The Scientific Methodology of Theodoric of Freiberg by William A. Wallace, O. P.

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 118 losing his puff. He offers variations on two themes, that civil government should practice the virtue of self-denying ordinances, and that true democracy is not the rule by the majority of the minority. As to the first, it may be remarked that nowhere in the American structure is there accumulated the plentitude of legal power possessed in Great Britain by the Queen in Parliament. Fr. Murray shows that the American limitation of governmental powers guarantees the Church a stable condition of freedom as a matter of law and right. Historically it springs from no spirit of Jacobin secularism nor of religious indifference, such as Gallio's, " who cared for none of these things," but of solicitude to compose the articles, not of religious dogma, but of civic peace. If there is neutralism, then it is rather like that of those Irishmen in the Great War who professed that they were belligerent neutrals. In fact, however, America is officially committed to the affirmation of God's sovereignty, of human rights antecedent to positive law, and to the principle of consent. As to the second, that is really the heart of the book, a reasoned plea for Americans to look into the moral and political philosophy on which their country is built. The res publica is less extensive than the bonum commune; the State is not the whole of society, nor does it seek to absorb the citizen completely; it maintains an active tolerance of personal values and free associations, even when, as they inevitably do, they form power groups. The E Pluribus Unum is not a fiat conformity but an agreement in pluralism, a manifold in analogy such as calls for metaphysics if it is to be explicated and poetry if it is to be sung. It is not for a stranger to harp on the substitutes that are offered and exported instead, for Americans themselves are the best critics of these infantilities and banalities. But he can say this, that their prestige is never higher than when they are searching their own minds and hearts, and a book such as Fr. Murray's provides one of the reasons why they will always keep their staunch friends abroad. THOMAS GILBY, O.P. Blackfriara, Cambridge. The Scientific Methodology of Theodoric of Freiberg. By WILLIAM A. WALLACE, 0. P. Fribourg, Switzerland: University Press. 1959. Pp. 895. FR./DM 22. This· scholarly case study of the relationship between science and philosophy is an important.addition to the Studia Friburgen.ffa. published under the direction of the Dominican Professors at the University of Fribourg. The relationship of modem science and philosophy is, first of all, very much the proper object of the study of a competent historian, that the history of science might be read forward and not backwards. This book 114 BOOK REVIEWS is a highly competent historical treatment of scientific method. A corollary to this is the necessity, in a case study approach, for accurate, detailed biographical material on the intellectual development of the scientist's thought. This book is an effective biography of the great Dominican experimental scientist of the 13th Century, Theodoric of Fribourg (12501310 ). To understand the philosophical tradition which formed the context of Theodoric's scientific work, it is further necessary to get an accurate and intelligible understanding of the Aristotelian methodology of the natural sciences, a task not always successfully accomplished by those treating of the work of the experimental scientists of the Middle Ages. THE SciENTIFIC METHODOLOGY is a thorough treatise on Aristotelian methodology . Furthermore, it is necessary to the case study approach to the sciencephilosophy problem that there be a professional treatment of a truly significant scientific contribution. This book is a fascinating treatise on the rainbow and related optical phenomena. The reader is offered not only a detailed account of the magnificent contribution of Theodoric himself, but also a fully documented record of the progress of optical science from the time of Theodoric, through Descartes and Newton, to the present. Finally, and this is the unifying motif of this multi-dimensional case study, the author takes his singular position among Thomist philosophers of science, attempting to answer the question: Is " science...