Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Peter Dear: “Miracles, Experiments and the Ordinary Course of Nature”
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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper discusses Peter Dear’s article “Miracles, Experiments and the Ordinary Course of Nature” and argues that his main point is to trace why scientific thought in France and England developed along different paths, even though both countries were in the midst of the Scientific Revolution. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVPtDear.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
summarizes his article, then considers what Dears purpose was in writing, where he stands with regard to other scholars of the scientific revolution; whether or not he presents new material;
whether he was convincing and if his work is enough to convince a reader to modify his own ideas. Discussion First of all, Peter Dears article is extremely dense
and very difficult, despite claims of some that his works are written for non-specialists. Its necessary to read parts of it numerous times before it begins to make sense. This
makes the reading laborious rather than enjoyable; a chore to be slogged through with the result that its hard to draw reasonable conclusions about it. With that disclaimer, one can
discern some of his thinking. First, the main point of the piece seems to be that scientific thinking in England and on the Continent followed two different paths, because people
in France in particular believed in miracles, and those in England did not. Most of the rest of the piece is devoted to exploring the different scientists of the period,
and how they approached science, depending in part on how they approached the question of the reality of miracles. Dear is discussing the 17th century, a time when religion
was a powerful force in society, and when going against church teaching was considered heretical and punishable in some cases by death. What he wants to know specifically is how,
at this time, a "natural philosophical argument" could receive "sociocultural legitimation-a legitimation so unquestionable that it could even, without fear of blasphemy, be applied to talking about Christ?"1 He spends
the rest of the paper answering this question. The answer appears to be contingent upon the scientists belief in miracles, as noted above. France was heavily Roman Catholic and England
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