Popis: |
Traditionally, the early modern period is characterized by a process whereby religion, politics, and science are gradually separated into independent cultural spheres. This account conceives of the process of modernity in terms of ‘total conflicts’ between abstract institutions (‘the state’, the ‘Church’, ‘science’), stemming from the demand for freedom of each of these institutions to determine their own norms of behaviour and thought within their own boundaries. The account I offer, in contrast, emphasizes the centrality of the rise of ‘sovereign’ states enhancing the creation of specific networks of interdependencies between rulers, the carriers of religion, and professional artists and scientists. However, interdependence also entailed ‘conflict zones’, where boundary work between political, religious, and scientific discourses was carried out. |