TY - BOOK ID - 78070419 TI - Culture of accidents PY - 2001 SN - 0804779910 9780804779913 9780804735568 0804735565 PB - Stanford, Calif. Stanford University Press DB - UniCat KW - Accidents KW - Philosophy, English. KW - English philosophy KW - Philosophy, British KW - Common accidents KW - Injuries KW - Diseases KW - First aid in illness and injury KW - Violent deaths KW - Disasters KW - Emergencies KW - History. KW - Causes and theories of causation UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:78070419 AB - Collapsing buildings, unexpected meetings in the marketplace, monstrous births, encounters with pirates at sea—these and other unforeseen “accidents” at the turn of the seventeenth century in England acquired unprecedented significance in the early modern philosophical and cultural imagination. Drawing on intellectual history, cultural criticism, and rhetorical theory, this book chronicles the narrative transformation of “accident” from a philosophical dead end to an astonishing occasion for revelation and wonder in early modern religious life, dramatic practice, and experimental philosophy. Embracing the notion that accident was a concept with both learned and popular appeal, the book traces its evolution through Aristotelian, Scholastic, and Calvinist thought into a range of early modern texts. It suggests that for many English writers, accidental events raised fundamental questions about the nature of order in the world and the way that order should be apprehended. Alongside texts by such canonical figures as Shakespeare and Bacon, this study draws on several lesser-known authors of sensational news accounts about accidents that occurred around the turn of the seventeenth century. The result is a cultural anatomy of accidents as philosophical problem, theatrical conceit, spiritual landmark, and even a prototype for Baconian “experiment,” one that provides a fresh interpretation of the early modern engagement with contingency in intellectual and cultural terms. ER -