Mastery of Nature. Promises and Prospects

277 Pages·2018·4.837 MB·English

by  Svetozar Y. Minkov, Bernhardt L. Trout

Mastery of Nature
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Mastery of Nature
Promises and Prospects
Edited by Svetozar Y. Minkov
and Bernhardt L. Trout
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2018 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly
citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without
written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 - 4112
www . upenn . edu / pennpress
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
on acid- free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A Cataloging- in- Publication record is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN: 978-0-8122-4993-4
One won ders at t hose [ things] which happen according to nature,
insofar as one is ignorant of the cause, and at t hose [ things] which
happen contrary to nature, insofar as they come into being
through art with regard to what is beneficial to human beings. For
in many [cases], nature makes the opposite with regard to what is
useful to us.
— Aristotle, The Mechanics
Nature’s bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to  those are free.
— Shakespeare, “Sonnet 4”
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C o n t e n t s
Preface xi
Ralph Lerner
Introduction 1
Daniel A. Doneson, Svetozar Y. Minkov, and Bernhardt L. Trout
I. The Proj ect for Mastery
Chapter 1. Machiavelli and the Discovery of Fact 15
Harvey C. Mansfield
Chapter 2. The Place of the Treatment of the Conquest of
Nature in Francis Bacon’s On the Wisdom of the Ancients 30
Svetozar Y. Minkov
Chapter 3. Hobbes on Nature and Its Conquest 43
Devin Stauffer
Chapter 4. Devising Nature: An Essay on Descartes’s
Discourse on Method 54
Stuart D. Warner
Chapter 5. Montesquieu, Commerce, and Science 73
Diana J. Schaub
viii Contents
Chapter 6. Bacon and Franklin on Religion and Mastery of Nature 85
Jerry Weinberger
II. Ancient Alternatives and Anticipations
Chapter 7. On the Supremacy of Contemplation in Aristotle
and Plato 99
Robert C. Bartlett
Chapter 8. Xenophon and the Conquest of Nature 111
Christopher Nadon
Chapter 9. Lucretius on Rebelling Against the “Laws” of Nature 122
Paul Ludwig
III. Consequences, Critiques, and Corrections
Chapter 10. Jean- Jacques Rousseau: Return to Nature vs. Conquest
of Nature 137
Arthur Melzer
Chapter 11. Kant on Organism and History: Ambiguous Endings 155
Richard Velkley
Chapter 12. Beyond the Island of Truth: Hegel and the Shipwreck
of Science 171
Michael A. Gillespie
Chapter 13. Separating the Moral and Theological Prejudices
and Taking Hold of Human Evolution 183
Lise van Boxel
Chapter 14. Mastery of Nature and Its Limits: The Question
of Heidegger 193
Mark Blitz
Contents ix
Chapter 15. What Is Natur al Philosophy? The Perspective
of Con temporary Science 206
Adam Schulman
Chapter 16. Quantum Mechanics and Po liti cal Philosophy 220
Bernhardt L. Trout
Notes 233
List of Contributors 261
Index 263
Acknowl edgments 269
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