ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief history of the development of modern natural science with special emphasis on the differences between modern and ancient conceptions of nature, how Bacon's work was taken up by the "scientific revolutionaries." It describes the complex and shifting relationship between the new natural science and received religious tradition in the seventeenth century. The chapter also provides a brief overview of more contemporary philosophies of science, a synthesis of the core elements of modern natural science, and a discussion of its concomitant ethic, which makes natural science a unique and specific endeavor. The relationship between science and religion during this time was complex and shifted dramatically throughout the century. Religion influenced the direction of natural science in the early days of the seventeenth century just as much as science influenced religious thought. The Royal Society was the first modern scientific institution and a crucial step in the development of modern science.
