Chapter 9.

Science of the Middle Ages

9.1. Revival of Learning in Medieval Europe

• Cathedral schools beginning in 12th century
• Universities from 13th century on
  • Paris: faculty run; ultimately surviving type
  • Bologna: student run, law school, older students administer
• Scholastic method
  • Discusses pros and cons of "questiones"
  • Emphasized authority, revelation, and logic (somewhat) as "paths to knowledge"
  • Used commentaries heavily
• Theology is dominant topic of learning
  • Greek and Islamic natural philosophy serve theology; therefore, worthy of study
  • Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) reconciled Aristotelian philosophy to Christian theology

9.2. Sources of Knowledge of Natural Philosophy 11th Through 17th Centuries

• Four kinds
  • Revelation: Scriptures of Judeo-Christian tradition
  • Authority: Christian fathers, Aristotle
  • Reason: logic and "Art of Disputation" as drawn heavily from Greek tradition of logic
  • Experience: including experimentation, such as it was in early part of period
• Trends in reliance on sources of scientific knowledge
  • Early medieval period (ca. 11th & 12th centuries)
    • Emphasized revelation and authority
    • Reason a distant third
    • Experience unimportant in general
  • High medieval period (ca. 13th & 14th centuries)
    • Emphasized revelation, authority, and reason, as demonstrated by scholastic treatises on motion
  • Late medieval-early modern period (ca. 14th - 16th centuries)
    • Growing emphasis on reason and experience
  • Dawn of modern period (ca. 16th & 17th centuries)
    • Experience (experiment) regarded as best source of knowledge
    • Aided by reason, especially mathematical reasoning
    • Beginning of tradition of "experimental method"
• Factors in Rise of Modern Science
  • Philosophic framework changes
    • Aristotelian philosophy (physics) declines
    • "New" philosophical concepts arise: matter (atomism), form (space and time), and motion
    • Concept of "cause and effect"
  • Use of mathematics in physics (Galileo); new forms of mathematics, not just geometry
  • Discussion of methods of scientific inquiry
  • Use of experiments in optics, magnetism, etc.
  • Progress in mechanics: move from describing motion (kinematics) to causes of motion (dynamics); instantaneous velocity, impetus theory, "natural state" of motion, etc.