Modern System and Medieval Scientific Imagination IPT Event with Special Guest Speaker - Professor William Bain

In this talk, Professor William Bain explores the idea of a system as a multitude of parts related in such a way that they constitute a complex whole. The underlying premise of the talk is that this understanding belongs to a scientific mode of explanation. Professor Bain examines the medieval contribution to preparing the ground for this type of thinking.

The talk proceeds in three parts. The first part explores the contention that the modern science of nature is the singular achievement of modernity. In doing so, Professor Bain seeks to decentre a narrative that portrays modern science as incompatible with medieval thought and practice, especially religion. The second part investigates the reconceptualisation of equality and equalisation that emerged in the medieval marketplace, showing how this established some of the conditions of possibility for the new model of nature that flourished in the seventeenth century. The third part explores the contribution of voluntarist theology to this model. Creative thinking arising from speculation about the nature of God and the extent of divine power resulted in a radically contingent conception of nature, one comprehended through empirical observation and the investigation of efficient causes.

Professor Bain argues that the idea of system takes its initial shape as a consequence of these developments.