Edwin Arthur Burtt

Edwin Arthur Burtt worked across the history of science, philosophy of religion, and comparative thought. He joined Cornell University's faculty in 1932, became Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy in 1941, and retired in 1960. The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science refers to the study published in full as The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, a historical and critical examination of assumptions underlying early modern scientific thought. Routledge traces the work to 1924 and organizes it around Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Boyle, and Newton. Cornell's archival biography records Burtt's long association with the university and his broader interest in religion and philosophy. The book began in his doctoral research and remained his most influential contribution, asking readers to examine the metaphysical commitments that can sit beneath apparently neutral descriptions of nature.