Description
The emergence of modern science is a history of disentanglement, as science detached itself first from religion and then from philosophy. Jennifer Trusted argues that science in its haste to tear itself from its historical links has neglected the various roles religious and philosophical ideas have played and continue to play in scientific thinking. This book seeks to redress the balance by exploring how metaphysical beliefs have functioned in the history of scientific inquiry and discovery. The book aims to show the relation between metaphysical beliefs and scientific inquiry into the nature of the cosmos, in particular into the nature of space and time. Taking the period from the mid-eleventh century to the mid-twentieth century, it discusses the role of the Christian religion and of the more secular philosophical principles. With the rise of a secular science more emphasis was given to their conflicts. Similarly the metaphysical and speculative ideas of philosophy were increasingly seen to be in conflict with the empirical and experimental methods of science. Without requiring of the reader either technical knowledge or a mathematical background, Jennifer Trusted shows how faith or trust is not necessarily an impediment to that of understanding.
