Fallen languages

About this book

According to Robert Markley, historians and philosophers of science who link the "rise" of science to the "rise" of modern, objective forms of writing are interpreting the works of Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, and their contemporaries far too narrowly. Focusing on the crises of representation in the discourse of "physico-theology" in English natural philosophy from 1660 to 1740, Markley demonstrates the crucial role played by theology in the development of modern science. Drawing on the insights of such theorists as Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Serres, Jean-Joseph Goux, and Geoffrey Chew, Markley looks closely at a number of works - Boyle's Some Considerations Touching the Style of the Holy Scriptures, John Wilkins's Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, Peter Shaw's restructured "Abridgement" of Boyle, and several popularizations of Newton's thought, as well as his theological manuscripts and his Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St.