Newtonian science shaped a mechanical worldview of human reason
Evidence
This picture is too simple. The triumphs of science, particularly Newtonian physics, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries persuaded most thinking people that the physical universe had a uniform structure accessible to human reason. It began to seem that human nature and human social systems might have a similarly mechanical structure. This emerging world view cast humankind in an observing mold. Through perception, measurement, and mathematics, the human mind would uncover the secrets of nature (including those of the mind itself, a part of nature) and the laws (natural, not positive) of social interaction-including laws decreeing balanced government, economic behavior in accordance with the principles of supply and demand, and moral and legal principles based on immutable principles of psychology and human behavior. The mind was a camera, recording activities both natural and social and alike determined by natural laws, and an adding machine. — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 22
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the scientific rationalism’s critique literature, e.g. Horkheimer/Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment and discussions of the ‘mechanical man’ metaphor of mind. — connects to: The concept of Asimov’s robot laws requires reevaluation in modern contexts. — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 808; Romantics challenged mechanical worldview by celebrating imagination — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 23; Mathematical certainty led philosophers to suppose thought is superior to sense — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 203 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Romantics challenged mechanical worldview by celebrating imagination
#responds-to(0.75) — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 23 - The concept of Asimov’s robot laws requires reevaluation in modern contexts.
#responds-to(0.60) — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 808 - Mathematical certainty led philosophers to suppose thought is superior to sense
#corroborates(0.60) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 203 - Teleological explanations appeal to future purpose while mechanistic explanations trace earlier causes.
#expands(0.55) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 362