Before Science: The Invention of the Friars' Natural Philosophy - Hardcover

French, Roger; Cunningham, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1859282873 ISBN 13: 9781859282878

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

The opposition of science and religion is a recent phenomenon; in the middle ages, and indeed until the middle of the nineteenth century, there was almost no conflict. In the Middle Ages the objective study of nature - the activity we now call science - was largely the province of religious men. This book looks at the origins of western science and the central role played by the Dominican and Franciscan friars. It explains why these two groups devoted so much intellectual effort to the study of physical and biological phenomena, and distinguishes 'Natural Philosophy' from 'science' as presently understood. Though the friars were recognisably 'scientific' in their approach their motives were religious - they wished to understand the mind of God and the beauty of God's nature. Even so, as this study makes clear, the roots of western science lie in the monasteries and refuges of the medieval friars - the direct forebears of the anti-scientific Popes of the age of Copernicus and Galileo.

About this title

About the Author

Roger French, Andrew Cunningham

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1859282873
• ISBN 13: 9781859282878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312