave of the Presbyterian congregations, and of those of the General Baptists. The effects of Arianism, though at first scarcely visible, gradually produced desolation and death. KEYWORDS: Arianism, controversy, nonconformity, creeds, consubstantiality Introduction The apostolic teaching about Christ was relatively simple. But what the apostle taught about Christ also contained ideas that some people found difficult to understand. While the history progresses after the time of the apostles, we learn that prior to the beginning of the fourth century all creeds and summaries of faith were local in character. -
Arianism 1 Arianism
Arianism 1 Arianism "Arian" redirects here. For other uses, see Arian (disambiguation). Not to be confused with "Aryanism", which is a racial theory. Part of a series of articles on Arianism History and theology • Arius • Acacians • Anomoeanism • Arian controversy • First Council of Nicaea • Lucian of Antioch • Gothic Christianity Arian leaders • Acacius of Caesarea • Aëtius • Demophilus of Constantinople • Eudoxius of Antioch • Eunomius of Cyzicus • Eusebius of Caesarea • Eusebius of Nicomedia • Eustathius of Sebaste • George of Laodicea • Ulfilas Other Arians • Asterius the Sophist • Auxentius of Milan • Auxentius of Durostorum • Constantius II • Wereka and Batwin • Fritigern • Alaric I • Artemius • Odoacer • Theodoric the Great Modern semi-Arians • Samuel Clarke • Isaac Newton • William Whiston Opponents • Peter of Alexandria • Achillas of Alexandria Arianism 2 • Alexander of Alexandria • Hosius of Cordoba • Athanasius of Alexandria • Paul I of Constantinople Christianity portal • v • t [1] • e Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius (c. AD 250–336), a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of God the Father to the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Arius asserted that the Son of God was a subordinate entity to God the Father. Deemed a heretic by the Ecumenical First Council of Nicaea of 325, Arius was later exonerated in 335 at the regional First Synod of Tyre,[2] and then, after his death, pronounced a heretic again at the Ecumenical First Council of Constantinople of 381. The Roman Emperors Constantius II (337–361) and Valens (364–378) were Arians or Semi-Arians. The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by—and is therefore distinct from—God the Father. -
Allegory and Religious Pluralism: Biblical Interpretation in the Eighteenth Century
J Bible Recept 2018; 5(2): 111–139 Rebecca Esterson* Allegory and Religious Pluralism: Biblical Interpretation in the Eighteenth Century https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2018-0001 Abstract: The Christian discourse of the literal and spiritual senses in the Bible was, in the long eighteenth century, no less tied to perceptions of Jewish interpretive abilities than it had been previously. However, rather than linking Jews with literal- ism, in many cases the early modern version of this discourse associated Jews with allegory. By touching upon three moments in the reception history of the Bible in the eighteenth century, this article exhibits the entanglement of religious identity and biblical allegory characteristic of this context. The English Newtonian, William Whiston, fervently resisted allegorical interpretations of the Bible in favor of sci- entific and literal explanations, and blamed Jewish manuscript corruption for any confusion of meaning. Johan Kemper was a convert whose recruitment to Uppsala University reveals an appetite on the part of university and governmental authori- ties for rabbinic and kabbalistic interpretive methods and their application to Chris- tian texts. Finally, the German Jewish intellectual Moses Mendelssohn responded to challenges facing the Jewish community by combining traditional rabbinic approaches and early modern philosophy in defense of a multivocal reading of bib- lical texts. Furthermore, Mendelssohn’s insistence on the particularity of biblical symbols, that they are not universally accessible, informed his vision for religious pluralism. Each of these figures illuminates not only the thorny plight of biblical allegory in modernity, but also the ever-present barriers and passageways between Judaism and Christianity as they manifested during the European Enlightenment. -
Neutrino Oscillations Nab Nobel Prize
November 2015 • Vol. 24, No. 10 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Keeping the Science in Science Fiction See page 3 WWW.APS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/APSNEWS Neutrino Oscillations Nab Nobel Prize By Emily Conover The 2015 Nobel Prize in Phys- Queen's Univ. ics was awarded on October 6 for of Toyko Univ. the discovery of neutrino oscilla- tions, which revealed the unusual Launching Early 2016 behavior of these misfit particles, and indicated that they have mass. The prize honored two scientists who were instrumental in making the discovery: Takaaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo, for his work on the Super-Kamiokande experiment, and Arthur McDonald Takaaki Kajita Arthur McDonald of Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada for his work on the Sud- Neutrinos are produced in a oscillate from one flavor to another. bury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) variety of nuclear reactions and “That really turned neutrino experiment. were once thought to be massless. physics on its head,” says Ste- APS is launching a new online-only journal — Physical Review “Hooray for neutrinos — this is The particles come in three “fla- phen Parke of Fermilab, because Fluids. By expanding the scope of the APS journals to include the little particle that punches above vors” — electron, muon, and tau. in order for neutrinos to oscillate, additional areas of fluids research, Physical Review Fluids will weight,” says Michael Turner of the But we now know that these flavors they must have mass. A massless complement the existing Physical Review collection. University of Chicago. “It’s truly are not fixed. In a series of large- particle travels at the speed of light, remarkable how much they’ve scale particle physics experiments and therefore can’t change, since The journal will issue a call for papers in early 2016. -
Canadian Society for History and Societe Canadienne D'histoire Et
Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics 1). Societe Canadienne d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Mathematiques PROGRAMME 19E CONGRES ANNUEL 19T1-f ANNUAL MEETING 30 MAl - 1 jUIN 1993 MA y 30 ~ JUNE l 1993 CARLETON UNIVERSIT)j OTTA WA PROGRAMME SUNOA V, MAV 30 All sessions will be held in Mackenzie Building, Room 4494 9:15 Craig Fraser, President CSHPMISCHPM Welcome SPECIAL SESSION/SESSION SPECIALE PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS Presider, Morning: Robert Thomas 9:25 Robert Thomas Introduction of Guest Speaker 9:30 Stuart Shanker Turing's Influence on the Origins of AI 10:45 Andrew Irvine Experiments in Mathematics REGULAR SESSiON/SESSION ORDINAIRE Presider, Afternoon: Craig Fraser 3:00 Luis Radford An Epistemological Approach to the Study of the Emergence and Development of Algebraic Concepts and Methods 3:30 Colin Burnett Mathematical Discovery as Conceptual Engineering and Reengineering 4:00 Alejandro Garciadiego An Encyclopedia on the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences PROGRAMl\;\E MONDA Y, MAY 31 All sessions will be held in Mackenzie Building, Room 4494 REGULAR SESSION/SESSION ORDINAIRE Presider, Morning: Francine Abeles 9:00 William Anglin A New Explanation of Plimpton 322 9:30 Glen Van Brummelen Lunar and Planetary Equation Interpolation Tables in Ptolemy's Almagest 10:20 Samuel Kutler How the Ancient Greeks Could Have Discovered the Pascal Triangle 10:50 P. Rajagopal Infinite Series in South Indian Mathematics, 1400-1600 Presider, Afternoon: Glen Van Brummelen 2:00 Erwin Kreyszig The Calculus of Variations: -
Isaac Newton, Heretic: the Strategies of a Nicodemite
BJHS, 1999, 32, 381–419 Isaac Newton, heretic: the strategies of a Nicodemite STEPHEN D. SNOBELEN* There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night… John 3: 1–2 A lady asked the famous Lord Shaftesbury what religion he was of. He answered the religion of wise men. She asked, what was that? He answered, wise men never tell. Diary of Viscount Percival (1730), i, 113 NEWTON AS HERETIC Isaac Newton was a heretic. But like Nicodemus, the secret disciple of Jesus, he never made a public declaration of his private faith – which the orthodox would have deemed extremely " radical. He hid his faith so well that scholars are still unravelling his personal beliefs. His one-time follower William Whiston attributed his policy of silence to simple, human fear and there must be some truth in this. Every day as a public figure (Lucasian Professor, Warden – then Master – of the Mint, President of the Royal Society) and as the figurehead of British natural philosophy, Newton must have felt the tension of outwardly conforming to the Anglican Church, while inwardly denying much of its faith and practice. He was restricted by heresy laws, religious tests and the formidable opposition of public opinion. Heretics were seen as religiously subversive, socially dangerous and even morally debased. Moreover, the positions he enjoyed were dependent on public manifestations of religious and social orderliness. Sir Isaac had a lot to lose. Yet he knew the scriptural injunctions against hiding one’s light under a bushel. -
Early Biographies of Isaac Newton 1660-1885
EARLY BIOGRAPHIES OF ISAAC NEWTON 1660-1885 Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Biography of Isaac Newton: The Unpublished Manuscripts and Early Texts Edited by Rob Iliffe Preface by Milo Keynes LONDON PICKERING & CHATTO 2006 CONTENTS Preface vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction xi Conventions for Manuscript Transcription lxx Trinity College and Fitzwilliam notebooks: Short-Writing (1662); Expenses (1661-8) 1 John Flamsteed, MS material on Newton 15 John Flamsteed, Suppressed preface of the Historia Coelestis (1717) 23 John Conduitt, Material I 55 Thomas Mason to Conduitt, 23 March 1726/7 57 Conduitt to Bernard de Fontenelle and Horace Walpole, 27 March 1727 58 Mist's Weekly Journal, 103:8 (April 1727), extract 61 John Craig to Conduitt, 7 April 1727 63 Fontenelle to Conduitt, 14 April 1727 66 William Stukeley to Conduitt, 26 June 1727 67 Stukeley's memoir of Newton, sent to Richard Mead, 24june-15 July 1727 68 Mead to Conduitt, 7 July 1727 84 Stukeley to Conduitt, 15 July 1727 84 Conduitt to Fontenelle, c. 21 July 1727 85 Stukeley to Conduitt, 22 July 1727 87 Conduitt to Fontenelle, 31 July 1727 88 Conduitt's memoir, draft sections 89 Conduitt's memoir, revised 98 Conduitt to Fontenelle, 5 October 1727 106 [Bernard de Fontenelle], 'Eloge' (trans., 1728) 109 Abraham de Moivre, Memorandum (1727) 123 John Conduitt, Material II 127 Fontenelle to Conduitt, 15 November 1727 129 Conduitt to Fontenelle, 23 November 1727 129 Conduitt to Fontenelle, 1 January 1727/8 130 Nicholas Wickins to Robert Smith, 16 January 1727/8 131 Stukeley to Conduitt, 16 January