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“What I Cannot Build I Cannot Understand”: Transgressive Discourses in Life Sciences and Synthetic Biology

“What I Cannot Build I Cannot Understand”: Transgressive Discourses in Life Sciences and... AbstractThe article scrutinizes the genealogy of transgressive discourses in the fields of the natural sciences, metaphysics, and religion. Throughout Western cultural history, and still today, we find influential examples that transgress the borders between empirical method and metaphysical knowledge claims. These borders are shifting constantly and thus it seems more fruitful to address their negotiation as an ongoing discourse in Western culture, rather than trying to fix the distinction between knowledge of nature and knowledge of the divine, linking these fixed borders to the systems of religion and philosophy on the one hand, and to the natural sciences on the other. The article analyzes the discursive entanglements of scientific and religious systems of knowledge about nature and the divine. Within a theoretical framework of historical discourse analysis, the “scientification” of religion since the eighteenth century is discussed, followed by a case study that addresses contemporary life sciences and synthetic biology. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Numen Brill

“What I Cannot Build I Cannot Understand”: Transgressive Discourses in Life Sciences and Synthetic Biology

von Stuckrad, Kocku
Numen , Volume 60 (1): 15 – Jan 1, 2013
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15 pages

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References (4)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0029-5973
eISSN
1568-5276
DOI
10.1163/15685276-12341255
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractThe article scrutinizes the genealogy of transgressive discourses in the fields of the natural sciences, metaphysics, and religion. Throughout Western cultural history, and still today, we find influential examples that transgress the borders between empirical method and metaphysical knowledge claims. These borders are shifting constantly and thus it seems more fruitful to address their negotiation as an ongoing discourse in Western culture, rather than trying to fix the distinction between knowledge of nature and knowledge of the divine, linking these fixed borders to the systems of religion and philosophy on the one hand, and to the natural sciences on the other. The article analyzes the discursive entanglements of scientific and religious systems of knowledge about nature and the divine. Within a theoretical framework of historical discourse analysis, the “scientification” of religion since the eighteenth century is discussed, followed by a case study that addresses contemporary life sciences and synthetic biology.

Journal

Numen – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2013

Keywords: religion; natural sciences; life sciences; synthetic biology; philosophy of nature; historical discourse analysis

There are no references for this article.