Robert Boyle and the Limits of Reason
Author | : Jan W. Wojcik |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 262 |
Release | : 1997-03-28 |
ISBN-10 | : 0521560292 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780521560290 |
Rating | : 4/5 (92 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: In this study of Robert Boyle's epistemology, Jan W. Wojcik reveals the theological context within which Boyle developed his views on reason's limits. After arguing that a correct interpretation of his views on "things above reason" depends upon reading his works in the context of theological controversies in seventeenth-century England, Professor Wojcik details exactly how Boyle's three specific categories of things that transcended reason--the incomprehensible, the inexplicable, and the unsociable--affected his conception of what a natural philosopher could hope to know. Also detailed is Boyle's belief that God deliberately limited the human intellect in order to reserve a full knowledge of both theology and natural philosophy for the afterlife.