Title: Re: paleonet "Queen of the Sciences"
on 03-03-14 18.24, Patricio Dominguez at patd@nhm.ac.uk wrote:
I have the suspicion that the quotation could be a transformation of another previous which was on behalf of mathematics.
Cheers,
Patricio
Hmm, every subject wants to be the queen of sciences, it seems. However, the original Regina here is Philosophy, a designation going back at least as far as Boethius (6th century).
In the West, theology has been seen as the "queen of the sciences" since the mediaeval period (ironically in the light of the recent discussion on this list). Aquinas talks about philosophy and the other sciences as the "handmaidens" of theology, (characteristically) together with a fairly lengthy and complicated discussion of why he thinks so, at the beginning of the Summa.
Since then, everyone has jumped on the bandwagon, including mathematics and politics. If someone wants to have palaeontology as the queen of the sciences, they must come up with at least as good arguments as those of Aquinas!
Graham
--
Graham E. Budd
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Research Fellow
Department of Earth Sciences
Palaeobiology
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University of Uppsala
Uppsala
Sweden
SE-752 36
graham.budd@pal.uu.se
Tel: + 46 18 471 27 62
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The Palaeobiology program was formed on 1st January 2003 by amalgamation
of Historical Geology & Palaeontology and part of Quaternary
Geology. The program carries out research and teaching involving the history and evolution of life from its origin to the present day.