Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks

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In the period of emergence of early modern science, 'monsters' or individuals with physical congenital anomalies were considered as rare events which required special explanations entailing assumptions about the laws of nature. This concern with monsters was shared by representatives of th...

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Autor principal: Manzo, Silvia
Formato: Parte de libro publishedVersion
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2019
Materias:
Filosofía
Epistemología
Filosofía de la naturaleza
Teología
Ciencia
Acceso en línea:https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/libros/pm.5779/pm.5779.pdf
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Memoria Académica - FaHCE (UNLP) de Universidad Nacional de La Plata
id I19-R125-Jpm5779
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spelling I19-R125-Jpm57792023-04-17 2019 Manzo, Silvia In the period of emergence of early modern science, 'monsters' or individuals with physical congenital anomalies were considered as rare events which required special explanations entailing assumptions about the laws of nature. This concern with monsters was shared by representatives of the new science and Late Scholastic authors of university textbooks. This paper will reconstruct the main theses of the treatment of monsters in Late Scholastic textbooks, by focusing on the question as to how their accounts conceived nature's regularity and teleology. It shows that they developed a naturalistic teratology in which, in contrast to the naturalistic explanations usually offered by the new science, finality was at central stage. This general point does not impede our noticing that some authors were closer to the views emerging in the Scientific Revolution insofar as they conceived nature as relatively autonomous from God and gave a relevant place to efficient secondary causation. In this connection, this paper suggests that the concept of the laws of nature developed by the new science -as exception-less regularities- transferred to nature's regularity the 'strong' character that Late Scholasticism attributed to finality and that the decline of the Late Scholastic view of finality played as an important concomitant factor permitting the transformation of the concept of laws of nature. Fil: Manzo, Silvia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina. application/pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/hdl/10915/125242 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ P.D. Omodeo, R. Garau (Eds.) (2019). Contingency and Natural Order in Early Modern Science. Cham : Springer. p. 61-92 Filosofía Epistemología Filosofía de la naturaleza Teología Ciencia Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPart info:ar-repo/semantics/parte de libro info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/libros/pm.5779/pm.5779.pdf
institution Universidad Nacional de La Plata
institution_str I-19
repository_str R-125
collection Memoria Académica - FaHCE (UNLP)
language Inglés
orig_language_str_mv eng
topic Filosofía
Epistemología
Filosofía de la naturaleza
Teología
Ciencia
spellingShingle Filosofía
Epistemología
Filosofía de la naturaleza
Teología
Ciencia
Manzo, Silvia
Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
topic_facet Filosofía
Epistemología
Filosofía de la naturaleza
Teología
Ciencia
description In the period of emergence of early modern science, 'monsters' or individuals with physical congenital anomalies were considered as rare events which required special explanations entailing assumptions about the laws of nature. This concern with monsters was shared by representatives of the new science and Late Scholastic authors of university textbooks. This paper will reconstruct the main theses of the treatment of monsters in Late Scholastic textbooks, by focusing on the question as to how their accounts conceived nature's regularity and teleology. It shows that they developed a naturalistic teratology in which, in contrast to the naturalistic explanations usually offered by the new science, finality was at central stage. This general point does not impede our noticing that some authors were closer to the views emerging in the Scientific Revolution insofar as they conceived nature as relatively autonomous from God and gave a relevant place to efficient secondary causation. In this connection, this paper suggests that the concept of the laws of nature developed by the new science -as exception-less regularities- transferred to nature's regularity the 'strong' character that Late Scholasticism attributed to finality and that the decline of the Late Scholastic view of finality played as an important concomitant factor permitting the transformation of the concept of laws of nature.
format Parte de libro
Parte de libro
publishedVersion
author Manzo, Silvia
author_facet Manzo, Silvia
author_sort Manzo, Silvia
title Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_short Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_full Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_fullStr Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_full_unstemmed Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_sort monsters, laws of nature, and teleology in late scholastic textbooks
publishDate 2019
url https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/libros/pm.5779/pm.5779.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT manzosilvia monsterslawsofnatureandteleologyinlatescholastictextbooks
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