Reddit reviews The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science

empiricism implies that we cannot trust our brains. it eventually leads to reductionism (IMO) which implies everything can be (objectively) be boiled down to numbers as a final truth. its a very toxic and very new idea. when numbers become truth it has no other option but to turn society away from God (an atheist society is weak and foundationless) if you are really interested more about my viewpoints on this heres some reading that explains some of it better than i ever could:

https://www.amazon.com/Metaphysical-Foundations-Modern-Science/dp/0486425517


https://www.amazon.com/Technological-Society-Jacques-Ellul/dp/0394703901

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Superstition-Refutation-New-Atheism/dp/1587314525

https://www.amazon.com/Libido-Dominandi-Liberation-Political-Control/dp/1587314657 (this one is slightly less relevant but does go into how often empirical science's end goal is looking at humans as machines and how that is dehumanizing and controlling)

https://www.amazon.com/Revolt-Against-Modern-World-Julius/dp/089281506X

https://www.amazon.com/Technological-Slavery-Collected-Kaczynski-k/dp/1932595805/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=11DZHECERPHPBMFXWJKR

History of science is indeed interesting. I have a little book on the history of modern chemistry that I hope to get to in the near future.

Have you read the Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science by E. A Burtt? It's a game changer. Burtt, to my knowledge, was neither a Thomist nor a Theist, so you don't have to worry about his bias.

There's more to reading ancient philosophy than looking for prototypes and origins of modern scientific ideas. Philosophy is prior to science. Scientific theories presuppose philosophical theories. Here is one way that natural philosophy is prior to modern physics.

Natural philosophy considers motion as such, at its most universal level. What is common to all types of motion. Modern science looks at one aspect of motion (quantitative) and creates mathematical models of specific types of motion (inertial, gravitational, Brownian).

We must first know that motion exists, and have a general understanding of what it is and how it is possible before we can proceed to look at quantitative aspects of motion, usually considered under experimental conditions.

As for the early Middle Ages, have you read Pierre Duhem's history of physics? His continuity thesis is provocative, but he definitely provides a comprehensive survey.