Mastery of Nature This page intentionally left blank Mastery of Nature Promises and Prospects Edited by Svetozar Y. Minkov and Bernhardt L. Trout UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS PHILADELPHIA Copyright © 2018 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 - 4112 www . upenn . edu / pennpress Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 A Cataloging- in- Publication record is available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-0-8122-4993-4 One won ders at t hose [ things] which happen according to nature, insofar as one is ignorant of the cause, and at t hose [ things] which happen contrary to nature, insofar as they come into being through art with regard to what is beneficial to human beings. For in many [cases], nature makes the opposite with regard to what is useful to us. — Aristotle, The Mechanics Nature’s bequest gives nothing, but doth lend, And being frank she lends to  those are free. — Shakespeare, “Sonnet 4” This page intentionally left blank C o n t e n t s Preface xi Ralph Lerner Introduction 1 Daniel A. Doneson, Svetozar Y. Minkov, and Bernhardt L. Trout I. The Proj ect for Mastery Chapter 1. Machiavelli and the Discovery of Fact 15 Harvey C. Mansfield Chapter 2. The Place of the Treatment of the Conquest of Nature in Francis Bacon’s On the Wisdom of the Ancients 30 Svetozar Y. Minkov Chapter 3. Hobbes on Nature and Its Conquest 43 Devin Stauffer Chapter 4. Devising Nature: An Essay on Descartes’s Discourse on Method 54 Stuart D. Warner Chapter 5. Montesquieu, Commerce, and Science 73 Diana J. Schaub viii Contents Chapter 6. Bacon and Franklin on Religion and Mastery of Nature 85 Jerry Weinberger II. Ancient Alternatives and Anticipations Chapter 7. On the Supremacy of Contemplation in Aristotle and Plato 99 Robert C. Bartlett Chapter 8. Xenophon and the Conquest of Nature 111 Christopher Nadon Chapter 9. Lucretius on Rebelling Against the “Laws” of Nature 122 Paul Ludwig III. Consequences, Critiques, and Corrections Chapter 10. Jean- Jacques Rousseau: Return to Nature vs. Conquest of Nature 137 Arthur Melzer Chapter 11. Kant on Organism and History: Ambiguous Endings 155 Richard Velkley Chapter 12. Beyond the Island of Truth: Hegel and the Shipwreck of Science 171 Michael A. Gillespie Chapter 13. Separating the Moral and Theological Prejudices and Taking Hold of Human Evolution 183 Lise van Boxel Chapter 14. Mastery of Nature and Its Limits: The Question of Heidegger 193 Mark Blitz Contents ix Chapter 15. What Is Natur al Philosophy? The Perspective of Con temporary Science 206 Adam Schulman Chapter 16. Quantum Mechanics and Po liti cal Philosophy 220 Bernhardt L. Trout Notes 233 List of Contributors 261 Index 263 Acknowl edgments 269 This page intentionally left blank