Our Edenic Birthright, or Just a Lot of Babel?
In Salvo 39, I described the reticence of Xenophon, and of most pre-modern thinkers, to embrace the project of an open-ended experimental science of nature. An unfettered scientific quest could lead to virtually infinite control over nature, and such control, many thought, would be a dangerous thing for man to possess. Yet this reticence was overcome, and a civilization based on the promise of unending scientific progress came into being.
The change in attitude reflects a victory in a battle between old books in which the books of the seventeenth-century thinkers prevailed against the books of the ancient classical thinkers. A proper account of this battle would require consideration of...
received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He writes on education, politics, religion, and culture.
Get Salvo in your inbox! This article originally appeared in Salvo, Issue #40, Spring 2017 Copyright © 2024 Salvo | www.salvomag.com https://salvomag.com/article/salvo40/science-unlimited
