HISTORY 104B History of Medieval Science

Michael Epperson Fall 2016 Email: [email protected] Telephone: 278-5135 Web: www.csus.edu/cpns/epperson Office: Tahoe 3057

Description

This course explores the medieval evolution of the key conceptual frameworks underlying ancient Greek natural philosophy (what we call ‘science’ today). In particular, we will examine the ways in which this evolution was initially propelled via the translations from Greco-Islamic natural philosophy, the integration of this philosophy with Christian Latin civilization in Western Europe, and the refinement of this integration via the invention of the university in 1088. Central to our investigation will be the specific ways in which this medieval evolution of natural philosophy was foundational to the scientific revolution that followed it—i.e., the often overlooked evolution of ancient and medieval ideas within this revolution.

Intended audience: This course is open to all students. No prerequisites or specialized knowledge is required. For history majors, this course will count towards a European history elective. Other majors, contact your department chair.

Outcomes

• an understanding of the history of science and technology and the evolution of the conceptual foundations of modern science from its early roots in Greco-Islamic natural philosophy and intellectual culture.

• an understanding of the most important sources for the study of medieval science and technology.

• an understanding of foundational scientific questions that remain unsettled today, the historical roots of these questions, and the historical evolution of scientific thought aimed at their answer.

• the ability to understand the ways in which history has informed, and continues to inform, the evolution of scientific progress from the ancient and medieval periods to the present day.

• the ability to apply historical knowlege of the origins and evolution of modern science, gained via the above 4 areas of understanding, to a critical evaluation of contemporary scientific claims.

• the ability to critically evaluate and employ literary and material evidence in studying the history of science and its evolution from ancient and medieval conceptions of nature and mathematics.

Requirements

Our work will primarily be lecture and discussion, so both careful attention to the readings and class participation will be crucial for a lively course. Always bring your texts to class.

EXAMINATIONS AND PAPERS

There will be two examinations--one take-home mid-term and one final. There will be one 6-8 page paper. All due dates are given in the reading and lecture schedule below. CSUS – HIST 196B: History of Medieval Science – Epperson 2.

ATTENDANCE

It is impossible to succeed in this course if you miss the lectures. To encourage attendance, students are permitted only 2 unexcused absences.

Note: Anyone who misses 2 lectures in the first 2 weeks of class will be administratively dropped to make room for serious students who are attempting to add.

Texts and Materials

 Edward Grant. The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Average cost new: $20, used $9

 Readings downloaded from course website / SacCT (Designated as ‘D’ in reading schedule.)

Grading

Class participation: 15% 3 or more unexcused absences results in 0%. Paper: 25% No late work is accepted. Mid-term exam: 25% Final exam: 35%

A-level work: All students begin this course with an A. In order to maintain it, all written work (paper, mid-term, and final exams) must exhibit complete, well-argued responses to the questions asked. This requires reference to the readings and lectures. For this reason, on-time attendance of all lectures and completion of all scheduled readings are requirements for success in this course.

Academic Standards: All sources in papers must be cited and given appropriate credit. The author of any information from the Internet must be given credit; using such information without indicating the source constitutes plagiarism, as it would with print publications. Students are allowed to discuss lectures and even assignments with each other, but they must do their own work. Students are required to read the University policy on academic honesty, which can be found here: www.csus.edu/umanual/AcademicHonestyPolicyandProcedures.htm

Students with Disabilities: If you have a documented disability and require accommodation or assistance with assignments, tests, attendance, note taking, etc., please see the instructor during the first week of the semester so that appropriate arrangements can be made to ensure your full participation in class. Also, you are encouraged to contact the Services for Students with Disabilities (Lassen Hall) for additional information regarding services that might be available to you.

Reading and Lecture Schedule

Week 1: Introduction

A Brief Survey of the History of Natural Philosophy from the Hellenic period to Late Antiquity

The essence of what we today call ‘science’ is to be found in its origins as natural philosophy. What were the first questions that inspired more than two millennia of historically evolving, systematic inquiry that we today call ‘science’? How is science

CSUS – HIST 196B: History of Medieval Science – Epperson 3.

periodized?

Reading: (D: Selections from G.E.R. Lloyd, Early Greek Science: Thales to Aristotle. W.W. Norton, 1974)

Week 2: Christianity and Greco-Roman Culture

The State of Science and Natural Philosophy During the First Six Centuries of Christianity; The Severn Liberal Arts

Reading: Grant, 1-17; (D: Selections from: David C. Lindberg, “Science and the Early Church,” in God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science, ed. David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers (Berkeley 1986) 19-49.

Week 3: Islam and the Eastward Shift of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy

Introduction to The Translations; The Fate of Natural Philosophy in Islam

Reading: (D: Selections from: Edward Grant. A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, 61- 68; Charles H. Lohr, “The Medieval Interpretation of Aristotle,” in The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy, ed. Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, Jan Pinborg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1982. pp. 45-79, 80-98)

Week 4: Natural Philosophy before the Latin Translations

Roman Authors; The Latin Encyclopedists & European Learning to the Ninth Century; The Twelfth Century and Its Immediate Antecedents; Hostile Reception of the New Theology; Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth Century

Reading: (D; Selections from Edward Grant. A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, 95- 116)

Week 5: Translations in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

The World of the Translators; Education and Learning in the Twelfth Century; Translations from Arabic and Greek in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries; The Translation of the Works of Aristotle; The Dissemination and Assimilation of Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy; The Contributions of Greek Commentators; The Contributions of Islamic Commentators; How Trustworthy Are Aristotle’s Translated Texts?; Pseudo-Aristotle: Works Falsely Attributed to Aristotle

Reading: Grant, 18-31

Week 6: Natural Philosophy After the Translations: Its Role and Place in the Late Middle Ages

What The Middle Ages Inherited From Aristotle; The Terrestrial Region – A Realm of Incessant Change; Motion in Aristotle's Physics; Natural Motion of Sublunar Bodies; Violent, or Unnatural Motion; The Celestial Region: Incorruptible and Changeless

Reading: Grant, 54-63 CSUS – HIST 196B: History of Medieval Science – Epperson 4.

Week 7: The Medieval University - PART I

The Impact of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy in the Early Thirteenth Century to 1240; University Lectures on Natural Philosophy; The Classification of the Sciences and the Subject of Natural Philosophy; The Curriculum of the Arts Faculty: Logic, The Quadrivium, The Three Philosophies; The Higher Faculties of Theology and Medicine; The Social and Intellectual Role of the University; The Manuscript Culture of the Middle Ages.

Reading: Grant, 33-51; (D: Selections from: Jacques Verger, “The Universities and Scholasticism,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 5, ed. David Abulafia. Cambridge: Cambridge UP 1999. pp. 256-276; Verger, “The Universities,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 6, ed. Michael Jones. Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2000. pp. 66-81.)

Week 8: The Medieval University – PART II

The Reception and Impact of Aristotelian Learning and the Reaction of the Church and its Theologians; The Condemnation of 1277; The eternity of the world; The doctrine of the double truth; Limitations on God's absolute power; Two senses of the hypothetical in medieval natural philosophy; The theologian-natural philosophers

Reading: Grant, 70-83

Week 9: The Form and Content of Late Medieval Natural Philosophy (a.k.a. ‘Science’): What The Middle Ages Did With Its Aristotelian Legacy – PART I

The terrestrial region; The causes of motion; Internal resistance and natural motion in a vacuum; Violent motion in a vacuum and impetus theory; The kinematics of motion; Motion as the quantification of a quality: The intension and remission of forms; The celestial region; The three-orb compromise; The number of total orbs; Celestial incorruptibility and change; The causes of celestial motion; External movers; Internal movers; Internal and external movers combined; Does the earth have a daily axial rotation?

Reading: (D); Grant, 86-116

Week 10: The Form and Content of Late Medieval Natural Philosophy (a.k.a. ‘Science’): What The Middle Ages Did With Its Aristotelian Legacy – PART II

The world as a whole, and what may lie beyond; Is the world created or eternal?; On the possible existence of other worlds; Does space or void exist beyond our world?; John Buridan: On the Possibility of Other Worlds; The Substantive Nature of Natural Philosophy in the Late Middle Ages

Reading: (D); Grant, 117-122

Week 11: Aristotelianism – PART I

The questions literature of the late Middle Ages; Natural philosophy in other literary modes; The cosmos as subject matter of natural philosophy; The big picture; The operational details; What is natural philosophy?; The questions in natural philosophy; The techniques and methodologies of natural philosophy; Abstract methodology; Methodologies that were CSUS – HIST 196B: History of Medieval Science – Epperson 5.

actually used.

Reading: Grant, 127-147

Week 12: Aristotelianism – PART II

The role of mathematics in natural philosophy; The use of natural philosophy in other disciplines; Theology; Medicine; Music; Characteristic features of medieval natural philosophy; Aristotelians and Aristotelianism; Thought Experiments and the Role of the Imagination; Beyond Aristotle; Was Aristotelian Natural Philosophy Science?

Reading: Grant, 148-167

Week 13: The Transformation of Medieval Natural Philosophy Into the Early Modern Period: How the Foundations of Early Modern Science Were Laid in The Middle Ages -- PART I

The 3 Contextual Pre-conditions That Made the Scientific Revolution Possible: (1) The translations; (2) The universities; (3) The theologian-natural philosophers; Religion and natural philosophy in medieval Islam; A comparison of natural philosophy in Islam and the Christian West; The Other Christianity: Science and natural philosophy in the Byzantine Empire.

Reading: Grant, 168 - 190

Week 14: The Transformation of Medieval Natural Philosophy Into the Early Modern Period: How the Foundations of Early Modern Science Were Laid in The Middle Ages -- PART II

The 5 Substantive Pre-conditions That Made the Scientific Revolution Possible: (1) The exact sciences; (2) Natural philosophy: The mother of all sciences; (3) Medieval natural philosophy and the language of science; (4) Medieval natural philosophy and the problems of science; (5) Freedom of inquiry and the autonomy of reason.

Reading: Grant, 191-205

Week 15: Review and Outlook

Greco-Arabic-Latin Science: A Triumph of Three Civilizations

On The Relationship Between Medieval and Early Modern Science

On The Relationship Between Early and Late Medieval Science

Final TBD Exam: