Jesuit science and the end of nature's secrets

Jesuit Science and the End of Nature's Secrets explores how several prominent Jesuit naturalists - including Niccolò Cabeo, Athanasius Kircher, and Gaspar Schott - tackled the problem of occult or insensible causation in the seventeenth century. This book documents how particular Jesuits sought to reveal and expose nature's myriad secrets through an innovative blending of technology, imagery and experiment. Moving beyond the conventional Aristotelianism mandated by the Society of Jesus, they set forth a vision of the world that made manifest the works of God as Creator, no matter how deeply hi. Read more... Abstract: Jesuit Science and the End of Nature's Secrets explores how several prominent Jesuit naturalists - including Niccolò Cabeo, Athanasius Kircher, and Gaspar Schott - tackled the problem of occult or insensible causation in the seventeenth century. This book documents how particular Jesuits sought to reveal and expose nature's myriad secrets through an innovative blending of technology, imagery and experiment. Moving beyond the conventional Aristotelianism mandated by the Society of Jesus, they set forth a vision of the world that made manifest the works of God as Creator, no matter how deeply hi Jesuit Science and the End of Nature's Secrets explores how several prominent Jesuit naturalists - including Niccolò Cabeo, Athanasius Kircher, and Gaspar Schott - tackled the problem of occult or insensible causation in the seventeenth century. The search for hidden causes lay at the heart of the early modern study of nature, and included phenomena such as the activity of the magnet, the marvelous powers ascribed to certain animals and plants, and the hidden, destructive forces churning in the depths of the Earth. While this was a project embraced by most early modern naturalists, however, t Content: Cover Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Crisis of Certainty 2 Building a Better Ontology 3 The Demise of Occult Qualities 4 Spectacle, Uncertainty, and the Fallibility of the Eye 5 Probabilism, or the World as it Might Be 6 The Culture of Marvels, Exposed Conclusion Bibliography Index