ZYGO

Zygon®

0591-2385 1467-9744

10.1111/j.1467-9744.1988.tb00625.x

REALISM AND OPENNESS IN SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

Torrance

Thomas F.

02 06 1988

23 2

10.1111/zygo.1988.23.issue-2

159 169

Abstract. Intrinsic to rigorous knowledge of God is the recognition that positive theological concepts and statements about God arising under the compelling claims of God's reality upon the human mind must have an open revisable structure. A similar combination of critical realism and ontological openness is apparent in the profound change that has taken place in the rational structure of rigorous science from the radical dualism and closed causal system of classical mechanics to the unifying world view and open dynamic field‐theories of modern physics. It is argued that the intersection of theological and natural science in their epis‐temological foundations can enhance their ontological commitment and heuristic thrust.

conceptual assent epistemological realism/ontological openness intrinsic intelligibility theological/natural science true/not certain propositions unifying field‐theory

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