Readers will be saddened to hear of the death of Professor Ernan McMullin last weekend. I met him only once, at Cambridge last year, where he roundly criticised the continuity thesis (against the scientific revolution) I had put forward at the conference we were both speaking at. His work on Galileo is of the first importance and he was a lovely man even when he disagreed with you.
Michael Ruse has written an appreciation which is well worth a look.
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By "criticizing the continuity thesis", does that mean he holds to the conflict thesis, or neither?
ReplyDeleteWe were comparing the diea that modern science grew out of medieval science (the continuity thesis) with the scientific revolution thesis. McMullin had nothing to do with the conflict thesis which he regarded as absurd.
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