Lecture

1. Medieval Era STS
Science Technology Information Technology (Polytechnic University of the Philippines)
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Medieval Era STS
Science Technology Information Technology (Polytechnic University of the Philippines)
Scan to open on Studocu
Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university
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2. “SCIENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL AGE”
Middle Ages was a long period of history from 500AD to 1500AD. 1000 years in existence. It
covers the time from the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The Dark Ages
is usually referring only to the first half of the middle Ages.
Poverty and ignorance replaced the great engineering works and relative peace of the Roman
society. This makes it centered to a war-torn and barbaric Europe and the role of the church in
slowing down the development.
The Middle Ages is further subdivided into: Early Medieval Society, Middle Ages, High Middle
Ages, and Late Middle Ages.
Early Medieval Society – The Dark Ages after the Collapse of Rome
This is regarded as the true dark ages where barbarism and ignorance prevail. However, this
period still possessed scientific and technological advances in the aspect of literature, astronomy,
arts, scientific method, medicine, mathematics and geometry and government.
In the aspect of literature, monks as of this period produced beautiful, vibrant and illuminated
manuscripts. In England for example, is the Venerable Bede which recorded the Saxon Era during a
time of raids from the fierce Northmen, bringing terror with dragon boats. This English also created a
fine book using astronomical observations to calculate the start of Easter.
In terms of arts, the Vikings and the Saxons were capable of exquisite metalwork and
metallurgy, with fine swords, and beautiful jewelry.
More of astronomy, Norse sailors were master navigators and while lacking compasses, they
used stars and a few instruments to navigate the trackless ocean to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland.
The idea of Parliament or congress was also built upon the Norse Model which was adapted
by UK, US, and Scandinavia.
This is also the time wherein the scientific method starts to flourish. This will be further explain
later on.
The monks of Western Europe also studied medicine to take care of the sick.
Also their astronomy kept alive mathematics and geometry.
Although these methods of concepts cannot equalize that of the Roman and the Greeks.
These were still a good start for the people of the middle ages.
The Middle Ages – Charlemagne, Science, and Learning
The early developments in the middle ages were strengthened with the trial to systemize
education. Rulers and church leaders realized that education was the key to maintaining unity and
peace. This period was known as the Carolingian Renaissance, a time when Charles the Great, often
known as Charlemagne, tried to reestablish knowledge as a cornerstone of medieval society.
Known for being the Golden Hero of the Church, he instigated a revival in art, culture, and
learning, using the Catholic Church to transmit knowledge and education. He ordered the translation
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3. of many Latin texts and promoted astronomy, a field that he loved to study, despite his inability to
read.
In England, In England, a monk named Alcuin of York instigated a system of education in art
and theology, and also in arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. Like the Carolingians, he began
promoting the establishment of schools, usually attached to monasteries or noble courts.
The developments stopped again when Charlemagne died as well as his empire. People go
back again to barbarian way of life. However, some learning centers are still functioning getting ready
for the First European Renaissance.
The High Middle Ages – The Rebirth of Science and Scholasticism
This is the period where Western Europe slowing begin to crawl out of the endless downfall
because population grew bigger and Christian identity gave some unity of purpose from different
places in the continent.
Trade and sharing of knowledge also boosted. This is where the Muslims translated the many
of the Greek texts into Arabic and many participated to translate the books from Arabic into Latin.
This provided a conduit for the knowledge of the Greeks to pass into Europe, where the schools set
up by Charlemagne were now blossoming into universities. By the 12th Century, centers of learning,
known as the Studium Generale, sprang up across Western Europe, drawing scholars from far afield
and mixing the knowledge of the Ancient Greeks with the new discoveries of the great Muslim
philosophers and scientists. This blend of ideas formed the basis of Christian scholasticism and,
whilst much of the scholastic school of thought turned towards theology, it also began to integrate
scientific empiricism with religion.
This period may not have seen the great technological advances of the Greeks, Romans,
Chinese, Persians, or Muslims, but the contribution of great thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas,
Grosseteste, Francis Bacon, and William of Ockham to the creation of the Scientific Method cannot
be underestimated.
St. Thomas Aquinas and the Scholasticism
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and
Doctor of the Church. He was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the
tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor
Communis.
He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology at the the peak of Scholasticism in
Europe, and the founder of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology.
Aquinas has three major theological works:
1. The commentary on the Sentences
2. The Summa Contra Gentiles
3. The Summa Theologica
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4. Robert Grosseteste and the Scientific Method
Grosseteste (1175 – 9 October 1253) was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher,
theologian, scientist and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of humble parents at Stradbroke in Suffolk.
Upon his death, he was almost universally revered as a saint in England, but attempts to procure a
formal canonization failed. A. C. Crombie calls him "the real founder of the tradition of scientific
thought in medieval Oxford, and in some ways, of the modern English intellectual tradition".
He was heavily influenced by Augustine, but he was also one of the first to make extensive use
of the thought of Aristotle, Avicenna and Averroes. Grosseteste's numerous short scientific works
made no significant contribution to scientific theory. The remarks above should not blind us to the fact
that Grosseteste was deeply concerned with the detailed investigation of natural phenomena.
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon was born with a silver spoon in his mouth but despite that was quite intelligent.
He was first a lawyer then a Member of Parliament (congressman) before further promotions and
advancements. (Some say he was self-interested and inclined to be oppressive or corrupt - however
see Contemporary Notes on Bacon)
During the reign of King James I, Bacon was made Attorney General and eventually became
Lord Chancellor FB01 (in charge of the law courts and the appointment of judiciary). During this time
he was writing essays on philosophy, history and also his thoughts on science. However, something
clearly went wrong with his standing in the Royal Court or perhaps in his relations with other
politicians, for he was charged with accepting a bribe (in those days everybody in authority took
bribes - they just didn't get prosecuted; how times change), found guilty, fined a huge sum of £40,000
(which may have been the reason for the charge) and banished from office.
In addition to his historical and philosophical writings he also developed (even during the
pressure of controversy and prosecution), his classification of sciences. In `Novum Organum' (1620 -
the year before his banishment) he urged a revolution in teaching and and the use of the `scientific
method' of induction or checking by experiment.
This `new method' was opposed to the `deductive' methods of classicists, who would construct
purely theoretical (and fanciful) "Laws" from presumed axioms - without ever dirtying their hands
FB03 by actually checking anything. It was also possibly in opposition to arrogant rules of the Church
- still dangerous and still torturing and burning people at the stake. So Bacon, in advance, had to
carefully say that he excluded religion from all of his conclusions. I.e. - if you check his `method'
FB05, you'll find he requires the abandonment of dogma before scientific thought.
The Late Middle Ages – Scholasticism and the Scientific Method
The Late Middle Ages, from 1300 until 1500, saw progress speed up, as thinkers continued the
work of scholasticism, adding to the philosophy underpinning science, Late Middle Age made
sophisticated observations and theories that were sadly superseded by the work of later
scientists.William of Ockham, in the 14th century, proposed his idea of parsimony and the famous
Ockam's Razor, still used by scientists to find answers from amongst conflicting explanations. Jean
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5. Buridan challenged Aristotelian physics and developed the idea of impetus, a concept that predated
Newtonian physics and inertia.
Thomas Bradwardine investigated physics, and his sophisticated study of kinematics and
velocity predated Galileo's work on falling objects. Oresme proposed a compelling theory about a
heliocentric, rather than geocentric, universe, two centuries before Copernicus, and he proposed that
light and color were related, long before Hooke.
Finally, many of the scholastic philosophers sought to remove divine intervention from the
process of explaining natural phenomena, believing that scholars should look for a simpler, natural
cause, rather than stating that it must be the work of divine providence
The Black Death
Black Death is also known as the Great Plague, the Black Plague, or the Plague, was one of
the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200
million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351.
The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which results in several forms of plague, is believed to have
been the cause. The plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had
profound effects on the course of European history.
Development of Mathematics and Physics
Greatest Benefits:
• Euclidian theoretical explanation of the scientific problems; and its use for the questioning of
the truthfulness of the scientific theories.
• Introduction of the Arabic numerals
• development of the Gothic architecture
Nicholas Kues
He is a 15th Century German philosopher and theologian, a papal legate to the Holy Roman
Empire of the German Nation, a cardinal and a prince-bishop of Brixen, and a vicar general in the
Papal States. His works are De Docta Ignorantia, De Visione Dei, and De Conjecture. He talked of
the possibility of knowing God only with the help of the divine human mind, and not just with the mere
human means, which he called “learned ignorance.”
He claimed that the Earth was a star like the other stars, that it was not the center of the
Universe. In medicine he had introduced the counting of pulse, through the comparison of the rate of
pulses and the weighing of the quantity of water.
MEDIEVAL SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION: MYTH OR REALITY?
Reminders:
• We must be careful not to label the entire medieval period as the Dark Ages.
It is because…
In this Middle Age, they saw the growth of empiricism and the scientific method.
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6. • Medieval society saw Christian philosophers make reasoned argument showing that there
should be no conflict between the Church and scientific discovery, and many of their theories
formed the nucleus of later discoveries.
• The Middle Ages saw the growth of the first universities, development of the scientific method,
developed their own ideas and theories, many of which underpin modern scientific techniques.
TECHNOLOGY IN MIDDLE AGES
1. Mechanical Clock
 Timekeeping devices have emerged since the ancient world, but it was not until the
Middle Ages that the technology was invented that allowed for mechanical clocks to
accurately keep track of time. The knowledge of not only what time minute and second
it was, would change the way people scheduled their days and work patterns, especially
in urban areas.
2. Printing Press
 While printing technology had been developed in 11th century in China, it was 15th
century (Renaissance), German Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press that started
a new era of the mass production of books. Until the rise of computers in the 20th
century, books and the printed word would remain the dominant form of media for the
world’s knowledge.
3. Gunpowder
 Gunpowder was invented in China sometime between the 9th
and 11th
centuries, and it
did not take long it to be used in weapons. As the Mongols spread its knowledge
throughout Eurasia in the 13th
century, it would revolutionize warfare and make previous
military technology obsolete.
4. Wind and Water Mills
 While mills were in used from antiquity, it would be in the Early Middle Ages that they
became very popular. Throughout the medieval period, new and ingenious forms of
mills were invented, which allowed people to harness the energy from natural forces like
rivers and wind, a process that continues to the present-day.
5. Caruca or the Heavy Plough
 commonly found in Northern Europe
 This type of plough eliminated the need for cross-plowing by turning over the furrow
instead of merely pushing it forward.
 The introduction of wheels to replace the runner allowed the weight of the plough to
increase, and in turn allowed the use of much larger moldboard that was faced with
metal. And these heavy ploughs led to greater food production.
6. Hourglass
 Timekeeping devices have emerged since the ancient world, but it was not until the
Middle Ages that the technology was invented that allowed for mechanical clocks to
accurately keep track of time. The knowledge of not only what time minute and second
it was, would change the way people scheduled their days and work patterns, especially
in urban areas.
 Temperance (1328) Ambrogio Lorenzetti
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7. 7. Distillation
 The first evidence of true distillation comes from Babylonia and dates from the fourth
millennium BC. And there are two types of distillation process that were done before
Middle Ages – freeze distillation or Mongolian still and alembic still.
8. Blast Furnace
 A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial
metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. Blast refers to the
combustion of air being “forced” or supplied above atmospheric pressure.
9. Spinning Wheel
 The spinning wheel was probably invented in India, though its origins are obscure. It
reached Europe via the Middle East in the Middle Ages. It replaced the earlier method
of hand spinning, in which the individual fibres were drawn out of a mass of wool held
on a stick, or distaff, twisted together to form a continuous strand, and wound on a
second stick, or spindle.
THE MIDDLE AGES: ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY
In Medieval Europe, rural life was governed by a system called “feudalism”. In a feudal society,
the king granted large pieces of land called fiefs to noblemen and bishops. Landless peasants known
as serfs did most of the work on the fiefs: They planted and harvested crops and gave most of the
products to the landowner. In exchange for their labor, they were allowed to live on the land. They
were also promised protection in case of enemy invasion.
During the 11th
century, however, feudal life began to change. Agricultural innovations such as
the heavy plough and three-field crop rotation made farming more efficient and productive, so fewer
farm workers were needed – but thanks to the expanded and improved food supply, the population
grew. As a result, more and more people were drawn to towns and cities. Meanwhile, the Crusades
had expanded trade routes to the East and given Europeans a taste for imported goods such as wine,
olive oil, and luxurious textiles. As the commercial economy developed, city ports thrived. By 1300,
some cities in Europe had a population of more than 50, 000.
In these cities, a new era was born; the Renaissance. It was a time of great intellectual and
economic change, but it was not a complete “rebirth”; it had its roots in the Middle Ages.
GROUP 1
BSA 1-1
Abueg, Rose Ann
Apulog, Airah Mae
Edora, Christine
Germono, Zillah
Giron, Zyrille Corinne
Lacson, Pauline Ella
Layug, Darina Clazelle
Reyes Jr., Arnel
Vergara, Queen Ernna
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