THE EMERGENCE OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD WITHIN THE PARADIGM OF CHRISTIANITY
THE EMERGENCE OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD WITHIN THE PARADIGM OF CHRISTIANITY

Summary/Abstract: Modern science rests upon a set of foundational presuppositions that are not themselves empirically demonstrable yet are indispensable for the scientific enterprise. These include the existence and knowability of the universal laws of nature, the universality of logic, the basic reliability of human senses, and the mathematical intelligibility and structural unity of fundamental laws. Historical analysis reveals that these presuppositions achieved their most systematic and coherent articulation within medieval and early–modern Latin Christianity. This paper argues that the Christian doctrine of creation—particularly the concepts of a rational Creator who governs through secondary causes, the imago Dei, the Incarnation, and divine simplicity—provided the metaphysical and epistemological framework that rendered the scientific method not only possible but intellectually compelling. While not denying the significant scientific achievements of other civilizations, this thesis is advanced as a qualified philosophical–historical proposal and situated within the broader historiographical debate concerning Christianity and the rise of modern science.

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