{"id":3489,"date":"2014-01-06T20:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/?p=3489"},"modified":"2014-01-12T13:17:33","modified_gmt":"2014-01-12T01:17:33","slug":"experimental-philosophy-and-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/experimental-philosophy-and-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Experimental philosophy and religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Anstey writes …<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

From the first decade of its existence early modern experimental philosophy enjoyed an intimate relation with Christianity. This manifested itself in at least two ways. First, experimental philosophy, it was argued, was a great help in the development of the mind and character of the Christian. Second, and later, it came to play a central role in Christian apologetics. As for experimental philosophy and Christian living, some of the Fellows of the early Royal Society like Joseph Glanvill wrote extensively on the theme of the positive benefits of the practice of experimental philosophy for Christians. See, for example, Glanvill\u2019s Philosopia Pia: or a Discourse of the Religious Temper, and Tendencies of the Experimental Philosophy <\/em>(1671).<\/p>\n

Once experimental philosophy had consolidated its position as a prominent new approach to natural philosophy it began to be used for the purposes of Christian apologetics. In Robert Boyle experimental philosophers had the archetypal Christian virtuoso who not only manifested the benefits of practising Christianity in his character but also did much to promote the link between the new experimental natural philosophy and the defense of the faith. In The Christian Virtuoso<\/em> he claimed that:<\/p>\n

the Experimental Philosophy giving us a more clear discovery, …, of the divine Excellencies display\u2019d in the Fabrick and Conduct of the Universe, and of the Creatures it consists of, … leads it [the mind] directly to the acknowledgment and adoration of a most Intelligent, Powerful and Benign Author of things. (Works of Robert Boyle<\/em>, 14 vols, eds Hunter and Davis, London, 1999\u20132000, 11, 293)<\/p>\n

Boyle\u2019s ultimate legacy in this regard was the provision in his will for the Boyle Lectures. And it was the inaugural Boyle Lecturer, Richard Bentley, who first mobilized Newton\u2019s new natural philosophy in Christian apologetics in his seventh lecture, published after extensive correspondence with Newton himself (The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism<\/em>, 1693). Once the precedent was established it was continued and augmented in works such as George Cheyne\u2019s Philosophical Principles of Natural Religion<\/em> (1705), William Derham\u2019s Astro-Theology: or a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from a Survey of the Heavens<\/em> (1715) and William Whiston\u2019s Astronomical Principles of Religion, Natural and Revealed <\/em>(1717).<\/p>\n

Interestingly, it was actually the connection with religion that first raised the reading public\u2019s consciousness of experimental philosophy in the Netherlands. For, it is now thought that the publication of Bernard Nieuwentijt\u2019s Het regt gebruik <\/em>in 1715 <\/em>marks an important moment in the awakening to experimental philosophy in Holland. This work was translated into English in 1718 by Peter Chamberlayne as The Religious Philosopher<\/em> with a prefatory letter to the translator by the leading pedagogue of experimental philosophy in England, John Theophilus Desaguliers. Desaguliers commends the work because:<\/p>\n

it contains several fine Observations and Experiments, which are altogether new, as is also his manner of treating the most common Phaenomena<\/em>; from which he deduces admirable Consequences in favour of a Religious Life.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Ten Kate\u2019s Dutch adaptation of George Cheyne\u2019s Philosophical Principles of Natural Religion<\/em> published in Amsterdam in 1716 turned experimental philosophy to apologetical use. Kate claims \u2018some distinguished men in England, who disliked the uncertainties of hypotheses [of Cartesianism], have based themselves only on a Philosophia Experimentalis<\/em>, by means of mathematics\u2019 (Jorink and Zuidervaart, Newton and the Netherlands: how Isaac Newton was Fashioned in the Dutch Republic<\/em><\/a>, 2012, 31). He drew a strong connection between Newton\u2019s natural philosophy and evidence for God\u2019s hand in creation.<\/p>\n

Here then, we have an obvious difference between early modern experimental philosophy and its contemporary namesake. I would value references to other works, particularly works in languages other than English, that discuss the practical and apologetical benefits of experimental philosophy to the Christian religion. Let me know if you can help.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Anstey writes … From the first decade of its existence early modern experimental philosophy enjoyed an intimate relation with Christianity. This manifested itself in at least two ways. First, experimental philosophy, it was argued, was a great help in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[16418,16415,16417,16416],"class_list":["post-3489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideas","tag-christian-apologetics","tag-glanvill","tag-nieuwentijt","tag-ten-kate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/emxphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}