Toward A Thomistic Epistemology Of Science -- By: J. Thomas Bridges
Journal: Christian Apologetics Journal
Volume: CAJ 10:2 (Fall 2012)
Article: Toward A Thomistic Epistemology Of Science
Author: J. Thomas Bridges
CAJ 10:2 Fall 2012) p. 31
Toward A Thomistic Epistemology Of Science
If one considers the epistemology of science as a special branch of human knowing, then it makes sense that philosophers of science have sought grounds for their epistemology of science in broader traditions of epistemology. For example, Nancy Cartwright, philosopher of science, acknowledges that the structure of her position follows a Kantian line.1 Given that other noted philosophers of science have unabashedly claimed epistemological kinship with modern and contemporary thinkers, the question occurs to this author: what happens if one is driven, in one’s more general epistemology, by the philosophical intuitions in the tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas?2 The following is my attempt to answer such a question.
CAJ 10:2 Fall 2012) p. 32
Part I: Epistemological Principles In The Thomist Tradition
The purpose of this first part is to bring together some salient epistemological principles from the Thomist tradition. I will argue that there are features of Thomistic epistemology that are still relevant to contemporary philosophy of science, and this can be shown by wedding these Thomistic epistemological principles with a brand of Epistemic Structural Realism.3 This chapter will show that John Worrall’s explication of ESR can be situated in a broader Thomistic epistemology and therefore serve the Thomist as a starting point for an eclectic epistemology of science. Worrall himself is not attempting to elucidate an overarching epistemological position. Instead, he is merely trying to give a faithful philosophical account of scientific revolutions, especially in the history of physics (particularly optics). It is my contention here that what he intends regarding the history of science can be situated in a Thomistic context such that his position follows epistemologically. In doing so, we can see how an overarching Thomistic commitment can yield positions in the philosophy of science like Worrall’s ESR. Since Thomism is not a majority position even among Christian philosophers, let alone philosophers in general, I will not begin by assuming my reader has a working familiarity with his concepts.
Thomism Versus Modernism
It must be noted that epistemological principles in Thomism differ radically with those that are rooted in modernity. Fredrick Wilhelmsen comments,
Historically the term ‘epistemology’ has come to mean the ways in which philosophers have met the so–called ‘critical’ or ‘epistemological problem.’ Very briefly, we can describe the critical problem as follows: How does the min...
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