The Return of the Hooke Folio
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William Derham: Csillagteológia () Forrásközlés Történeti-Fi Lológiai Bevezetéssel Szénási Réka – Vassányi Miklós
William Derham: Csillagteológia () Forrásközlés történeti-fi lológiai bevezetéssel Szénási Réka – Vassányi Miklós 1. Derham és a fi ziko-teológia. William Derham (1657-1735) anglikán lelkész polihisztor, természettudós, a Royal Society tagja és a fi ziko-teológiai mozgalom jeles alakja volt. Az alábbi részletet egyik fő művéből, az Astro-Th eology-ból az- zal a céllal közöljük, hogy betekintést nyújtsunk a kora újkori natural theology – kozmikus vagy fi ziko-teológia – egyik nagy hatású angol műhelyébe, és ezáltal megmutassuk, hogy a korszak egy paradigmatikus fi gurája, a természettudós-lelki- pásztor (parson-naturalist) Derham hogyan egyeztette össze a vallást a természet- tudománnyal, illetve – pontosabban – hogyan állította a természetismeretet a hit, az apologetika és a térítés szolgálatába. A többkötetes, népszerű szerző nem volt ugyan hivatásos fi zikus vagy csillagász, de rendszeresen felolvasott a Royal Society ülésein, jó negyven hozzájárulással gazdagította annak folyóiratát, a Philosophical Transactionst, és voltak eredeti fi zikatudományi eredményei (hangsebesség méré- se), valamint technológiai munkássága is (óramechanika), tehát a kor mércéjével mérve természettudósnak is számított. Egész életére kiterjedő lelkészi működését végigkísérte a természettudomány több területének – orvostudomány, biológia, geológia, meteorológia, csillagászat – különösen megfi gyelő tudósként való mű- velése. A természettudomány és a vallás termékeny összekapcsolására mindenek- előtt a nevezetes Boyle Lectures (ld. alant) felkért előadójaként -
On the Development of Spinoza's Account of Human Religion
Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies Volume 5 Number 1 Spring 2014 Article 4 2014 On the Development of Spinoza’s Account of Human Religion James Simkins University of Pittsburgh Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal Recommended Citation Simkins, James "On the Development of Spinoza’s Account of Human Religion." Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 5, no. 1 (2014). https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/ vol5/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 52 James Simkins: On the Development of Spinoza’s Account of Human Religion JAMES SIMKINS graduated with philosophy, history, and history and philosophy of science majors from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013. He is currently taking an indefinite amount of time off to explore himself and contemplate whether or not to pursue graduate study. His academic interests include Spinoza, epistemology, and history from below. IMW Journal of Religious Studies Vol. 5:1 53 ‡ On the Development of Spinoza’s Account of Human Religion ‡ In his philosophical and political writings, Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677) develops an account of human religion, which represents a unique theoretical orientation in the early modern period.1 This position is implicit in many of Spinoza’s philosophical arguments in the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, the Short Treatise, and Ethics.2 However, it is most carefully developed in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (hereafter TTP).3 What makes Spinoza’s position unique is the fact that he rejects a traditional conception of religion on naturalistic grounds, while refusing to dismiss all religion as an entirely anthropological phenomenon. -
Menasseh Ben Israel and His World Brill's Studies in Intellectual History
MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL AND HIS WORLD BRILL'S STUDIES IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY General Editor AJ. VANDERJAGT, University of Groningen Editorial Board M. COLISH, Oberlin College J.I. ISRAEL, University College, London J.D. NORTH, University of Groningen R.H. POPKIN, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA VOLUME 15 MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL AND HIS WORLD EDITED BY YOSEF KAPLAN, HENRY MECHOULAN AND RICHARD H. POPKIN ^o fr-hw'* -A EJ. BRILL LEIDEN • NEW YORK • K0BENHAVN • KÖLN 1989 Published with financial support from the Dr. C. Louise Thijssen- Schoutestichting. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Menasseh Ben Israel and his world / edited by Yosef Kaplan, Henry Méchoulan and Richard H. Popkin. p. cm. -- (Brill's studies in intellectual history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; v. 15) Includes index. ISBN 9004091149 1. Menasseh ben Israel, 1604-1657. 2. Rabbis-Netherlands- -Amsterdam-Biography. 3. Amsterdam (Netherlands)-Biography. 4. Sephardim--Netherlands--Amsterdam--History--17th century. 5. Judaism--Netherlands--Amsterdam--History--17th century. I. Kaplan, Yosef. II. Popkin, Richard Henry, 1923- BM755.M25M46 1989 296'.092-dc20 89-7265 [B] CIP ISSN 0920-8607 ISBN 90 04 09114 9 © Copyright 1989 by E.J. Brill, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any other means without written permission from the publisher PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS BY E.J. BRILI, CONTENTS Introduction, Richard H. Popkin vu A Generation of Progress in the Historical Study of Dutch Sephardic Jewry, Yosef Kaplan 1 The Jewish Dimension of the Scottish Apocalypse: Climate, Cove- nant and World Renewal, Arthur H. -
Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online
A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details ‘Providence and Political Economy’: Josiah Tucker’s Providential Argument for Free Trade Peter Xavier Price PhD Thesis in Intellectual History University of Sussex April 2016 2 University of Sussex Peter Xavier Price Submitted for the award of a PhD in Intellectual History ‘Providence and Political Economy’: Josiah Tucker’s Providential Argument for Free Trade Thesis Summary Josiah Tucker, who was the Anglican Dean of Gloucester from 1758 until his death in 1799, is best known as a political pamphleteer, controversialist and political economist. Regularly called upon by Britain’s leading statesmen, and most significantly the Younger Pitt, to advise them on the best course of British economic development, in a large variety of writings he speculated on the consequences of North American independence for the global economy and for international relations; upon the complicated relations between small and large states; and on the related issue of whether low wage costs in poor countries might always erode the competitive advantage of richer nations, thereby establishing perpetual cycles of rise and decline. -
The Synoptic Scientific Image in Early Modern Europe*
| The Synoptic Scientific Image in Early Modern Europe | 159 | The Synoptic Scientific Image in Early Modern Europe * Lorraine DASTON ** T I. Seeing the Impossible the centaur (Fig. 1) or monstrous hybrids like this man-pig (Fig. 2). Rather, I have in mind more subtle Historians of Renaissance and early modern impossibilities, in which the cunning of the artist pan - European art have long remarked on the many ways ders to a certain yearning to see more broadly, in which drawings and paintings gave viewers a deeply, or sharply than located human vision ever glimpse of the impossible. By this I mean not only the could. obvious examples : images of fabulous creatures like This kind of illusion goes well beyond the trompe l’oeil mimesis of the still life, which after all only tricks the eye into thinking that the two-dimensional painting is a three-dimensional arrangement of per - fectly possible flowers, fruits, and other objects. Instead, the illusion stretches human vision to super - human feats of panoramic sweep (Fig. 3) 1, integra - tion of multiple viewpoints (Fig. 4) 2, or simultaneous focusing of foreground and background (Fig. 5) 3. These are not images of impossible objects but rather of impossible seeing. In this article, I would like to explore a kind of impos - sible seeing attempted time and time again in six - teenth- and seventeenth-century natural history, nat - ural philosophy, and even mathematics : synoptic see - ing, or seeing everything all at once, in one glance. The “ everything ” in question could be the patterns of Fig. 1. Centaur, Ulisse Aldrovandi, Monstrorum historia the prevailing winds across the globe or the type of a (Bologna, 1642) : 31. -
Baruch Spinoza Chronology
Baruch Spinoza Chronology 1391 Spanish Jews are forced to convert to Catholicism for the sake of "social and sectarian uniformity." 1478 Establishment of the Spanish Inquisition, whose primary task is to convict and execute those found "judaizing." 1492 All practising Jews in Spain are given the choice to convert or be expelled. 1497 All Portuguese Jews (including Spinoza’s ancestors) are forced to convert. A steady stream of Jewish refugees begins to flow from Portugal. 1587/8 Spinoza’s father Michael is born in Vidigere, Portugal, to Isaac d’Espinoza 1609 Beginning of the twelve year truce between the United Provinces and Spain, effectively establishing political independence (after nearly a 100 year struggle) for the seven northern provinces as well as their (Protestant) sectarian separation from the (Catholic) southern provinces. 1618 Defenestration of Prague and beginning of the Thirty Years War. Calvinist-inspired coup d’état in the Dutch Republic, led by the Prince of Orange, leading to the execution of Oldenbarnevelt and imprisonment of Grotius. Uriel d’Acosta (or da Costa), a Portuguese “New Christian” who had returned to Judaism in Amsterdam but became disillusioned with the Jewish community, is excommunicated for the first time in Venice for denying the immortality of the soul and questioning the Mosaic authorship of the Torah, a decree later affirmed in Amsterdam in 1623 and renewed in 1633. 1619 Batavia, Java is established as headquarters of the Dutch East India Company. 1620 Francis Bacon writes Novum organum. 1621 Hostilities resume between Spain and the United Provinces. 1622 Probable date Spinoza’s father arrives in Amsterdam, probably from Nantes. -
Menasseh Ben Israel's Christian Connection: Henry Jessey and the Jews
MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL'S CHRISTIAN CONNECTION: HENRY JESSEY AND THE JEWS DAVID S. KATZ "He was of a middle Stature, and inclining to Fatness", an English con temporary described Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel, "He always wore his own Hair, which (many years before his Death) was very Grey; so that his Complexion being pretty fresh, his Demeanor Grace ful, and Comely, his Habit plain and decent, he Commanded an aweful Rev erence which was justly due to so venerable a Deportment: In short, he was un homme sans Passion, sans légèreté, mais Hélas/ sans opulence' '1. From his lodgings in the Strand, Menasseh sallied forth to meet politi cians, divines, intellectuals, and anyone who conceivably could help him to reach the goal of his English mission: an official authorization of the re- admission of the Jews to England after an exile of over three and a half centuries2. Menasseh had come to London in September 1655, and al though the Whitehall Conference of December failed to resolve the re- admission question, he remained in England for exactly two years in the vain hope of obtaining a formal written permission3. During his stay in London, he seems to have established himself, at least among gentiles, as a self-appointed ambassador of world Jewry and as a renowned expert in things Jewish. Menasseh received Ralph Cudworth, the Regius professor of Hebrew, and gave him a manuscript summarizing the Jewish objections to Christianity4. He discussed plans for a polyglot bible with Henry Thorndike5. He held further meetings with Henry Ol denburg, later secretary of the Royal Society; with Adam Boreel, the Con- 1 Menasseh ben Israel, Of The Term of Liß, ed. -
English Mechanical Philosophy and Newton (1642-1727)
Ann Blair, CB-20 Lecture 14: English mechanical philosophy and Newton (1642-1727) I. English reaction to Descartes: mech phil with God put back in • Defending nat phil against accusations of arrogance, of deism; nat phil as argument ag. atheists; mechanical philosophy as Christian, more pious than Aristotle • Royal Society founded 1662. Robert Hooke, Micrographia (1665): vocabulary of awe and wonder at the contrivance of even the smallest creatures (gnat)= natural theology (John Ray, William Derham, Boyle lectures. incl Richard Bentley as 1st lecturer) II. Newton’s physics: Awe and wonder at the laws of the universe: “Behold the regions of the heavens surveyed,/ and this fair system in the balance weighed! Behold the law which (when in ruin hurled/ God out of chaos called the beauteous world) th'Almighty fixed when all things good he saw!/ Behold the chaste, inviolable law!” (prefixed to the Principia) Principia (1687)[“mathematical principles of natural philosophy]: bk 1. 3 laws of motion (inertia, F=ma; action and reaction); bk 2: derives Kepler’s 2nd and 3rd laws; bk 3: gravitational force as inverse square law (explains elliptical orbits) • 1713 2nd ed with General scholium (=additional remark): re gravitation: “hypotheses non fingo” (inscrutability of the world) + God’s dominion in the world (space and time) • Opticks (1722): more speculative. “subtle fluid”=ether III. Newton on theology: • Letters to Bentley (for Boyle lectures): gravity not a property of matter (avoid materialism); need supernatural deity to explain distribution of matter + periodic acts of reformation by God (e.g. comets) • theological mss (private): Arianism (because Biblical text supporting Trinity is corrupt); but accepts Bible as divine message: history as fulfillment of biblical prophecies • alchemy: study cohesion of matter explained by subtle spirit (=div prov) IV. -
Science and Religion: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Course
Science and Religion: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Course: History of Science and Technology 3030 Institution: University of King’s College, Halifax Instructor: Professor Stephen D. Snobelen “Religion and science are opposed . but only in the same sense as that in which my thumb and forefinger are opposed — and between the two, one can grasp everything.” ---Sir William Bragg (1862-1942), Pioneer in X-Ray crystallography Summary of course aims: -- to trace and examine the relationships between religion and science through history as religion and science have themselves developed over the millennia -- to determine and examine the relationships between religion and science in the postmodern world today -- to identify and examine converges between religion and science in the past and today -- to stimulate the development of a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of Science- Religion issues on the part of Arts, Journalism and Science undergraduates -- to help promote dialogue between the sciences and humanities at King’s and Dalhousie -- to provide a flagship course for the King’s History of Science and Technology programme, founded in 2000 Course legacies: -- this course will be offered yearly and will become a permanent and prominent part of the King’s HOST and Dalhousie Science curricula -- a course website will be created that will continue to grow in as the course continues to develop -- the course is also intended to serve as the springboard for the creation of an interdisciplinary Society for Science-Religion Dialogue -
Mankind a Masterpiece of God’S Creation
Mankind a Masterpiece of God’s creation Dr Isabel Moraes …The human body is a self-building machine, a self-stoking, self-regulating, self-repairing machine…. ….the most marvellous and unique automatic mechanism in the universe (our universe) Dr Isabel Moraes …we are able to create other beings like us.... Dr Isabel Moraes …three weeks from the conception the baby heart start beating…. ….during this week the baby blood vessels will complete the circuit and the circulation begins – making the circulatory system the first functioning organ system… …At this week the baby the size of a tip of a pen… Dr Isabel Moraes …Its colour-analysis system enables the eye to distinguish millions of shades of colour and quickly adjust to lighting conditions (incandescent, fluorescent, underwater or sunlight) that would require a photographer to change filters, films thousand times in a second… …Whereas each human fingerprint has 35 measurable characteristics, each iris has 266. The chance of two people will have matching iris is one in 1078 …Passing through the lens, the light is further focused, a fine-tuning. Then it strikes the pigmented retina. The retina has 127 million photovoltaic receptors. The information of these 127 million receptors is converted from light to electricity and transmitted along one million nerves fibers to the 1% of the cortex of the brain... Dr Isabel Moraes The retina never stops “shooting” pictures, and each fibre of the optical nerve processes 100 “photos” each second… …Each of these “photos” can be represented mathematically by 50,000 nonlinear differential equations. All these equations are solved by our brain (cortex) every 1/100 of second… Summit or OLCF-4 A supercomputer would require years to process the information that your eye transmits every 1/100 of second. -
Rev. Cotton Mather, the Christian Philosopher, 1721, Excerpts
National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763 Rev. COTTON MATHER New York Public Library The Christian Philosopher A Collection of the Best Discoveries in Nature, with Religious Improvements 1721, EXCERPTS * Cotton Mather, the Puritan clergyman who published hundreds of sermons and theological works, also produced the first American compilation of scientific knowledge, The Christian Philosopher. (The term “natural philosophy” referred to the pursuit of scientific knowledge; thus the “Christian philosopher” studied scientific knowledge within the perspective of Christian theology.) For Mather, science was an “incentive to Religion” that fostered reverence and moral insight. “Theologians had long studied nature in order to understand the will of God,” asserts historian Winton Solbert. “Now they and their allies welcomed scientific advances that explained how God’s Providence advanced divine purposes in the physical universe. Mather always saw harmony rather than conflict between science and religion.”1 Presented here is a representative sampling of Mather’s review of scientific knowledge—the “Works of the glorious God exhibited to our View.” The brief excerpts from each chapter reveal Mather’s respect for scientific inquiry and his spiritual devotion in response to the natural world. THE INTRODUCTION_____ The ESSAYS now before us will demonstrate that Philosophy [science] is no Enemy, but a mighty and wondrous Incentive to Religion; and they will exhibit that PHILOSOPHICAL RELIGION, which will carry with it a most sensible Character and victorious Evidence of a reasonable Service. GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, and GOOD WILL TOWARDS MEN, animated and exercised; and a Spirit of Devotion and of Charity inflamed, in such Methods as are offered in these Essays, cannot but be attended with more Benefits, than any Pen of ours can declare or any Mind conceive. -
Robert Hooke's Micrographia
Robert Hooke's Micrographia and Christ Church Science, 1650-1670 is curated by Allan Chapman and Cristina Neagu, and will be open from 5 November 2015 to 15 January 2016. An exhibition to mark the 350th anniversary of the publication of Robert Hooke's Micrographia, the first book of microscopy. The event is organized at Christ Church, where Hooke was an undergraduate from 1653 to 1658, and includes a lecture (on Monday 30 November at 5:15 pm in the Upper Library) by the science historian Professor Allan Chapman. Visiting hours: Monday: 2.00 pm - 4.30 pm; Tuesday - Thursday: 10.00 am - 1.00 pm; 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm; Friday: 10.00 am - 1.00 pm Article on Robert Hooke and Early science at Christ Church by Allan Chapman Scientific equipment on loan from Allan Chapman Photography Alina Nachescu Exhibition catalogue and poster by Cristina Neagu Robert Hooke's Micrographia and Early Science at Christ Church, 1660-1670 Micrographia, Scheme 11, detail of cells in cork. Contents Robert Hooke's Micrographia and Christ Church Science, 1650-1670 Exhibition Catalogue Exhibits and Captions Title-page of the first edition of Micrographia, published in 1665. Robert Hooke’s Micrographia and Christ Church Science, 1650-1670 When Robert Hooke’s Micrographia: or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries thereupon appeared in early January 1665, it caused something of a sensation. It so captivated the diarist Samuel Pepys, that on the night of the 21st, he sat up to 2.00 a.m.