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Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Philosophy of science
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Fictions of Certitude - Science, Faith, and the Search for Meaning, 1840-1920 (Hardcover)
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Fictions of Certitude - Science, Faith, and the Search for Meaning, 1840-1920 (Hardcover)
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The search for belief and meaning among nineteenth-century
intellectuals. The nineteenth century's explosion of scientific
theories and new technologies undermined many deep-seated beliefs
that had long formed the basis of Western society, making it
impossible for many to retain the unconditional faith of their
forebears. A myriad of discoveries - including Faraday's
electromagnetic induction, Joule's law of conservation of energy,
Pasteur's germ theory, Darwin's and Wallace's theories of evolution
by natural selection, and Planck's work on quantum theory -
shattered conventional understandings of the world that had been
dictated by traditional religious teachings and philosophical
systems for centuries. Fictions of Certitude: Science, Faith, and
the Search for Meaning, 1840-1920 investigates the fin de siEcle
search for truth and meaning in a world that had been radically
transformed. John S. Haller Jr. examines the moral and
philosophical journeys of nine European and American intellectuals
who sought deeper understanding amid such paradigmatic upheaval.
Auguste Comte, John Henry Newman, Herbert Spencer, Alfred Russel
Wallace, Thomas Henry Huxley, John Fiske, William James, Lester
Frank Ward, and Paul Carus all belonged to an age in which one
world was passing, while another world that was both astounding and
threatening was rising to take its place. For Haller, what makes
the work of these nine thinkers worthy of examination is how they
strove in different ways to find certitude and belief in the face
of an epochal sea change. Some found ways to reconceptualize a
world in which God and nature coexist. For others, the challenge
was to discern meaning in a world in which no higher power or
purpose can be found. As explained by D. H. Myer, 'The later
Victorians were perhaps the last generation among English-speaking
intellectuals able to believe that man was capable of understanding
his universe, just as they were the first generation collectively
to suspect that he never would.
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