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The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide
In their search for truth, contemporary religious believers and modern scientific investigators hold many values in common. But in their approaches, they express two fundamentally different conceptions of how to understand and represent the world. Michael E. Hobart looks for the origin of this difference in the work of Renaissance thinkers who invented a revolutionary mathematical system―relational numeracy. By creating meaning through numbers and abstract symbols rather than words, relational numeracy allowed inquisitive minds to vault beyond the constraints of language and explore the natural world with a fresh interpretive vision.
The Great Rift is the first book to examine the religion-science divide through the history of information technology. Hobart follows numeracy as it emerged from the practical counting systems of merchants, the abstract notations of musicians, the linear perspective of artists, and the calendars and clocks of astronomers. As the technology of the alphabet and of mere counting gave way to abstract symbols, the earlier “thing-mathematics” metamorphosed into the relational mathematics of modern scientific investigation. Using these new information symbols, Galileo and his contemporaries mathematized motion and matter, separating the demonstrations of science from the linguistic logic of religious narration.
Hobart locates the great rift between science and religion not in ideological disagreement but in advances in mathematics and symbolic representation that opened new windows onto nature. In so doing, he connects the cognitive breakthroughs of the past with intellectual debates ongoing in the twenty-first century.
The Great Rift is the first book to examine the religion-science divide through the history of information technology. Hobart follows numeracy as it emerged from the practical counting systems of merchants, the abstract notations of musicians, the linear perspective of artists, and the calendars and clocks of astronomers. As the technology of the alphabet and of mere counting gave way to abstract symbols, the earlier “thing-mathematics” metamorphosed into the relational mathematics of modern scientific investigation. Using these new information symbols, Galileo and his contemporaries mathematized motion and matter, separating the demonstrations of science from the linguistic logic of religious narration.
Hobart locates the great rift between science and religion not in ideological disagreement but in advances in mathematics and symbolic representation that opened new windows onto nature. In so doing, he connects the cognitive breakthroughs of the past with intellectual debates ongoing in the twenty-first century.
520 pages, Hardcover
Published April 16, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 30, 2018
The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide traces the history of how we understand, record, and transmit information from early literacy to numeracy and how that changed how we think. Writing is about words and concerns itself with classification. When the modern Indo-Arabic numerals came along we began moving from concrete to relational and abstract thinking. Adding functions like the equal sign and concepts like zero enhanced our ability to think in the abstract.
It was not just the symbols, though. It was also some key concepts that came from outside the academy: numbers and calculations from commerce, time notation from music, perspective and proportion from art, and time technology from astronomy. These developments were the cultural zeitgeist that Galileo surfed to his greatest achievement–not just his discoveries, but the development of the analytical scientific mind that broke down problems into objective measurable elements. The Pope was wrong about Galileo, it was not what he thought that was the danger; it was how he thought.
With modern science, the way we think fundamentally changed and religion and science were forever separated, not by dogma, but by how we think. This is the fundamental argument animating Michael E. Hobart’s excellent history The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide.
I am not completely persuaded that Hobart proves his case that it is numeracy that created the science-faith divide, but then I am naturally dubious of theories that explain everything. However, The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide does an excellent job of showing how numeracy changed how we understood science and made science possible. Imagine landing a man on the moon without a plus, minus, or equals sign!
There is a difference between the mind of faith (Because I say so!) and the mind of science (Prove it!) and this shift was led by Galileo whose heresy was less about heliocentrism and more about saying there are absolute answers in nature. I am just not sure that it is numeracy alone. After all, Renaissance humanism studied the wisdom of Classical Greece and Rome. They may have worked to reconcile those old pagans with Christian theology, but still, they were finding wisdom in reading pagan classics, which in itself challenges the idea of God as the source of all knowledge. I think there can be multiple causes…and really, if you look at how Hobart suggests numeracy came about because of advances in art, music, commerce, and astronomy instruments, we see movement in multiple fields, working together.
So how can I give so many stars to a book that I don’t agree with completely? It’s because it is full of fascinating information, some big and some trivial, but the sort of thing that got me sharing a tidbit I had just read with my doctor. Did you know that when they used a lunar calendar, they would need to add an extra month every third year they called it an embolus and made it an embolismic year? Now that can literally blow your mind! So, reading this book will fill up your stock of “did you know?” facts.
What I found most fascinating was trying to fathom living in a world where their understanding of time was so different from ours. People in the classical world didn’t just lack air conditioning and cars, they didn’t have a zero. Giving us insight into that very different world is fascinating. Best of all, the math and science deals with concepts up to Galileo, so you will have learned all the concepts in high school, so while it requires attention, it is not confounding and is sure is fun.
I was provided a copy of The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide by Harvard University Press.
The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide at Harvard University Press
Michael E. Hobart on GoodReads
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
It was not just the symbols, though. It was also some key concepts that came from outside the academy: numbers and calculations from commerce, time notation from music, perspective and proportion from art, and time technology from astronomy. These developments were the cultural zeitgeist that Galileo surfed to his greatest achievement–not just his discoveries, but the development of the analytical scientific mind that broke down problems into objective measurable elements. The Pope was wrong about Galileo, it was not what he thought that was the danger; it was how he thought.
With modern science, the way we think fundamentally changed and religion and science were forever separated, not by dogma, but by how we think. This is the fundamental argument animating Michael E. Hobart’s excellent history The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide.
I am not completely persuaded that Hobart proves his case that it is numeracy that created the science-faith divide, but then I am naturally dubious of theories that explain everything. However, The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide does an excellent job of showing how numeracy changed how we understood science and made science possible. Imagine landing a man on the moon without a plus, minus, or equals sign!
There is a difference between the mind of faith (Because I say so!) and the mind of science (Prove it!) and this shift was led by Galileo whose heresy was less about heliocentrism and more about saying there are absolute answers in nature. I am just not sure that it is numeracy alone. After all, Renaissance humanism studied the wisdom of Classical Greece and Rome. They may have worked to reconcile those old pagans with Christian theology, but still, they were finding wisdom in reading pagan classics, which in itself challenges the idea of God as the source of all knowledge. I think there can be multiple causes…and really, if you look at how Hobart suggests numeracy came about because of advances in art, music, commerce, and astronomy instruments, we see movement in multiple fields, working together.
So how can I give so many stars to a book that I don’t agree with completely? It’s because it is full of fascinating information, some big and some trivial, but the sort of thing that got me sharing a tidbit I had just read with my doctor. Did you know that when they used a lunar calendar, they would need to add an extra month every third year they called it an embolus and made it an embolismic year? Now that can literally blow your mind! So, reading this book will fill up your stock of “did you know?” facts.
What I found most fascinating was trying to fathom living in a world where their understanding of time was so different from ours. People in the classical world didn’t just lack air conditioning and cars, they didn’t have a zero. Giving us insight into that very different world is fascinating. Best of all, the math and science deals with concepts up to Galileo, so you will have learned all the concepts in high school, so while it requires attention, it is not confounding and is sure is fun.
I was provided a copy of The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide by Harvard University Press.
The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide at Harvard University Press
Michael E. Hobart on GoodReads
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
January 9, 2019
It is a slightly difficult book to comprehend fully as the author’s extraordinary erudition and meticulous research is overwhelming. However if you get into the author’s shoes the overarching story is fairly simple.
Till recently (till a few centuries back) religion was always the undisputed leader in shaping human thought. Anything contrary to the religious belief was heresy. Analysis and interpretation using objective reality including mathematical principles were anathema.
And then came Galileo Galilee. And what a pioneer he was! He shattered the way of the extant thought process and reconfirmed Copernican theory with analysis and facts (the earth moves). Even after incarceration he continued to believe in scientific analysis. And the rift between science and religion started which is ever widening as of now.
A phenomenal effort in articulation.
Till recently (till a few centuries back) religion was always the undisputed leader in shaping human thought. Anything contrary to the religious belief was heresy. Analysis and interpretation using objective reality including mathematical principles were anathema.
And then came Galileo Galilee. And what a pioneer he was! He shattered the way of the extant thought process and reconfirmed Copernican theory with analysis and facts (the earth moves). Even after incarceration he continued to believe in scientific analysis. And the rift between science and religion started which is ever widening as of now.
A phenomenal effort in articulation.
December 9, 2018
Geen makkelijk boek. De schrijver wil laten zien hoe het feit dat we met getallen leerden omgaan ons denken heeft beinvloed. En daardoor gezorgd heeft dat er een scheiding kwam tussen religie en wetenschap. Hij laat redelijk overtuigend zien, dat deze scheiding vooral ontstond na en door de ontdekkingen van Galileo (niet zozeer zijn astronomische ontdekkingen als wel zijn mathematische). Voor die tijd omvatte de filosofie zowel de religie als de wetenschap. Na Galileo was dat voorgoed gescheiden; tot groot ongenoegen van de katholieke kerk. Het boek is knap geschreven, maar af en toe wel wat te moeilijk. Vooral daar waar allerlei formules etc. worden gebruikt. Ik vond vooral interessant hoe de mensheid via de letters en woorden pas veel later bij de cijfers en symbolen aanbelandde.
August 23, 2018
Masterful work!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews