We now conclude our inquiries into human nature, need of society and needs of science as a way to navigate through the complexities of both to figure out truth. And begin on some history of science as it begins in Europe. Why Europe? A very interesting question! Hopefully we will get some insight in the following sessions.
Few questions come to one’s mind: What led to science as we know it? What was the situation around, the society, the social dynamics and drama that asked some people to venture as ask peculiar questions? Why was science not developed before, why that range of centuries?
So one must ask what is science or scientific knowledge? Not the textbook definition, which most members easily blurted out, but its a question of the highest quality, question of wonder! However, not enough time or space or readiness for the wonder zone. So, for practical reasons, i must force a rather narrow and incomplete perspective on the helpless souls that populate the class:
Dull, dry and totally killing any wonder one might be wandering towards. But hey, practical requirement i guess. Also I say helpless because they were not given a just time & space to develop their own take on what is science. And there was no revolt, sadly to this mention. Maybe no one saw how bold, or limited or narrow the above viewpoint could be.
Anyhow, since we now ‘know’ what we mean by scientific knowledge, we must also question a little our own authority, participation, stake or presence in the line of inquiry towards a history of science. We, the 10.5 students of this subject (remaining 0.5 is the instructor), must debate and wonder, that isn’t what we do is believe in something, either from a ‘traditional’ source or from scientific sources? Why do we argue that the latter is more reliable, if all we are doing is ultimately believing. Does this not go counter to the scientific spirit of “find first-hand information”? Again a short debate to stir up the already muddy waters… This question never ceases to put everyone in a spot (metaphoric devil’s laugh).
So now that the stage is set, with enough confusion around …
Brief history of modern science
As a preparation, I was searching for a nice essay that could sum up all. Wonderful pages, nice blogs, etc – there are plenty. For example,
- A fantastic resource from a certain Prof. Robert A. Hatch here . One should definitely read it to understand the background of science. This prof’s website has many pages, a treasure trove of info, among with is a slightly concise chronology of scientific developments – which again is fabulous. A small excerpt: “The learned view of things in 16th-century thought was that the world was composed of Four Qualities (Aristotle’s Earth, Water, Air, Fire). By contrast, Newton’s learned contemporaries believed that the world was made of atoms or corpuscles (small material bodies). By Newton’s day most of learned Europe believed the earth moved, that there was no such thing as demonic possession, that claims to knowledge (so the story goes) should be based on the authority of our individual experience, that is, on argument and sensory evidence. The motto of the Royal Society of London was: Nullius in Verba, roughly, Accept nothing on the basis of words (or someone else’s authority).” Fantastic.
- Medieval science and mathematics – Taylor McCall – A fantastic article that describes the times and needs of the populace and education systems in the middle ages. The story is, that after the 6th century, most of the previous ways of thought and knowledge that had a secular but investigative edge into workings of nature died down with the classical languages like Greek. Then only those pieces of knowledge (origin of word science) were of use that were of utility in architecture, placing of religious dates with astronomical observations, and so on.
- Another article is by one Volker Hoffknecht here – Science and Technology in the Middle Ages – Although i could not find where this has been published, either as a paper or as a chapter in a book. The content is exactly what i was looking for the class- a longish essay, with good number of details, some analysis and covering the topic of science in the middle ages.
Since i would be a huge cheat if i read a couple of essays a day before and went to the session as an instructor claiming i knew stuff, i proposed a game as an alternative. So i took up the last essay above, tore it up in sections. Then these pieces of paper were mixed up as chits and the students were asked to pick one each, read and put them back in order as a jig-saw puzzle. Talking, and discussing were encouraged. I hoped in this way, they will do the necessary reading, collaborate with each other and make a concise story – effectively doing what i would have done anyways. This did pass on well and the original was recreated. Some contribution to this was also due to the instructor being a novice in such a game formation – cutting the papers in recognizable ways, forgetting to tear off line numbers/page, keeping section headings with the torn pieces and so on – not very intelligent!
So here’s the gist:
- With degradation of the Greko-Roman empire, all important thought literature within Europe is lost as Greek looses its popularity and is replaced by Latin as the language of learning.
- However, early Greek works that were exported out to other lands through Arabian traders and so on survive, outside of Europe.
- After a few centuries gap, these early works find their way back into the main centers of learning in the Europe where they are translated into Latin.
- However, the applications of these works are mostly in architecture and building of Church-related buildings, mathematics is used to compute religious dates and so on – all for religious purposes.
That’s it, of course this is explained and elaborated very well in the essay.
And so, after all the tearing up and joining back story, we discussed and analysed the essay. Due to lack of time, not many questions were asked by either the instructor or the students. I wonder what kind of questions/thoughts one could ask with this limited reading? Here’s some from my lil’ brain:
- Why did Greek drop in popularity and Latin came up? could be an interesting story.
- Its very interesting how just in a couple of centuries significant learnings of previous generations can be lost due to disuse. Was there any intention by the church to do so? Or could it be natural?
- I could as-well be analogous to the lack of science in India? Sanskrit being the language of the learning and that not being popular must have kept so many potential thinkers and wondering souls in dark.
- The way architects used ancient Greek techniques for construction of buildings in Medieval Europe could be akin to the way Indian engineers are trained to think and use knowledge – use these formula to get past the post, the post being an exam or a building, with no pause for thinking why, where, how. Too far-fetched?