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Example research essay topic: The Scientific Revolution Medieval World View - 1,070 words

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A world-view is a composite of several interpretive models through which the individual establishes his or her identity relative to everything else in the universe. In the broadest of terms, any world-view is made up of four component elements. In the first of these components, which can be designated the Theological element, man tries to define himself in relation to the transcendent. Questions are asked, such as Is there a God or gods? What is the nature of God? How am I to relate to that which is absolutely ultimate?

In general, a person's transcendent presuppositions have a determinative impact upon all other aspects of their world-view. The second component is Psychological in nature, and asks such questions as Who am I, and what is my significance in the greater scheme of things. Does my individuality have meaning? Third would be the Sociological aspect. How is man to live with his fellows? How should human society be organized?

Fourth, What is the nature of the universe? How did it begin and how will it end? What is the nature of my relationship with the material world? In the broadest sense, this may be designated the Cosmological aspect of a world view. A significant change took place in the European approach to truth and authority in the early years of the thirteenth century.

This, in turn, led to a radical transformation in the then-prevalent world-view. The Avignon Crisis, and conflicts between the Church and various monarchs, encouraged members of the clergy to study the history of the Church in order to establish the authority of the Pope on a firm foundation. This led to a recovery of Roman Law and a renewed interest in the ancient Greek and Roman authors. While this was going on, the Muslims in Spain had transformed the city of Cordova into the intellectual capital of the Islamic world.

Contact with these scholars revived the influence of Aristotle, and generated a great deal of controversy within the Church over the nature of truth itself. On the one hand, Aristotle had taught that truth could only be discovered by applying human reasoning to human observation. The Church, on the other hand, had long asserted that truth came about through revelation. Since it was something that was revealed by God, it could only be apprehended through faith. A reasonable compromise was worked out in the mid-thirteenth century.

Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican monk who had been significantly influenced by the thought of the great Islamic philosopher, Ibn Rush, and through him the great Greek philosopher, Aristotle, argued that both faith and reason were necessary elements if one is to have a complete understanding of the truth. This synthesis became known as Scholasticism. Aquinas expounded his views in a massive work, the Summa Theological, and from the middle of the thirteenth century until the early years of the sixteenth, Aristotle provided the accepted interpretive model of the universe. The basis of all knowledge, according to Aristotle, was observation, a product of the five senses.

Additionally, all things have certain natural qualities, such as lightness or heaviness. Things which were heavy had a tendency to sink, and things which were light had a tendency to rise. Since the senses told Aristotle that the earth neither sank nor rose, and that all things appeared to revolve around it, the earth must be both the center of the universe, as well as the heaviest part of the universe. The sun, moon, and stars revolved around the earth because they were lighter than the earth. They did not float off into the vastness of space because they were held in place by what he called "crystalline spheres. " PTOLEMY Aristotle's concepts were elaborated upon early in the second century AD, by Ptolemy (100 - 178 A. D. ), a Greek astronomer who lived in Alexandria, Egypt.

Working from both Aristotle and Pythagoras Ptolemy developed a consistent Geocentric model of the Universe, and this model became a central aspect of the Medieval Christian cosmology. In this system the earth lay at the center of the universe. It was orbited successively by the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Beyond the orbit of Saturn was the Stellatum, or the sphere of the fixed stars. The boundary of the Stellatum was the Primum Mobile, or 'first moving thing, ' a sphere which made a rotation every twenty four hours, thereby causing the inner spheres to do likewise. Beyond the Primum Mobile was the Caelum Ipsum, or 'very heaven' of God.

The system proved to be remarkably compatible with medieval theology and quickly became the accepted position of the Church. ROGER BACON While the recovery of Aristotle was taking place, other scholars were directing their attention toward the scientific writings and discoveries of the ancients. Foremost among the medieval scientists was Roger Bacon. In the 1200 s, science consisted of such things as alchemy and astrology.

Turning lead into gold, the quest for an elixir of eternal life, and plotting the positions of the stars and determining their influence on human life concerned the brightest and most rational minds of the day. Bacon pioneered science in Europe by asserting that the workings of the natural world could only be understood through observation and experimentation. As far as the written record is concerned, Roger Bacon was the first person to use a magnifying glass, thereby augmenting his natural senses. His approach gave him tremendous insight into the potential of technology.

Writing almost eight hundred years ago, Bacon asserted: Machines may be made by which the largest ships, with only one man steering them, will move faster than if they were filled with rowers; wagons may be built which will move with unbelievable speed and without the aid of beasts. This momentary flowering of European intellectual life was short-lived. The Mini-Ice Age, the Black Death, a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War, and a host of other maladies threatened to take from Europeans all of the advances that had been made in the thirteenth century. As is always the case, when the human need for order is threatened with anarchy, authority asserts itself, and authority is generally driven by tradition. When this is the case, the orientation is always toward the past -conservative rather than progressive - and the future must wait. The century and a half after Roger Bacon was filled with such wa...


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Research essay sample on The Scientific Revolution Medieval World View

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