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The third installment in the series, Arts and Sciences in Nineteenth-Century America: The Cultural and Intellectual World of Mary Baker Eddy was presented on Thursday, October 9, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. in the Hall of Ideas®. Professors of history, science, and philosophy, along with The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s Senior Research Archivist discussed the importance of science to nineteenth-century American thought and culture, with particular emphasis on the relationship of science and religion.
Jon Roberts, the Tomorrow Foundation Professor of American Intellectual History at Boston University, surveyed important developments in scientific thought in nineteenth-century America and their effect on society and religion. Dr. Roberts is the author of two prize-winning books, Darwinism and the Divine in America: Protestant Intellectuals and Organic Evolution, 1859-1900 (1988), and The Sacred and the Secular University (2000).
Anne Taylor Kirschmann, lecturer in history at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, discussed the practice of homeopathy and its relationship to the emerging scientific environment of the nineteenth century. Dr. Kirschmann is the author of A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy, 1850-1930 (2004).
David Nartonis, a writer on the philosophy of science and formerly a professor of physics at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, compared and contrasted rival theories on the nature of science and how they fared respectively in nineteenth-century scientific practice. Among Dr. Nartonis’ articles is “Louis Agassiz and the Platonist Story of Creation at Harvard, 1795-1846” (Journal of the History of Ideas, 2005).
David Pfeifer, a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Indiana at Indianapolis, discussed William James, Charles Peirce, and the philosophy of pragmatism in its connection with nineteenth-century science and its relevance to the work of Mary Baker Eddy. Dr. Pfeifer is managing editor of the Peirce Studies monograph series. Recently, he presented “Peirce’s Semiosis and Concept of God” at the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion, Oxford University.
Judy Huenneke, Senior Research Archivist at The Mary Baker Eddy Library commented on the contents of The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s collections for the study of nineteenth-century scientific thought and its connection to the life and ideas of Mary Baker Eddy.
Jonathon Eder, Administrator of Lending and Reference Services at The Mary Baker Eddy Library, introduced and moderated the event.
See below for streaming video and video downloads of the talk.
