STS200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Nominalism, Essentialism, Magia Naturalis
29 Mar 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Lecture summary: western christianity asserted human superiority over nature to be executed through technical leverage: rationalism (represented by benedictine monks in eco, empiricism (represented by franciscan monks in eco) Rationalists say you can know things from pure reason alone, but empiricists say this is not possible. Francis spent his time at the low end of the. pyramid i. e. with the poor and the environment. He was not respected by those higher up. He does not accept this hierarchy, and says the things at the bottom rise up. God is at the bottom with the poor people. (jesus was poor) - christ is a unification between the divine and the natural. Franciscans want to liberate the poor, and elevate them b. the vernacular turn. The book of nature (kind of bible for franciscans) Emphasis is not on the particulars rather than universal truths. Do so through induction (start with particulars move to general principles) Empiricism = all knowledge is a posteriori.
