Science and Religion: A Case Study

科学与宗教：案例研究

• 批准号: 9412522
• 负责人: Steven Harris
• 金额: $ 6.49万
• 依托单位: Brandeis University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fixed Amount Award
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-07-01 至 1995-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9412522&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Science; Religion; Case; Study

Just before World War II, Robert Merton wrote in his doctoral thesis that the scientific revolution in England was accepted because of the rise of the Puritan ethic. Merton noted that Puritanism itself was neither a sufficient nor a strictly necessary condition for the rise of the new science since "other functionally equivalent ideological movements could have served to provide the emerging science with widely acknowledged claims to legitimacy." This "Merton thesis" has been widely debated since he first presented it. By implication, the thesis argues that the acceptance of the new science was dependant upon the rise of protestantism. This thesis gains weight in light of the condemnation of Galileo after he published his Dialogue between the Two Chief World Systems. A number of scholars have examined the acceptance of the new science among Protestants. Few have examined its acceptance among Catholics. Dr. Harris, under this grant, is completing a study of another group which was, he argues, a "functionally equivalent ideological movement" to Puritanism. This group was the Society of Jesus, i.e. the Jesuits of the Catholic Church. He has found remarkable parallels between teachings and research by Jesuit and Protestant scientists during the period of the triumph of the new science. These results lead to several questions: why and how were these developments in the Catholic Church ignored? Was the religious situation during the Scientific Revolution much more complex than the Merton thesis allows? Rather than focusing on the theological or ecclesiastical differences that distinguish and separate Protestant from Catholic, should we not look to the deep institutional parallels and common methods that religious leaders of various movements used in their struggle to instill a "Christian way of life" in their followers? By answering these questions, this study promises to make significant new contributions to our understanding of the historical relationshi p of science and religion.

就在第二次世界大战之前，罗伯特·默顿（Robert Merton）在他的博士论文中写道，由于清教徒伦理的兴起，英国的科学革命被接受了。默顿指出，清教主义本身既不是新科学兴起的充分条件，也不是严格必要条件，因为“其他功能相同的意识形态运动可以为新兴科学提供广泛认可的合法性主张。”自从他第一次提出这个“默顿论点”以来，就一直受到广泛的争论。通过暗示，这篇论文认为新科学的接受取决于新教的兴起。在伽利略发表了《两大世界体系的对话》之后，人们对他的批判使得这篇论文显得更加重要。许多学者调查了新教徒对这门新科学的接受程度。很少有人审查过它在天主教徒中的接受程度。哈里斯博士在这笔资助下，正在完成对另一个群体的研究，他认为，这是一个“功能上等同于清教主义的意识形态运动”。这个团体就是耶稣会，即天主教会的耶稣会士。他发现，在新科学取得胜利的时期，耶稣会和新教科学家的教义和研究之间存在显著的相似之处。这些结果引出了几个问题：天主教会的这些发展为何被忽视，又是如何被忽视的？科学革命时期的宗教状况是否比默顿理论所假定的要复杂得多？与其把注意力集中在区分和分离新教和天主教的神学或教会差异上，我们难道不应该看看各种运动的宗教领袖在努力向其追随者灌输“基督教生活方式”时所使用的深刻的制度相似之处和共同的方法吗？通过回答这些问题，本研究有望对我们理解科学与宗教的历史关系做出重大的新贡献。