Reconciling Science and Religion: Jevons as a Natural Theologian

Abstract This chapter examines how Jevons attempted to reconcile science and religion by means of natural theology. Jevons believed that nature showed the mark of God’s design and that scientists should study the divine order regulating nature using deductive methods, such as the inverse method of probability. At a time when science was often seen as a threat to established religion, he aimed to prove that scientific knowledge was legitimate. Different natural theologians, such as William Whewell and Charles Babbage, employed different methods and thus adopted different strategies for reconciling science and religion. I will argue that Jevons was committed to natural theology and examine how his position compares with those of Whewell and Babbage. Jevons’s position related to Whewell’s and Babbage’s dispute on the role of deduction in natural theology: Whewell minimised the role of deductive methods in natural theology, while Babbage criticised him for this choice. Drawing on an unpublished manuscript by Jevons, together with his correspondence, journals and notes, I will argue that Jevons sided with Babbage. Jevons saw deductive methods as the most appropriate means of investigating the divine order in both the natural and social sciences.