History 2403E Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Intellectual Capital, A Reminder, Day Labor
2 May 2018
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Week 1 lecture:
Europe c.1500: An Overview & Concepts of Space
“Building block lectures”
Depended where you were born, class, family-relations
Intellectual and demographic trends
Age of marriage and lifespan
Ideas of Space
1. Universe
In terms of organization, construction and their place within in when thinking of themselves
How did early modern Europeans think of their Universe?
Ancient model of organization passed down from the roman world until the 16thC.
2. Distance
Travel, movement
A broader worldview
Concepts of Space: The Ptolemaic Universe
- Ptolemy (c.90-c.168)
o A worldview
o Famous geographer and astronomer of the Roman world
o A Greek thinker and scholar, living in Alexandria Egypt
▪ The intellectual capital of the Roman world
o A series of nested spheres
▪ Put the earth in the middle
▪ Earth is the domain of the four basic elements of the universe
• Earth, Wind, Air and Fire
• Have a number of four characteristics and qualities
o All constantly in flux, moving, changing and mixing
together
▪ Earth must be at the center because of the heavy, dense elements
▪ When things move on earth, they tend to move in a line
• Moving in a linear function
- “Crystaline Spheres”
o labelled by Victorian thinkers
o wooden Russian dolls metaphor (smaller within little ones)
- Aristotle
o Ptolemy’s thinking based on his understanding Aristotle’s astronomy and how
Aristotle described the universe
o A: heathier things fell while lighter things tend to rise
▪ Ex. Fire: wood, fire and smoke
▪ This forms the heart of Ptolemy’s view of the entire universe
- Aether
o Mysterious 5th element
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Was different in its fundamental characteristics that made up the other 4 basic
elements
o Spiritual, changeless, perfect, ethereal element
o The heavens and everything in it was made out of this element
▪ The heavens were perfect, pure
▪ Absolutely fixed where it is
• Ethereal spheres of aether where the heavenly bodies are
situations: sun, moon, stars
o Ex. The moon is a more solid, condensed ball of aether
▪ Perfectly spheral
o Motions in the heaven was circular
▪ Everything is spinning: moon, planets, sun and rings of stars
• Moving consistently and constantly
• Always going to be in the exact same spot no matter how many
times I spin it
o Pre-Christian era
- Must be a prime mover who constructed this whole system:
o Earth: most material
o Outer rings: less material
o World of perfect spirit
This view is shared into the Medieval period and into the Modern era
A rigid, hierarchal structure
Earth: a material flexible world leading outwards towards a perfect spiritual world
Consequences of Ptolemaic view:
Social world
- Natural world, the world of living things
- Medieval Europeans: The great chain of being
o Organized all existing things into a strict hierarchy
▪ God
▪ Angels (even have a mini-hierarchy/categories with different functions)
▪ People
▪ Animals
▪ Plants
- If your universe is organized in a rigid, structure, hierarchal way, you will extrapolate
that society must also reflect that.
o Natural organization also applies towards your social world
▪ God
▪ Monarchy/Popes
• The popes
• Challenged in this structure by the kings
▪ Aristocracy/Nobles
• All monarchs are nobles but not all nobles are monarchs
▪ Common people
- Where in the chain you fit determines what you could and couldn’t do
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Europe c. 1500: an overview & concepts of space. In terms of organization, construction and their place within in when thinking of themselves. Ancient model of organization passed down from the roman world until the 16thc: distance. Crystaline spheres labelled by victorian thinkers: wooden russian dolls metaphor (smaller within little ones) Aristotle: ptolemy"s thinking based on his understanding aristotle"s astronomy and how. Aristotle described the universe: a: heathier things fell while lighter things tend to rise, ex. Fire: wood, fire and smoke: this forms the heart of ptolemy"s view of the entire universe. Must be a prime mover who constructed this whole system: earth: most material, outer rings: less material, world of perfect spirit. This view is shared into the medieval period and into the modern era. Earth: a material flexible world leading outwards towards a perfect spiritual world. Natural world, the world of living things.
