Art that reveals Nature: A Thomistic Account of Scientific Experiments and Instruments - Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P.

Fr. Thomas Davenport argues against the Thomist intuition that artifice obscures nature, showing from Aquinas's account of art and artifacts that artificial forms are accidental forms rooted in the natural active and passive powers of substances, so that scientific instruments and experiments reveal rather than distort the natures they investigate.

This lecture was given on July 18th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speaker:

Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P., is professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he teaches philosophy of nature and epistemology. He has written and spoken on the relationship of faith and science in a variety of venues, including being a main contributor to the Thomistic Evolution project. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2017 and is working on his second PhD in philosophy.

Keywords: Active and Passive Powers, Anjan Chakravarthy, Aquinas, Artificial Form, Assisting Cause, Causal Properties, Nancy Cartwright, Nomological Machine, Scientific Instruments, Semi-Realism