STEP 1. INQUIRY
AND THE UNIVERSE:
is there order in the universe?
After
we have established the value of the intellectual quest, the next most logical
question is: how is this quest possible at all? In order to proceed with the
intellectual journey one must first find out whether there is anything that can
be intelligently studied, i.e., whether there is any order to what we
experience. Bonaventure in this section deals with the question of whether there
is natural order in the universe and the ways we can see this order. According
to him, our journey starts with the natural world that becomes known to us
through our bodily senses, which, in communion with the intellect, reveal the
innate quality and excellence of the worldly arrangement. Discovering the
orderly, and not chaotic, arrangement of the world justifies our attempt to
study it intelligently. This step deals explicitly with the search for
organizing principles in nature and teaches us a reverent approach to it.
Observation (Is
there order in nature?)
St.
Bonaventure. Itinerarium
1.9, 14
Text of Step 1, transl. by O. Bychkov
Leopold,
Aldo. Sand County Almanac: And Sketches
Here and There. NY: Oxford UP, 1966. (“On Reading the Forest Landscape,”
pp. 72-82).
Colinvaux,
Paul. Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare:
An Ecologist’s Perspective. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978. (Ch. 12:
“ The Succession Affair,” pp. 118-35).
Speculation (Is
there order in nature?)
Davies,
Paul. God and the New Physics. NY:
Simon & Shuster, 1991. (Ch. 3: “Did God Create the Universe?” pp.
25-43).