HLST200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Martin Heidegger, Circular Motion, Zosimos Of Panopolis
2 Jun 2018
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UNIT3Unit 3: Science in the Roman and Islamic Worlds and the Twelfth-Century Revival in Western
Europe
1. evaluate the Roman contribution to the early development of scientific thought.
the Romans were more interested in the practical applications of science and made many innovations in
engineering. The Romans refined and made widespread use of the arch, they made use of concrete as a
building material, and, of course, the Romans were legendary road builders. Roman roads served to
promote centralized control of the Roman Empire and arteries of trade and to move and supply troops.
Rome was very different from the decentralized Greek city states. In natural philosophy, the Romans
created very little that as e, ith to ajo eeptios: Ptole’s ok i astoo ad Gale’s
work in medicine (both are covered in the course materials). There were other important Roman natural
philosophers who, while mentioned in passing in the course material for this unit, do deserve more
attention.
2. discuss the influence of religion on scientific thought during the late Roman Empire and
the rise of Islam.
The messianic and evangelical aspects of the religion pointed people away from the study of nature and
toward the contemplation of God. The greek philosopher were pegans and, therefore , to be rejected,
but they were also part of the extraordinary Roman Empire and closely linked with the intellectual
power and managerial skills, particularly literacy and bookkeeping, that the church needed to survive.
Pliny the Elder died nine years after the Romans besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the famed Temple
during the First Jewish-Roman War. The defeat was a setback for the Jerusalem Church, but it is
important that Hellenistic Jews, who were literate in Greek, carried on the Jesus movement, which
became Christianity. Where science is concerned, Christianity is significant because it was based on
religion rather than being a political movement with religion tagged on. To be a Christian meant
acceptance of an all-powerful creator who would reveal truth to the faithful. This notion clashed with
Greek rationalism and the separation of the natural and the supernatural. The tension still remains. Very
early thinkers, like the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE–50 CE) resolved the
problem in part by claiming that there was a compatible duality or a common ground for Scripture and
Reason. He claimed that there was both a literal and an allegorical meaning to Scripture. If the literal
eaig oflited ith easo, the the tue eaig as the allegoial oe. “holas poit out
that in many ways Philo resembles Plato and the Stoic philosophers. His aim was to use science as a way
to gain insight into spiritual truths rather than as a way to understand nature (Alioto 107–08). The
peiod etee appoiatel the eighth ad the telfth etuies as the Golde Age of Islai
science. As you work through this section of the material, think about why many historians tended to
overlook the contributions of Arabic science. By the twelfth century, Islamic science had begun to ossify
(Cormack points out that finding the reason for this decline has long exercised historians). At about the
same time, Europe was undergoing something of a rebirth, what historians now call the Twelfth-Century
Renaissance. Here Cormack makes a second distinction about this era: that one has to use caution when
efeig to the Dak Ages. Util elatiel eetl, histoias thought that little of significance
happened between the fifth century CE and the Renaissance that spanned the fourteenth to
seventeenth centuries. Just as the decline of Islamic science raises some interesting questions, so too
does the question: why a subsequent revival of science in Europe?
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3. outline Ptolemy’s and Galen’s contribution to the development of science.
The astronomy of Ptolemy and the medical discoveries of Galen were significant conduits for the
transmission of Greek philosopher to scholar after the fall of Rome
4. identify the most important scholars in the Islamic world and discuss their influence on
natural philosophy.
Islamic scholarship fisrt translating and interpreting the philosophies of the Greco roman world then
establishing a very high level of competence in research and critical analysis.Yet until recently, western
historians of science have regarded Islamic natural philosophers as little more than imitators of greek
work and a conduit throught which it passed to European scholars. Most recent scholarship awards
Islamic thinkers a far greater role in shaping the work of later natural philosophers,. Islamic scholars did
not accept greek thought unchallenged and added not only their critical thinking to the body of material
available but also their own original research. They werevalso far more willing to test ideas than the
aristolian or platonic philosophers had been and although this should not be confused with
experimentalism( which uses a different philosophic conception of certainty), it became an acceptable
tool for natural philosophy because of its use by these scholars.
5. discuss the reasons for the twelfth-century renaissance in science in Europe.
By the twelfth century, Islamic science had begun to ossify (Cormack points out that finding the reason
for this decline has long exercised historians). At about the same time, Europe was undergoing
something of a rebirth, what historians now call the Twelfth-Century Renaissance. Here Cormack makes
a second distinction about this era: that oe has to use autio he efeig to the Dak Ages. Util
relatively recently, historians thought that little of significance happened between the fifth century CE
and the Renaissance that spanned the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. Just as the decline of Islamic
science raises some interesting questions, so too does the question: why a subsequent revival of science
in Europe? Cormack and her students present a number of significant factors to help explain the twelfth-
century renaissance in Western Europe. One was the impact of the crusades, particularly those of 1095–
99, 1147–49, and 1189–92, when, in many ways, Europe re-established contact with a wider world. The
crusaders also brought a number of things back to Europe and it is reasonable to assume that Islamic
manuscripts and possibly tools were part of the booty. Improvements in agriculture, most notably the
horse collar, the heavy plough, and crop rotation, led to economic prosperity and social advancement.
Labour was freed for other skills, such as production of goods and trade. Europeans began building on a
fairly major scale, which required technological and scientific knowledge. In addition, city states such as
Florence, Milan, and Venice prospered as centres of trade and commerce. Trade monopolies, especially
the Hanseatic League in Northern Europe, brought prosperity to a new merchant class and to the areas
they controlled. By the beginning of the twelfth century, European growth and prosperity that was
reflected in population growth. In 800, for example, there were about 29 million people in Europe. Two
hundred years later, in 1000, it had grown to only 36 million, about 12 per cent per century, but in the
next one hundred years population increased to 44 million. By 1200 there were 58 million people in
Europe, a 30 per cent increase in one century, and by 1300, the population had increased another 36
per cent to 79 million (Bentley and Ziegler 525). The Black Death in 1347 reduced the population
drastically, but the demographic data from the twelfth century certainly suggests increasing prosperity.
Although this prosperity was not shared equally across European society, it is nonetheless evident that
the growing overall prosperity, combined with the increased population and urbanization, led to more
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active trading networks, the growth of craft and trade guilds, and greater public interaction. Each of
these developments tended to support new developments in science and, in turn, science provided both
functional and abstract answers and solutions to new questions being raised about the world and the
plae of Euope ithi it. Euope’s fist uiesities ee estalished at this tie, at Pais i the id-
twelfth century, at Bologna in 1158[2], Oxford in 1167, and a number of other places in the first half of
the thirteenth century. As Ede and Cormack point out, the universities soon became the sites and
centres of intellectual inquiry and debate in Europe (85).
6. identify the prominent thinkers in the revival of natural philosophy in Western Europe
and explain their impact on scientific thought.
Ptole’s ok i astoo ad Gale’s ok i ediie oth ae oeed i the ouse ateials.
There were other important Roman natural philosophers who, while mentioned in passing in the course
material for this unit, do deserve more attention. One was Posidonius, a Stoic who lived from 135 BCE to
51 BCE.[1] Posidonius was born in northern Syria, educated in Athens and later settled in Rhodes. He
was politically active and served in various capacities, including a term as one of the Prytaneis (a political
eeutie of Rhodes ad as Rhodes’s Aassado to Roe. He taelled idel giig sholal
lectures, which earned him considerable fame. He also wrote on a wide range of topics, including
astronomy, astrology, geology, geography, mathematics, meteorology, and physics. He made some
interesting speculations about the ocean tides and he produced some reasonably accurate estimates of
the circumference of the Earth. He contributed an estimated fifty-two volumes as an addition to The
Histories project that Polybius authored (Athenaeus Book IV). He also wrote about Aristotle and wrote a
e ifluetial oeta o Plato’s Tiaeus. Aodig to Atho Alioto, Posidoius
Another influential figure was Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus). Born in Como (Italy) in CE 23 he
was educated in Rome. When he was twenty-one, he began military service, ostensibly as preliminary
training for political office. But Pliny liked the military and fought in a number of campaigns. He served
with the cavalry and later with the navy. He died in CE 79, apparently after inhaling poisonous gases
while watching the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Although Pliny is credited with writing as many as
seventy-five books on subjects ranging from cavalry tactics, grammar and rhetoric, and history, the only
surviving work is his thirty-seven volume Naturalis Historia (Natural History), which he completed in CE
77. The Naturalis is probably the finest example of the encyclopaedist tradition during Roman times.
Pliny the Elder estimated that he dealt with about twenty thousand topics drawn from two thousand or
so sources and close to five hundred authorities (Alioto 99). His goal was to gather together as much as
was known about the natural world as was possible. Naturalis does indeed cover a vast array of topics,
and Pliny did record some very strange stories.
One of the most important figures in the early period was Augustine of Hippo, better known as St.
Augustine. Born in 354 CE in what is present day Algeria, he was educated in North Africa. He initially
followed Manichaeism, one of the Gnostic religions. He subsequently taught at Carthage, Rome, and
Milan. It was at Milan that he converted to Christianity and decided to devote himself entirely to God.
Hoee, he did estle ith the idea of hastit: [God] gie e hastit ad otiee, ut ot just
o Cofessios, Book VIII . He eae a Chistia i ad i he as odaied as a piest. I
396 he became coadjutor Bishop of Hippo (Annaba, Algeria). He died in 430 just as the Vandals began to
lay siege to Hippo during the final decades of the Western Roman Empire. Russell claimed that he did
ot agee ith Augustie’s theo of tie eause Augustie thought tie as a etal construct, he
eetheless oted: But it is leal a e ale theo, deseig to e seiousl osideed. I should go
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Document Summary
Unit3unit 3: science in the roman and islamic worlds and the twelfth-century revival in western. Europe evaluate the roman contribution to the early development of scientific thought. the romans were more interested in the practical applications of science and made many innovations in engineering. In natural philosophy, the romans created very little that (cid:449)as (cid:374)e(cid:449), (cid:449)ith t(cid:449)o (cid:373)ajo(cid:396) e(cid:454)(cid:272)eptio(cid:374)s: ptole(cid:373)(cid:455)"s (cid:449)o(cid:396)k i(cid:374) ast(cid:396)o(cid:374)o(cid:373)(cid:455) a(cid:374)d gale(cid:374)"s work in medicine (both are covered in the course materials). The messianic and evangelical aspects of the religion pointed people away from the study of nature and toward the contemplation of god. Pliny the elder died nine years after the romans besieged jerusalem and destroyed the famed temple during the first jewish-roman war. The defeat was a setback for the jerusalem church, but it is important that hellenistic jews, who were literate in greek, carried on the jesus movement, which became christianity.
