Puritanism and Science

Compared to the rather large corpus of modern writing on puritan political and socio-economic opinions, very little has reached print concerning early-seventeenth-century puritan views on the intellect and the proper uses of reason. Much of what does exist is concerned primarily with the question of a connexion between puritanism and the ‘rise of science’ or the development of a learned mentality more interested in discovery than in repetition. Debate over the connexion has centred on the role of puritanism as a catalytic philosophy which drove men to cast off the bonds of ancient (classical) wisdom and search God's handiwork for further clues to the identity of the Master himself and his providence for the world. Most argument has relied on parading puritans who were, or were not, supporters of scientific endeavour. The evidence has, in the main, been highly selective. There has been very little consideration of the intellectual background of puritanism as a school of thought. Most of the evidence, too, has been taken from the years of the Revolution, when the meaning of the term ‘puritan’ was very different from what it had been eighty, or even thirty, years earlier. This article seeks to correct both these problems of methodology and interpretation by considering puritanism as a set of ideas which could lead to but one intellectual conclusion. It is the contention here that the argument that puritanism offered incentive and support to the ‘new learning’ cannot be supported from the evidence drawn from an examination of early-seventeenth-century puritan writers

Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Epistemology · Identity (music · Intellect · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Reinterpretation · Sociology · Classics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Philosophy

• Difficult travels

  Open Access•A C Petersen, Daniel Hogendoorn et al.•Environmental Science & Policy•2018

  Incluir item

• Science and Puritanism

  Open Access•Simon Schaffer•Social Studies of Science•1988

  Incluir item

• And Knowledge Shall Be Increased”

  Mordechai Feingold•The Seventeenth Century•2013

  Incluir item

• Science in History

  Open Access•James Poskett•The Historical Journal•2018

  Incluir item

• History of Science Today, 1. Uniformity as Hidden Diversity

  Open Access•Nathan Reingold•The British Journal for the…•1986

  Incluir item

• Providence, Chance and the New Science in Early Stuart Cambridge

  Open Access•Margo Todd•The Historical Journal•1986

  Incluir item

• Science, Tradition, and the Science of Tradition

  Open Access•Joseph Mali•Science in Context•1989

  Incluir item

• The Discourse of Pious Science

  Open Access•Rivka Feldhay, Michael Heyd•Science in Context•1989

  Incluir item

• Transposing the Merton Thesis

  Open Access•Susan J Harris, Steven J Harris•Science in Context•1989

  Incluir item

• Puritanism, Science and Capitalism

  Open Access•G J R Parry•History of Science•1984

  Incluir item

• Milton and Forbidden Knowledge

  E E Duncan-Jones, Howard Schultz•The Modern Language Review•1958

  Incluir item

• Protestant Thought before Kant.

  John Winthrop Platner, Arthur Cushman Mcgiffert•The Journal of Philosophy…•1911

  Incluir item

• The History and Character of Calvinism

  William Gilbert, John T Mcneill•The American Historical Review•1954

  Incluir item

• The New England Mind

  Marjorie Hope Nicolson, Marjorie Nicolson et al.•The New England Quarterly•1941

  Incluir item

• The Origins and Early Development of English Covenant Thought

  Open Access•Richard L Greaves•Historian•1968

  Incluir item

• The Beginnings of Puritan Covenant Theology

  Open Access•Jens Glebe Møller•The Journal of Ecclesiastical…•1963

  Incluir item

• Education and Society in Tudor England

  Clara P Mcmahon, Joan Simon et al.•History of Education Quarterly•1966

  Incluir item

• The Puritan Pronaos

  Thomas H Johnson, Samuel Eliot Morison•American Literature•1936

  Incluir item

• Science and Religion in Elizabethan England

  Open Access•Jackson I Cope, Paul H Kocher•Modern Language Notes•1954

  Incluir item

• Puritanism and Science

  Richard L Greaves•Journal of the History of Ideas•1969

  Incluir item

• Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution

  H R Trevor-Roper, Hugh Trevor-Roper et al.•History and Theory•1966

  Incluir item

• Merton Revisited or Science and Society in the Seventeenth Century

  Open Access•A Rupert Hall•History of Science•1963

  Incluir item

• Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England

  Robert Κ Merton, Robert K Merton•Osiris•1938

  Incluir item

• Calvin and Covenant Theology

  Open Access•Everett H Emerson, Everett Emerson•Church History•1956

  Incluir item

• The Scientific Spirit in England in Early Modern Times (c. 1600)

  Raymond Phineas Stearns•Isis•1943

  Incluir item

• The Great Instauration

  Harry Alpert, Charles Webster•Journal for the Scientific Study…•1977

  Incluir item