Table of Contents

Preface
—Ralph Lerner
Introduction
—Daniel A. Doneson, Svetozar Y. Minkov, and Bernhardt L. Trout
PART I. THE PROJECT FOR MASTERY
Chapter 1. Machiavelli and the Discovery of Fact
—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
—Svetozar Y. Minkov
Chapter 3. Hobbes on Nature and Its Conquest
—Devin Stauffer
Chapter 4. Devising Nature: An Essay on Descartes's Discourse on Method
—Stuart D. Warner
Chapter 5. Montesquieu, Commerce, and Science
—Diana J. Schaub
Chapter 6. Bacon and Franklin on Religion and Mastery of Nature
—Jerry Weinberger
PART II. ANCIENT ALTERNATIVES AND ANTICIPATIONS
Chapter 7. On the Supremacy of Contemplation in Aristotle and Plato
—Robert C. Bartlett
Chapter 8. Xenophon and the Conquest of Nature
—Christopher Nadon
Chapter 9. Lucretius on Rebelling Against the "Laws" of Nature
—Paul Ludwig
PART III. CONSEQUENCES, CRITIQUES, AND CORRECTIONS
Chapter 10. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Return to Nature vs. Conquest of Nature
—Arthur Melzer
Chapter 11. Kant on Organism and History: Ambiguous Endings
—Richard Velkley
Chapter 12. Beyond the Island of Truth: Hegel and the Shipwreck of Science
—Michael A. Gillespie
Chapter 13. Separating the Moral and Theological Prejudices and Taking Hold of Human Evolution
—Lise van Boxel
Chapter 14. Mastery of Nature and Its Limits: The Question of Heidegger
—Mark Blitz
Chapter 15. What Is Natural Philosophy? The Perspective of Contemporary Science
—Adam Schulman
Chapter 16. Quantum Mechanics and Political Philosophy
—Bernhardt L. Trout
Notes
List of Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments

Promotional Information

Ranging from ancient Greek thought to contemporary quantum mechanics, Mastery of Nature investigates to what extent nature can be conquered to further human ends and to what extent such mastery is compatible with human flourishing.

About the Author

Svetozar Y. Minkov is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Roosevelt University. Bernhardt L. Trout is the Raymond F. Baddour, ScD, (1949) Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Reviews

"Addressing a mix of technology, politics, culture, and philosophy of science, the essays in Mastery of Nature connect the intellectual stages of philosophical and scientific development with unusual precision and depth. The collection amounts to a rare exchange between philosophical critics of the modern scientific project and its serious defenders."
*Robert Faulkner, Boston College*

"This volume is an ambitious undertaking made possible by an impressive group of contributors whose essays, while diverse, work together to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Mastery of Nature is a significant contribution to several fields, including political philosophy, intellectual history, and philosophy of science."
*Ronna Burger, Tulane University*