The Epistemological Transformation of the Book of Nature: From Mirror to Touch

Magdalena Krasińska

doi:10.18290/rf26741.9

Published : 2026-03-25

Vol. 74 No. 1 (2026)

The Epistemological Transformation of the Book of Nature: From Mirror to Touch

Magdalena Krasińska

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2347-3065

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rf26741.9

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of the metaphor of the Book of Nature from a catoptric to a haptic model of perception. Tracing its biblical and medieval origins, it explores the symbolic and theological frameworks that shaped the traditional view of nature as a divine mirror. Particular attention is given to Francis Bacon’s conception of nature as a legible system of signs, influenced by kabbalistic motifs and the catoptric paradigm. In contrast, the final section turns to George Berkeley’s immaterialist epistemology, in which nature is no longer a surface of reflection but a medium of divine communication through touch. This haptic reinterpretation of the liber mundi points toward a sensory theology grounded in embodied perception.

Keywords:

Book of Nature, liber mundi, divine language, alphabet of nature, haptic perception, catoptrics, George Berkeley, theological aesthetics

Details

References

Statistics

Authors

Download files

pdf

Citation rules

Krasińska, M. (2026). The Epistemological Transformation of the Book of Nature: From Mirror to Touch. Roczniki Filozoficzne, 74(1), 193–222. https://doi.org/10.18290/rf26741.9

Altmetric indicators

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

Alberti, Leon Battista. 2011. On Painting. A New Translation and Critical Edition. Edited and translated by Rocco Sinisgalli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Augustine. 1961. Confessions. Translated by R. S. Pine-Coffin. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Bacon, Francis. 1669. “The Alphabet of Nature.” In Baconiana, edited by Thomas Tenison. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://sirbacon.org/alphabetofnature.htm.

Bacon, Francis. 1999. Selected Philosophical Works. Edited by Rose-Mary Sargent. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.

Barbour, Reid. 2013. Sir Thomas Browne. A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Benjamin, Walter. 2019. Origin of the German Trauerspiel. Translated by Howard Eiland. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bergson, Henri. 2007. The Creative Mind. An Introduction to Metaphysics. Translated by Mabelle L. Andison. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.

Berkeley, George. 1953. The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne. Volume Five. Edited by Arthur A. Luce and Thomas E. Jessop. London: Thomas Nelson.

Berkeley, George. 1996. Philosophical Works. Including the Works on Vision. Edited by Michael R. Ayers. London: Dent.

Berkeley, George. 2003. Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher in Focus. Edited by David Berman. London: Routledge. Taylor & Francis e-Library.

Blumenberg, Hans. 2022. The Readability of the World. Translated by Robert Savage and David Roberts. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, Cornell University Library.

Bradatan, Costica. 2006. The Other Bishop Berkeley. An Exercise in Reenchantment. New York: Fordham University Press.

Browne, Thomas. 1967. The Prose of Sir Thomas Browne. Edited by Norman J. Endicott. New York: Garden City.

Clody, Michael C. 2011. “Deciphering the Language of Nature: Cryptography, Secrecy, and Alterity in Francis Bacon.” Configurations 19 (1): 117–42. https://doi.org/10.1353/con.2011.0000.

Curtius, Ernst Robert. 2013. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Translated by Willard R. Trask. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Descartes, René. 2001. Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology. Translated by Paul J. Olscamp. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.

Hamann, Johann Georg. 2007. Writings on Philosophy and Language. Translated and edited by Kenneth Haynes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Harrison, Peter. 2006. “The ‘Book of Nature’ and Early Modem Science.” In The Book of Nature in Early Modern and Modern History, edited by Klaas van Berkel and Arjo Vanderjagt, 1–26. Leuven: Peeters.

Hawkes, David, and Richard G. Newhauser, ed. 2013. The Book of Nature and Humanity in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Turnhout: Brepols; Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.

Hooke, Robert. 1665. Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon. London: The Royal Society of London.

Jorink, Eric. 2010. Reading the Book of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age, 1575–1715. Translated by Peter Mason. Leiden: Brill.

Juurikkala, Oskari. 2025. “The Patristic Book of Nature: A Shared Spiritual Resource between East and West.” Teresianum 76 (1): 159–77. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.TER.5.150501.

Michalski, Rafał A. 2024. “Umysł ucieleśniony – haptyczność w filozofii Berkeleya.” Humaniora. Czasopismo Internetowe 4 (48): 101–22. https://doi.org/10.14746/h.2024.4.7.

Nobis, Herbert M. 1971. “Buch der Natur.” In Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, vol. 1, edited by Joachim Ritter and Karlfried Gründer, 957. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.

Palmerino, Carla Rita. 2006. “The Mathematical Characters of Galileo’s Book of Nature.” In The Book of Nature in Early Modern and Modern History, edited by Klaas van Berkel and Arjo Vanderjagt, 27–44. Leuven: Peeters.

Pätzold, Detlev. 2006. “Deus sive Natura. J.G. Herder’s Romanticised Reading of Spinoza’s Physico-Theology.” In The Book of Nature in Early Modern and Modern History, edited by Klaas van Berkel and Arjo Vanderjagt, 155–66. Leuven: Peeters.

Plato. 2008. Timaeus and Critias. Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schiemann, Gregor. 2010. “Die Sprache der Natur – Über das Schicksal einer Metapher und ihre Relevanz in der Umweltdebatte.” In Widerfahrnis und Erkenntnis. Zur Wahrheit menschlicher Erfahrung, edited by Bernhard Marx, 101–19. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt.

Scholem, Gershom. 1996. On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism. Translated by Ralph Manheim. New York: Schocken Books.

Wewiór, Przemysław. 2017. Wstępując w ślady Salomona. Religia i nauka w myśli Francisa Bacona. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK.

Wood, David W. 2006. “A Scientific Bible. Novalis and the Encyclopedistics of Nature.” In The Book of Nature in Early Modern and Modern History, edited by Klaas van Berkel and Arjo Vanderjagt, 167–79. Leuven: Peeters.

Yates, Frances. 1980. The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.