However, another school of Christian thought, propagated by Saint Augustine, held that the contemplation and understanding of God’s creation would bring a renewed sense of wonder at His divine wisdom and omnipotence. Thus, science survived in a limited sense. Under the influence of Christianity, the natural curiosity that had fueled the Greeks turned into a search for physical symbols of the truth and morality of religion. The Medieval obsession with symbolism in the natural world did nearly as much to impede science as it did to advance it.
The occult was hopelessly entangled with the scientific. The Medieval sciences took great interest in the magical and astrological properties of physical objects. Many plants and minerals were said to possess healing properties. Astrology was indistinguishable from astronomy. It was a general belief that human disease could be attributed to the movement of celestial bodies. The earth was flat beneath a domed sky, heaven lay above and hell below. What scientific progress did emerge during the early medieval times was motivated by practical, not theoretical interests.
While Western Europe continued to struggle, science and mathematics were blossoming in the neighboring Arab world. Having conquered the Byzantine Empire, the remnants of the Roman Empire, the Arabs had at their disposal the Greek pool of knowledge. Many important woks survive today only because of the work of Arab scholars, who by the 10th century had painstakingly translated all available works into Arabic.
The most important contributions of the Arabs were not in science but in mathematics. The introduction of a new number system, the concept of the zero and the use of trigonometry would have great implications for science. The additions to the body of science itself made by the Arabs were far less important than the change in outlook they brought to the subject. Their purpose was not to seek what aspects of nature most vividly illustrated the truth of the Scriptures, but to seek what knowledge would give them powers over nature. Their scientific view they adopted was the Aristotelian system, a rigidly structured “theory of everything” that held that all properties of any substance were determined by the ‘nature’ of the substance, the truth or purpose underlying its reality. There existed four elements: air, water, earth and fire, each with its own primary qualities (eg. cold/hot, wet/dry). Aristotelian science was very complete system, but was based on theories drawn from induction, then proven through rigorous philosophical argument, not physical experimentation. Although for the time being adoption of the Aristotelian view permitted science to flourish, it the long run it would prove an impediment.
Alchemy, a development of the Arabic world, sought to prolong the human life and turn base metals into gold (which Aristotle claimed was possible if the basic nature of a substance could be altered). However alchemy had too major shortfalls. First was its secretive nature; the accomplishments of one alchemist were seldom passed down. Second was a focus on qualitative rather than quantitative measurements; the alchemists obtained a large body of knowledge but formed few coherent theories to explain their discoveries.
At this time, little progress had been made in biology. Rudimentary knowledge of anatomy existed, and various attempts were made at assigning the specific functions to the body’s organs. The Aristotelian view of the living world, divided into man, plants and animals would remain in place until the invention of the microscope in the 17th century. The study of physics, which made up the main body of science at the time, was somewhat further advanced. The Greek had concentrated many of their efforts in the study of astronomy, optics and mechanics. Rather clumsy studies of dynamics were also added by medieval scientists.
The pace of European science picked up as the Christian and Arabic worlds came into more frequent contact, largely through the Crusades. Despite the clash between the Christian and Aristotelian views, Aristotle gradually came to be accepted throughout Europe as well. The greatest advance in medieval science came during the late medieval era, around the 13th century, when new ideas concerning the scientific method surfaced. The role of induction and experimentation and the application of mathematical methods to science brought about an overthrow of the Aristotelian view of dynamics and eventually all physics. This first blow to Aristotle, who had remained virtually undisputed for centuries, would gradually crumble the Aristotelian view.
The new marriage of the experimental and the rational, the verification and falsification of theories was an entirely new development in science. Plato and Augustine had held that the senses were deceitful and that only through pure logic could truths be uncovered. However, the revolutionary new ideas in science, hidden amidst the prevailing medieval mindset, would not properly emerge until the Scientific Revolution. Thus, the emerging scientific method remained in its infancy until the end of the medieval era.
The Renaissance (1450 – 1600) began in Italy in the late 14th century and by the mid 15th century had spread throughout Europe. This era of “rebirth” marked a break with the medieval mindset and a return to Classical (Greek/Roman) ideals. Science was at last able to escape the confines of religious symbolism. The Renaissance also ushered in the humanist movement, which believed in the human mind and ability, revolutionizing art and literature as well as science. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), artist, scientist and engineer, personifies the mood of the era. The Renaissance also saw the widespread use of the printing press, the propagation of learning and the shift from Latin to the vernacular, as well as the fragmenting of Christianity through the Protestant Reformation.
The combination of new Renaissance values and late medieval developments to scientific thought brought about an explosion of scientific activity, known as the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution brought about great improvements in the accuracy and precision of measuring instruments, and saw the Aristotelian view discarded in favor of that of Archimedes, a Greek empiricist who the new scientists came to idolize. The most spectacular advancements in science came to the branches of astronomy, optics, statics and dynamics. (Developments in chemistry and biology were to come somewhat later.) Mathematical advances in algebra, infinitesimal calculus and analytical (Cartesian) geometry also contributed to the revolution in physics.
Two major figures spanned the entire revolution – those of Galileo Galilee (1564 – 1642) and Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727). Galileo, born in Pisa, was a supporter of the Copernican (heliocentric) view of the universe. He made many discoveries in the physics of motion, most notably the parabolic path of a falling object and the universal gravitational constant. He designed telescopes that permitted him to make yet unheard of discoveries that supported the Copernican view and rattled the Catholic Church. When Galileo published his controversial evidence which refuted the Aristotelian view and supported Copernicus, the Inquisition (high Catholic court) found him guilty and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Galileo’s discoveries altered the course of science irreversibly.
In 1645, the Royal Society of London was founded, in the interest of uniting scientists whose goal was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation. Never again would scientists be isolated individuals largely unaware of work taking place elsewhere. The Royal Society played a major role in science by forming a central body of knowledge which greatly enhanced scientific advances by keeping the scientific world up to date with current discoveries. In 1703, Isaac Newton was elected to the post of president of the society, which he held until his death.
Isaac Newton was the other great giant of the Scientific Revolution. Newton laid the foundations for calculus and made great advances in the theory of optics. He is often credited with the separation of white light into its constituent colors using a prism. However, the greatest achievement of Newton’s lifetime were the publication of his law of universal gravitation and its implications in physics and astronomy, proving Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. Also, Newton’s laws of motion, which he unified and complied from the works of Galileo, are known to every student today.
The Scientific Revolution marked the permanent indoctrination of the empirical scientific method into the body of science. The modern scientific model, of scientific “facts” which can be toppled and replaced by a more suitable theory was a product of the scientific progress from to time of the revolution up to modern times. New discoveries sometimes affect entire branches of science. For example, the discovery of DNA and the science of genetics have completely transfigured biology. The modern theory of quantum mechanics took the established world of classical physics entirely by surprise. Today it is difficult to imagine a world where scientific thought is not accepted. However, the development of scientific logic has followed a long road to the current day, and science itself has yet many truths to uncover.
References
Crombie, A.C. (1961). Augustine to Galileo. Harvard University Press. 372 pages.
Kreis, Steven. (2001). Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History. [Online]. Available: http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/intellect.html#table
Palmer, R.R., and Colton, Joel. (1995) A History of the Modern World. McGraw-Hill Inc. pages 286-313
Ronan, Colin. (1983). The Cambridge Illustrated History of the World’s Science. Cambridge University Press. 543 pages.
