Tim O'Neill has a book review up over at Strange Notions of the book God's Philosophers by James Hannam.
The review is one of those delightful pieces which not only talks about the book under consideration, but is in itself an extensive discussion of the topic of the book. I'd strongly recommend reading it. It also includes a graph which O'Neill, himself a self described secular humanist, but one who understands the history of medieval thought, calls "The Most Wrong Thing on the Internet Ever"
Read his review to see why, and I put the book God's Philosopher's on my wishlist as well.
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2 hours ago
6 comments:
I want that book. Thanks for the heads up.
Personal testimony: book is amazing. I got it back when it came out (this review is pretty old now).
O'Neill and another historian of science, Thony Christie (also atheist) both do an excellent job of debunking bad medieval history on their websites. Thony Christie is the go-to for Galileo and the New Astronomy in general. Renaissance Mathematicus I believe he goes by.
Rob
By the way, the one you may want to actually buy is The Genesis of Science. God's Philosophers is actually the "British" version of the book, whereas the American version is the Genesis of Science.
It's the same basic book, but the American version was published a few months later and so I think Dr. Hannam may have been able to add any extra point or two to The Genesis of Science.
I'm about halfway through The Genesis of Science myself, and I must say that it's an excellent book.
Sorry, the second to last sentence should have read:
"...so I think Dr. Hannam may have been able to add an extra point or two to The Genesis of Science..."
Rob,
With news stories I usually think to check the date to see if it's something old that's been mysteriously resurrected by social media, but with a book review that didn't occur to me. I wonder what it caused it to bubble up and get my attention today.
Chris,
Thanks. I'd successfully found it on the US Amazon site, but the listing struck me as kind of bare-bones. I guess that's why. I'll make sure to get the American edition.
Mmm, just in time for giving it away as Christmas presents! Thanks!
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