Turning points in natural theology from Bacon to Darwin
Subtitle: the way of the argument from design
By: Stuart Peterfreund
Series: Nineteenth century major lives & letters
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; Springer
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9780230108844
Subjects: HISTORY / Social History; Teleology; Natural theology; LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; RELIGION / Christian Theology / History
Description: "Turning Points in Natural Theology from Bacon to Darwin discusses important changes that took place in the argument from design, the staple rhetorical formation of natural theology, during the period from Francis Bacon (1561-1626) to Charles Darwin (1809-82). After a discussion of the circumstances under which Bacon came to be the first to use the term natural theology in English, the book shows that the object of design undergoes a shift. For Bacon, the object of design is the creature. For Robert Boyle and those following his lead, the object of design is the mechanism. For Isaac Newton and those following him, the object of design is the nested system. For William Paley and the writers of the Bridgewater Treatises, the object of design is the system more generally. And for Darwin, the object of design is interactive systems"--