Robert Boyle and the Limits of Reason (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521560290)

In this study of Robert Boyle's epistemology, Jan W. Wojcik reveals the theological context within which Boyle developed his views on reason's limits. After arguing that a correct interpretation of his views on "things above reason" depends upon reading his works in the context of theological controversies in seventeenth-century England, Professor Wojcik details exactly how Boyle's three specific categories of things that transcended reason--the incomprehensible, the inexplicable, and the unsociable--affected his conception of what a natural philosopher could hope to know. Also detailed is Boyle's belief that God deliberately limited the human intellect in order to reserve a full knowledge of both theology and natural philosophy for the afterlife.

Author: Jan W. Wojcik
ISBN-10: 0521560292
ISBN-13: 9780521560290
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/28/1997
Pages: 262
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.30w x 0.90d