Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks

Autores
Manzo, Silvia
Año de publicación
2019
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
parte de libro
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
In the period of emergence of early modern science, 'monsters' or individuals with physical congenital anomalies were considered as rare events which required special explanations entailing assumptions about the laws of nature. This concern with monsters was shared by representatives of the new science and Late Scholastic authors of university textbooks. This paper will reconstruct the main theses of the treatment of monsters in Late Scholastic textbooks, by focusing on the question as to how their accounts conceived nature's regularity and teleology. It shows that they developed a naturalistic teratology in which, in contrast to the naturalistic explanations usually offered by the new science, finality was at central stage. This general point does not impede our noticing that some authors were closer to the views emerging in the Scientific Revolution insofar as they conceived nature as relatively autonomous from God and gave a relevant place to efficient secondary causation. In this connection, this paper suggests that the concept of the laws of nature developed by the new science -as exception-less regularities- transferred to nature's regularity the 'strong' character that Late Scholasticism attributed to finality and that the decline of the Late Scholastic view of finality played as an important concomitant factor permitting the transformation of the concept of laws of nature.
Fil: Manzo, Silvia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.
Fuente
P.D. Omodeo, R. Garau, Eds. (2019). Contingency and Natural Order in Early Modern Science. Cham : Springer, p. 61-92.
Materia
Filosofía
Epistemología
Filosofía de la naturaleza
Teología
Ciencia
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Repositorio
Memoria Académica (UNLP-FAHCE)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación
OAI Identificador
oai:memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar:snrd:Jpm5779

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network_name_str Memoria Académica (UNLP-FAHCE)
spelling Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic TextbooksManzo, SilviaFilosofíaEpistemologíaFilosofía de la naturalezaTeologíaCienciaIn the period of emergence of early modern science, 'monsters' or individuals with physical congenital anomalies were considered as rare events which required special explanations entailing assumptions about the laws of nature. This concern with monsters was shared by representatives of the new science and Late Scholastic authors of university textbooks. This paper will reconstruct the main theses of the treatment of monsters in Late Scholastic textbooks, by focusing on the question as to how their accounts conceived nature's regularity and teleology. It shows that they developed a naturalistic teratology in which, in contrast to the naturalistic explanations usually offered by the new science, finality was at central stage. This general point does not impede our noticing that some authors were closer to the views emerging in the Scientific Revolution insofar as they conceived nature as relatively autonomous from God and gave a relevant place to efficient secondary causation. In this connection, this paper suggests that the concept of the laws of nature developed by the new science -as exception-less regularities- transferred to nature's regularity the 'strong' character that Late Scholasticism attributed to finality and that the decline of the Late Scholastic view of finality played as an important concomitant factor permitting the transformation of the concept of laws of nature.Fil: Manzo, Silvia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.2019info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPartinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_3248info:ar-repo/semantics/parteDeLibroapplication/pdfhttps://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/libros/pm.5779/pm.5779.pdfP.D. Omodeo, R. Garau, Eds. (2019). Contingency and Natural Order in Early Modern Science. Cham : Springer, p. 61-92.reponame:Memoria Académica (UNLP-FAHCE)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educacióninstacron:UNLPenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/hdl/10915/125242info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/hdl/11336/149837info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/2025-09-29T11:54:14Zoai:memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar:snrd:Jpm5779Institucionalhttps://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicahttps://www.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/oaiserver.cgimemoria@fahce.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13412025-09-29 11:54:15.28Memoria Académica (UNLP-FAHCE) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educaciónfalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
spellingShingle Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
Manzo, Silvia
Filosofía
Epistemología
Filosofía de la naturaleza
Teología
Ciencia
title_short Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_full Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_fullStr Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_full_unstemmed Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
title_sort Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Manzo, Silvia
author Manzo, Silvia
author_facet Manzo, Silvia
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Filosofía
Epistemología
Filosofía de la naturaleza
Teología
Ciencia
topic Filosofía
Epistemología
Filosofía de la naturaleza
Teología
Ciencia
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv In the period of emergence of early modern science, 'monsters' or individuals with physical congenital anomalies were considered as rare events which required special explanations entailing assumptions about the laws of nature. This concern with monsters was shared by representatives of the new science and Late Scholastic authors of university textbooks. This paper will reconstruct the main theses of the treatment of monsters in Late Scholastic textbooks, by focusing on the question as to how their accounts conceived nature's regularity and teleology. It shows that they developed a naturalistic teratology in which, in contrast to the naturalistic explanations usually offered by the new science, finality was at central stage. This general point does not impede our noticing that some authors were closer to the views emerging in the Scientific Revolution insofar as they conceived nature as relatively autonomous from God and gave a relevant place to efficient secondary causation. In this connection, this paper suggests that the concept of the laws of nature developed by the new science -as exception-less regularities- transferred to nature's regularity the 'strong' character that Late Scholasticism attributed to finality and that the decline of the Late Scholastic view of finality played as an important concomitant factor permitting the transformation of the concept of laws of nature.
Fil: Manzo, Silvia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.
description In the period of emergence of early modern science, 'monsters' or individuals with physical congenital anomalies were considered as rare events which required special explanations entailing assumptions about the laws of nature. This concern with monsters was shared by representatives of the new science and Late Scholastic authors of university textbooks. This paper will reconstruct the main theses of the treatment of monsters in Late Scholastic textbooks, by focusing on the question as to how their accounts conceived nature's regularity and teleology. It shows that they developed a naturalistic teratology in which, in contrast to the naturalistic explanations usually offered by the new science, finality was at central stage. This general point does not impede our noticing that some authors were closer to the views emerging in the Scientific Revolution insofar as they conceived nature as relatively autonomous from God and gave a relevant place to efficient secondary causation. In this connection, this paper suggests that the concept of the laws of nature developed by the new science -as exception-less regularities- transferred to nature's regularity the 'strong' character that Late Scholasticism attributed to finality and that the decline of the Late Scholastic view of finality played as an important concomitant factor permitting the transformation of the concept of laws of nature.
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPart
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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info:ar-repo/semantics/parteDeLibro
format bookPart
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/libros/pm.5779/pm.5779.pdf
url https://www.memoria.fahce.unlp.edu.ar/libros/pm.5779/pm.5779.pdf
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/hdl/10915/125242
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/hdl/11336/149837
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv P.D. Omodeo, R. Garau, Eds. (2019). Contingency and Natural Order in Early Modern Science. Cham : Springer, p. 61-92.
reponame:Memoria Académica (UNLP-FAHCE)
instname:Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación
instacron:UNLP
reponame_str Memoria Académica (UNLP-FAHCE)
collection Memoria Académica (UNLP-FAHCE)
instname_str Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación
instacron_str UNLP
institution UNLP
repository.name.fl_str_mv Memoria Académica (UNLP-FAHCE) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación
repository.mail.fl_str_mv memoria@fahce.unlp.edu.ar
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