The Transformation of Natural Philosophy: The Case of Philip Melanchthon

by Sachiko Kusukawa

• ISBN13: 9780521473477
• ISBN10: 0521473470
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-03-31
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book proposes that Philip Melanchthon was responsible for transforming traditional university natural philosophy into a specifically Lutheran one. Motivated by desire to check civil disobedience and promote a Lutheran orthodoxy, he created a natural philosophy based on Aristotle, Galen and Plato, incorporating contemporary findings of Copernicus and Vesalius. The fields of astrology, anatomy, botany and mathematics all constituted a natural philosophy in which Melanchthon wished to demonstrate God's Providential design in the physical world. Rather than dichotomizing or synthesizing the two distinct areas of 'science' and 'religion', Kusukawa advocates the need to look at 'Natural philosophy' as a discipline quite different from either 'modern science' or 'religion': a contextual assessment of the implication of the Lutheran Reformation on university education, particularly on natural philosophy.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I. The Way of the Schoolmen: Part II. Law and Gospel: The Reforms of Luther and Melancthon: 1. Luther's reform - establishing the message of the Gospel

2. Melanchthon's reform - law and philosophy

Part III. The Soul: 1. Defending Luther's cause

2. The Commentarius de anima

3. A Lutheran natural philosophy of the soul

4. Vesalius and the Liber de anima

Part IV. The Providence of God: 1. The comet of 1531

2. Astronomy, astrology and mathematics

3. The Initia doctrinae physicae

4. Lutheran providence

5. Natural philosophical astrology

Part V. 1. Natural philosophy in the university

2. Hearing, seeing and believing.