Loading article…
イアン・グレアム・バーバー（1923年10月5日 - 2013年12月24日）は、科学と宗教の関係を研究したアメリカの学者である。公共放送サービスによると、1960年代半ばに出版された彼の著書『科学と宗教の問題』は、「文字通り現代の科学と宗教という分野を創り出した」とされている。[ 5 ]
1999年のテンプルトン賞にバーバーを推薦した推薦文の中で、ジョン・B・コブは次のように書いている。「現代において、科学的知識と宗教的知識および価値観の統合という必要な分野に、イアン・バーバーほど独創的で深く永続的な貢献をした人物はいない。この統合に取り入れたトピックや分野の幅広さに関して言えば、バーバーに匹敵する者はいない。」[ 6 ]
バーバーは1923年10月5日、中国の北京で生まれた。[ 7 ] [ 8 ]アメリカ人聖公会信者の母親（産科医ロバート・ラトゥー・ディキンソンの娘）とスコットランド長老派教会信者の父親の3人兄弟の次男だった。[ 5 ] [ 9 ]家族は1931年に中国を離れ、バーバーは残りの青春時代をアメリカとイギリスで過ごした。[ 10 ]良心的兵役拒否者であった彼は、第二次世界大戦中、3年間民間公共奉仕に従事した。[ 11 ] [ 12 ]
彼は1946年にスワースモア大学で物理学の理学士号を、デューク大学で物理学の理学修士号を取得した。 [ 5 ] 1950年にはシカゴ大学で物理学の哲学博士号を取得し、[ 5 ]エンリコ・フェルミのティーチングアシスタントとして働いた。[ 5 ] [ 11 ]彼は1956年にイェール大学神学部で神学士号を取得した。[ 5 ]
Barbour taught at Carleton College beginning in 1955 with a joint appointment in the departments of physics and philosophy.[13] He began teaching religion full-time in 1960, when the university established a religion department.[13] In the 1970s, he co-founded of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program at Carleton, which later became the Environment and Technology Studies program. He retired in 1986 as the Winifred and Atherton Bean Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and Society.
Barbour gave the Gifford lectures from 1989 to 1991 at the University of Aberdeen. These lectures led to the book Religion in an Age of Science. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 1999[5][14] for Progress in Religion in recognition of his efforts to create a dialogue between the worlds of science and religion.
Barbour was married to Deane Kern from 1947 until her death in 2011.[8] They had four children.[15]
Barbour suffered a stroke on December 20, 2013, at his home in Northfield, Minnesota, and remained in a coma at Abbott Northwestern Hospital until his death four days later.[16]
In his efforts to link science and religion in Issues in Science and Religion, Barbour coined the term critical realism. This has been adopted by other scholars. He claimed the basic structure of religion is similar to that of science in some ways but also differs on some crucial points. They are part of the same spectrum in which both display subjective as well as objective features. The subjective include the theory on data, the resistance of comprehensive theories to falsification, and the absence of rules for choice among paradigms. Objective features include the presence of common data, evidence for or against a theory, and criteria which are not paradigm-dependent. The presence of subjective and objective features in both science and religion makes his thinking valuable and original. Barbour's arguments have been developed in significant and diverse ways by a variety of scholars, including Arthur Peacocke, John Polkinghorne, Sallie McFague, and Robert John Russell. His subjective / objective approach is prominent in the evolving paradigm of religious naturalism.[17]
Barbour considered critical realism an alternative to the competing interpretations of scientific theories: classical or naive realism, instrumentalism, and idealism. A critical realist perspective sees scientific theories yielding partial, revisable, abstract, but referential knowledge of the world that can be expressed through metaphors and models.
During the 1970s Barbour presented a program of interdisciplinary courses that dealt with ethical issues in the applications of science, exploring the social and environmental consequences of a variety of technologies. In 2000 in When Science Meets Religion (2000) he used a fourfold typology (Conflict, Independence, Dialogue, Integration) to relate religion and science that he had developed in his earlier writings.[18] In his works, Barbour writes from a Christian perspective.[19]
Barbour compared methods of inquiry in science and religion, and has explored the theological implications of the natural and social sciences. He also has lectured widely on ethical issues in such fields as climate change, technology policy, energy, agriculture, computers, and cloning.[6]
American academic Forrest Clingerman ties Barbour to the religious naturalism movement via his theology of nature. His subjective/objective approach to religious is prominent in this evolving paradigm.[20]Michael Dowd calls Barbour the grandfather of the evolutionary Christianity movement.[21]
In his acceptance speech for the 1999 Templeton Prize, Barbour spoke about the need to break down barriers, using cloning as an example of science's ability to say what is possible and of religion to reflect on what is desirable.[12]