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Scientific discoveries and inventions of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Scientific discoveries and inventions in the Middle Ages. Science in the Middle Ages. Numbers and the movement of the planets

The development of European culture in the early Middle Ages (5-11 centuries).

Literature, art, architecture, Romanesque style. The basis of medieval culture is the interaction of two principles - the own culture of the "barbarian" peoples of Western Europe and the cultural traditions of the Western Roman Empire - law, science, art, Christianity. These traditions were assimilated during the conquest of Rome by the "barbarians". They influenced their own culture of the pagan tribal life of the Gauls, Goths, Saxons, Jutes and other tribes of Europe. The interaction of these principles gave a powerful impetus to the formation of Western European medieval culture proper. The essence of the culture of any era, first of all, is expressed in a person's ideas about himself, his goals, capabilities, interests. The first independent, specifically European artistic style of medieval Europe was Romanesque, which characterized the art and architecture of Western Europe from about 1000 to the rise of the Gothic, in most regions until about the second half and the end of the 12th century, and in some even later. It arose as a result of the synthesis of the remains of the artistic culture of Rome and the barbarian tribes. At first it was the proto-Romanesque style. At the end of the Proto-Roman period, elements of the Romanesque style were mixed with Byzantine, with Middle Eastern, especially Syrian, which also came to Syria from Byzantium; with Germanic, with Celtic, with features of the styles of other northern tribes. Various combinations of these influences created many local styles in Western Europe, which received the common name Romanesque, meaning "in the manner of the Romans." Since the main number of surviving fundamentally important monuments of the Proto-Romanesque and Romanesque style are architectural structures: the various styles of this period often differ in architectural schools. The secular buildings of the Romanesque style are distinguished by massive forms, narrow window openings, and a significant height of the towers. The same features of massiveness are characteristic of temple structures, which were covered with wall paintings - frescoes from the inside, and brightly painted reliefs from the outside. The knight's castle, the monastery ensemble, the church are the main types of Romanesque buildings that have come down to our time. Characteristic examples of Romanesque architecture are the Notre Dame Cathedral in Poitiers, the cathedrals in Toulouse, Orstval, Oxford, Winchester, etc. The paintings and sculptures of the Romanesque type are characterized by a flat two-dimensional image, generalization of forms, violation of proportions in the image of figures, lack of portrait resemblance to the original, intense spiritual expression. The images are rigorous, often extremely naive. The architecture of the 5th-8th centuries is usually simple, with the exception of buildings in Ravenna, (Italy), erected according to Byzantine rules. Buildings were often created from elements removed from old Roman buildings, or decorated with them. In many regions, this style was a continuation of early Christian art. The outstanding achievement of the architects of the Romanesque period was the development of buildings with stone volts (arched, supporting structures). The main reason for the development of stone arches was the need to replace the flammable wooden ceilings of Proto-Romanesque buildings. The introduction of voltaic structures led to the general use of heavy walls and pillars. An important element of the artistic culture of the Middle Ages was literary creativity. Oral poetry reaches high development. The best examples of it are the works of the heroic epic England and Scandinavia

A very important element of oral creativity - sagas , preserving the people's memory of actual historical events ("The Saga of Nyala", "The Saga of Egil", "The Saga of Eric the Red", etc.). Another major area of artistic creativity is chivalric literature, which was widely developed during the Classical Middle Ages, in conditions of feudal fragmentation. Her hero was a feudal warrior who performed feats. The most famous are the "Song of Roland" (France), the chivalric verse novel "Tristan and Isolde" (Germany), "Nibelungenlied" (Germany), "The Song of My Sid" and "Rodrigo" (Spain). Western European chivalric literature also includes widespread chivalric lyric poetry, which glorified examples of fidelity to the lady of the heart, for the sake of which the knights subjected themselves to all sorts of trials at the risk of their lives. Poets-singers who glorified chivalrous love in their songs were called minnesingers in Germany. (singers of high love), in the south of France - troubadours , and in the north of the country - trouvers .

Proto-Romanesque artists reached the highest level in illustrating manuscripts. In England, an important school of manuscript illustration arose already in the 7th century in Holy Island (Lindisfarne). The works of this school, exhibited in the British Museum (London), are distinguished by the geometric interlacing of patterns in capital letters, frames, and whole pages, which are called carpet, are densely covered with them. Drawings of capital letters are often animated by grotesque figures of people, birds, monsters. Pro-Romanesque and Romanesque metalworking, a widespread art form, was used mainly to create church utensils for religious rituals. Many of these works are still kept in the treasuries of large cathedrals outside of France; French cathedrals were robbed during the French Revolution. 2. Culture of the classical Middle Ages (12-15th century).

literature, art, architecture, gothic style. In the period from the 12th to the 15th century, when cities and trade developed, when feudal warriors organized themselves into knightly orders and crusades begin, a more magnificent and refined culture develops at the courts of large feudal lords: knights learn music, poetic art; their military competitions - tournaments - are solemnly arranged. Here arises a new, knightly or courtly(court) literature. It is associated mainly with the custom of worshiping the knight "lady of the heart." Knightly lyrics express the knight's love for the lady; the chivalric romance, which is now replacing the heroic epic, sings of the exploits of the knight, no longer in defense of the motherland or overlord, but for the glory of the lady. For the sake of winning her love, the knights undergo all sorts of, often fantastic, adventures in the novels. Courtly literature, designed for the tastes of the feudal class, is largely distinguished by artificiality and far-fetchedness. However, it has a progressive beginning: the affirmation of love, which undermined the Church's ascetic ideology. Some themes and images from folk poetry penetrate into courtly literature. So, on the basis of a folk tale, a poetic novel was created about Isolde, who mistakenly drank a love potion together, which bound them until their death with great, irresistible love. Throughout the Middle Ages, literary creativity continued even among the broadest strata of the exploited people. Folk songs have come down to us, in which the protest of the people, their feelings and aspirations were expressed in the era of feudal exploitation, poverty and devastating wars. The folk songs of those countries where large peasant movements took place, as, for example, in England of the 12th-15th centuries, are distinguished by a particularly sharp combat content. on the basis of the rapid ruin of the peasantry; an extensive song heritage has been preserved here. The cycle of folk songs-ballads dedicated to the legendary robber Robin Hood, the beloved hero of the English people, is noteworthy. In his honor, in the Scottish mountain villages, a holiday with mass festivities and games is celebrated annually to this day. The ballads depict Robin Hood as a free shooter living in the forest with his squad. He is the defender of the poor, the storm of those in power - rich feudal lords, monks. A number of ballads tell of his struggle with sheriff(the supreme local ruler) of the city of Nottingham, from whose hands he repeatedly saves his comrades condemned to death. The image of Robin Hood - a fighter against the feudal lords - is as vividly heroized as the images of warriors in the epic. Robin Hood has almost fabulous marksmanship, strength and courage. At the call of his horn, a powerful and devoted squad obediently appears on horseback, led by his closest friend John Small. Contrary to the church preaching of asceticism, Robin Hood is shown generous, merrily feasting. In this image, the destitute English peasantry expressed their dream of freedom and the fullness of life. In place of the Romanesque style, as cities flourished and social relations improved, a new style came - Gothic. Religious and secular buildings, sculpture, colored glass, illustrated manuscripts and other works of fine art began to be executed in this style in Europe during the second half of the Middle Ages. Gothic art originated in France around 1140 and spread throughout Europe over the next century and continued to exist in Western Europe for most of the 15th century, and in some regions of Europe well into the 16th century. Originally, the word gothic was used by Italian Renaissance authors as a derogatory label for all forms of architecture and art of the Middle Ages, which were considered comparable only to the works of the barbarian Goths. The main representative and spokesman of the Gothic period was architecture. Although a huge number of Gothic monuments were secular, the Gothic style served primarily the church, the most powerful builder in the Middle Ages, which ensured the development of this new architecture for that time and achieved its fullest realization. The aesthetic quality of Gothic architecture depends on its structural development: ribbed vaults became a characteristic feature of the Gothic style. Medieval churches had powerful stone vaults, which were very heavy. They sought to open, to push out the walls. This could lead to the collapse of the building. Therefore, the walls must be thick and heavy enough to support such vaults. AT early XII centuries, masons developed ribbed vaults, which included slender stone arches located diagonally, across and longitudinally. The new vault, which was thinner, lighter and more versatile (because it could have many sides), solved many architectural problems. Consequently, the thick walls of Romanesque architecture could be replaced by thinner ones, which included extensive window openings, and the interiors received hitherto unparalleled lighting. In the construction business, therefore, there was a real revolution. With the advent of the Gothic vault, both the design, the form, and the layout and interiors of the cathedrals changed. Gothic cathedrals acquired a general character of lightness, aspiration to the sky, became much more dynamic and expressive. The first of the great cathedrals was Notre Dame Cathedral (begun in 1163). In 1194, the foundation stone for the cathedral at Chartres is considered the beginning of the High Gothic period. The culmination of this era was the cathedral at Reims (begun in 1210). Rather cold and all-conquering in its finely balanced proportions, Reims Cathedral represents a moment of classical calm and serenity in the evolution of Gothic cathedrals. openwork partitions, feature late Gothic architecture, were the invention of the first architect of Reims Cathedral. Fundamentally new interior solutions were found by the author of the cathedral in Bourges (begun in 1195). The influence of French Gothic quickly spread throughout Europe: Spain, Germany, England. In Italy it was not so strong. The cathedrals of England were somewhat different, for which they were characterized by a large length and a peculiar intersection of the lancet arches of the vaults. The most striking examples of the Gothic style in England are Westminster Abbey in London, the cathedrals in Salisbury, etc. The transition from Romanesque to Gothic in Germany was slower than in France and England. This explains the presence of a large number of buildings of the eclectic style. The lack of building stone, especially in the northern regions of Germany, gave rise to brick Gothic, which spread quite quickly throughout Europe. The first brick Gothic church was the church in Lübeck (XIII century). medieval civilization. Church caredIn the XIV century. a new technique arises - flaming gothic, which was characterized by the decoration of the building with stone lace, i.e. finest stone carving. The masterpieces of the flaming Gothic include the cathedrals in the cities of Ambre, Amiens, Alason, Conche, Corby (France). 3.Christian Church in Medieval Europe. The Middle Ages in Europe were defined by Christian culture. The Church sought to explain social relations along the lines of the relationship between man and God. Submission, humility, humility become the main values of social life, which are preached by the Christian clergy. The role of the church in the life of the Western European medieval society, which many historians call the Christian society or the Christian worlds, was all-encompassing: religion and the church filled the entire life of a person of the feudal era from birth to death. The church claimed to rule society and performed many functions that later became the property of the state. The medieval church was organized on a strictly hierarchical basis. It was headed by the Roman high priest - the pope, who had his own state in Central Italy, archbishops and bishops in all European countries were subordinate to him. These were the largest feudal lords, who possessed entire principalities and belonged to the top of feudal society. Having monopolized culture, science, and literacy in a society consisting mainly of warriors and peasants, the church possessed enormous resources that subordinated to it the man of the feudal era. Skillfully using these means, the church has concentrated enormous power in its hands: kings and lords, in need of her help, shower her with gifts and privileges, try to buy her favor and assistance. At the same time, the church pacified society: it sought to smooth out social conflicts, calling for mercy in relation to the oppressed and destitute, for an end to lawlessness, for the distribution of alms to the poor. Poverty was even given moral priority. The Church attracted many peasants who needed patronage under its protection, provided them with land for settlement, and encouraged the liberation of foreign slaves, who at the same time became dependent on it. In the restless feudal times, people sought the protection of the monastery. The Church was the largest landowner in the feudal world and tirelessly increased its material wealth. The monasteries were among the first to switch to a commodity economy, to production for the market, take treasures and money for safekeeping, and provide loans. Under the auspices of the church, connecting with church holidays, fairs and markets arise, pilgrimages to holy places merge with trade journeys. Continuing to use economic power for its own purposes, the church in the XI-XIII centuries. in fact, he leads the trade and colonization movement of Europeans to the East (“crusades”), organizing huge collections of money to finance them. After the "campaigns" ceased, these funds began to be used to strengthen the papal treasury. The church organization reaches its highest power in the XII-XIII centuries, turning into a powerful financial organization with unlimited power over its structures and exceptional political influence. Standing on conservative positions, the church taught that each member of society should live in accordance with his legal and property status and not seek to change it. The ideology of the three “estates”, which spread in Europe in the 10th century, put forward monks, people devoted to prayer and standing above society, in the first place. There was a gradual aristocratization of the clergy and monasticism. However, along with the official church doctrine in the Middle Ages, popular religiosity was widespread, going far beyond the church and Christian dogma. God was perceived as a mysterious force present in sacred places, the personification of goodness and justice. This popular religiosity was shared by the bulk of the priests, with the exception of the church elite - learned bishops and abbots. Of great importance was the belief in intermediaries between God and people - angels and saints, in whom the laity were more attracted not by Christian virtues, but by the miracles they performed, perceived as proof of their power and holiness. However, it is impossible not to note the positive role of the church and Christian doctrine in the development of the sick, the poor, the orphans and the elderly. She controlled the education and production of books. The church, according to the modern historian Bishok, "was more than a patron in medieval culture, it was the medieval culture itself." Thanks to the influence of Christianity, by the 9th century a fundamentally new understanding of family and marriage was established in medieval society, the familiar concept of “marriage” was absent in the late antique and ancient German traditions, and then there was no concept of “family” familiar to us. In the era of the early Middle Ages, marriages between close relatives were practiced, numerous marriage ties were common, which were inferior to the same consanguineous ties. It was with this position that the church fought: the problems of marriage, as one of the Christian sacraments, from the 6th century, become almost the main topic of many theological works. The fundamental achievement of the church of this period of history should be considered the creation of a marital cell, as a normal form of family life that still exists. Even technological progress in medieval Europe was associated, according to many scientists, with the spread of Christian doctrine and, as a result, with a change in man's attitude to nature. We are talking, in particular, about the rejection of the pre-Christian system of prohibitions and taboos that hindered the development of agriculture: nature has ceased to be an object of religious worship and a source of fear. The new economic situation, which developed with technical improvements and inventions, contributed to a significant increase in the standard of living, which was very stable over several centuries of the feudal era.

Among the most important values affirmed by culture is the attitude to work. Any society is forced to cultivate a special attitude towards work, otherwise it could not exist.

In ancient culture, a person is, first of all, a free person, a citizen, that is, a person - the founder of a policy, a city, and therefore a political person. For this person, the main thing is the "republic", a common cause, management, therefore, mental labor, and not physical labor, the activity of collecting, preserving and distributing the surplus product, and not its production. Therefore, in ancient culture, "labor" carries a negative definition: lat. "negotium" - anxiety. Hence the modern term "negociant" - a merchant, a businessman. Work was perceived by antiquity as the absence of peace, leisure, as an activity that brings "anxiety", care. This activity was opposed by another - "otium", which meant - "peace, leisure, rest." Antiquity valued the positive - peace, and activities carried out freely, like rest, that is, mental activity. Antiquity valued the most abstract, universal forms of mental activity: philosophy, mathematics, music, politics. She did not appreciate, or appreciated, but less, specific types of mental activity - for example, secretarial work, accounting, the work of overseers, clerks, etc. But the work of sculptors was not valued either, since antiquity considered the activity of a sculptor as physical labor, similar to the labor of a stonemason.

The barbarian culture underlying the Middle Ages also had a contradictory attitude towards work, but this is a different contradiction than in Antiquity. During the period of the collapse of Rome, the barbarian society in Europe itself is going through a period of transition associated with the formation of classes and the transition to civilization. Europe was characterized by a special type of class formation - "aristocratic", where the top of the clans and tribes privatizes the communal property. Under the "plutocratic" type, private property is established through the accumulation of wealth in personal labor. Privatization leads to the appearance of an excess labor force in agricultural production, the emergence of "declassed" elements. They unite in "teams" and are engaged in robbery. Therefore, a peculiar attitude towards work is affirmed, for the top of a barbarian society, work is an unworthy occupation for a noble and free. Labor degrades the dignity of a combatant, this is the lot of the "black bone", "common people", "mob", and not " the best people". Another thing is military labor. It is worthy of all kinds of chanting and exaltation. In place of mythology comes the heroic epic as consciousness and awareness of the period of military democracy and the decay of barbarian culture. For antiquity, this is the period sung by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. For the Middle Ages, this is "Beowulf" (VIII century), the Irish epic "The Expulsion of the Sons of Usnekh", the saga "Elder Edda" ("Divination of the Volva", "Speech of the High One"), etc. But for a free community member, work is a secondary occupation, the cause of the lazy and cowardly Tacitus describes the values of the Germanic tribes as follows: “it is much more difficult to convince them to plow the field and wait for a whole year of harvest than to persuade them to fight the enemy and suffer wounds; moreover, according to their idea, then to get what can be acquired with blood - laziness and cowardice"

It was necessary to approve new values in order for the society to exist and develop. And Christianity began to solve this problem. In Christian theology, work is necessary. It is illuminated by biblical history as a punishment for sins. Labor is God's curse: "And in the sweat of your face you will earn your daily bread," the Bible testifies. Labor is an inevitability in this life, on this earth. For the diligent work of the believer, a reward awaits in the next world, salvation for eternal life. The Apostle Paul already stated: "He who does not work, let him not eat."

But work - work is different. Since the Middle Ages affirms the hierarchy of property, it affirms the hierarchy of culture and its values. In labor there is also a hierarchy of its various kinds. In the first place is agricultural labor, and not handicraft, industrial.

Thus, the Middle Ages opposes cultures - agrarian and industrial, righteous (that is, religious, corresponding to Christian dogma) and "unrighteous", which includes artistic, poetic activity.

The division of society into two classes - the ruling class, the feudal lords, and the dependent population, the peasantry - leads to the division of cultures. The well-known historian of culture A. Ya. Gurevich called the first one the culture of the “dominant minority”, the second - the “culture of the silent majority”. Accordingly, in the eyes of the ruling class, "their own" culture was valued. And the value of people was determined by their status, and the latter - by land ownership.

It would be a simplification to consider that the Middle Ages, because of its conservatism and traditionalism, did not create, invent, or invent anything. One of the first to reconsider the views on the Middle Ages as a break in the course of history caused by a millennium of "barbarism" was A. Turgot. He noted that in the Middle Ages, against the backdrop of a decline in science and a deterioration in taste, mechanical arts were improved in all areas under the influence of people's needs: “What a mass of inventions that were not known to the ancients and owe their appearance to the barbarian era! glasses, windmills, clocks, gunpowder, a compass, improved navigational art, an orderly trade exchange, etc., etc. ".

The early Middle Ages are characterized by the work of monks - writers, poets, scientists.

Achievements and values of the culture of the Middle Ages Among the most important values affirmed by culture is the attitude to work. Any society is forced to cultivate a special attitude towards work, otherwise it could not exist. In ancient culture, a person is, first of all, a free person, a citizen, that is, a person - the founder of a policy, a city, and therefore a political person. For this person, the main thing is the "republic", a common cause, management, therefore, mental labor, and not physical labor, the activity of collecting, preserving and distributing the surplus product, and not its production.

Therefore, in ancient culture, "labor" carries a negative definition: lat. "negotium" - anxiety. Hence the modern term "negociant" - a merchant, a businessman. Work was perceived by antiquity as the absence of peace, leisure, as an activity that brings "anxiety", care. This activity was opposed by another - "otium", which meant - "peace, leisure, rest." Antiquity valued the positive - peace, and activities carried out freely, like rest, that is, mental activity.

water and windmills, compass, gunpowder, glasses, paper, mechanical clock. In the water mills and water engines described by Vitruvius, in the Middle Ages, pin-type gearing and a crank lever were used. The manufacture of windmills, which appeared in Europe at the beginning of the 12th century, but became widespread in the 15th century, required highly skilled blacksmiths, knowledge of hydraulics, and aerodynamics. The first mechanical clock appeared on the tower of Westminster Abbey in 1288 (later clocks began to be used in France, Italy, the German states, the Czech Republic, etc.). The main task in creating the clockwork was to ensure the accuracy of the movement or the constancy of the speed of rotation of the gears, for which it was necessary to combine mechanics, astronomy, mathematics in solving the practical problem of measuring time. Europeans began to use the compass (invented in China in the 1st-3rd centuries) in navigation from the 12th century, which required a theoretical description of the magnet, which was first proposed by Pierre de Maricourt (Peter Peregrine). The compass became the first working scientific model, on the basis of which the theory of gravity developed, up to Newton's theory. Gunpowder (also discovered in China and used already in the 6th century in the manufacture of fireworks and rockets) began to play an important role in military affairs from the 14th century after the invention of the cannon (the ancestor of which was the "fire pipe" of the Byzantines), after which guns and muskets appeared. These inventions opened up a wide scope for scientific research on combustion, explosion and ballistics. Paper (invented in China in the 2nd century) came to Europe in the 12th century through the Arabs, where its production began in Spain, first from cotton, then from rags and textile waste. The forerunner of book printing was woodcut printing. Printed texts could be replicated from woodcuts. Chinese craftsmen invented movable type at the beginning of the 11th century. In Europe, book printing arose in the 40s of the 15th century (I. Gutenberg). The first Slavic printing house was founded in Krakow in 1491. The first Russian printed book "The Apostle" was printed in 1564 in Moscow by I. Fedorov and P. Metislavets. The role of printing in scientific progress and the distribution of knowledge can hardly be overestimated. According to some sources, glasses were invented in Italy in 1299 by Silvino Armati, according to others - not earlier than 1350. There is an opinion that the successes of education in the Renaissance were achieved largely due to the invention of glasses.

Typography

The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg (1448) marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of culture and science in the history of mankind. Before Gutenberg, there was a method of printing texts invented by the Chinese: letters were cut out on a wooden plate, covered with paint and printed on paper. Gutenberg also started with wooden materials, but the letters were not cut out with ready-made text on a wooden surface, but each one separately. This allowed the cut letters to be used repeatedly, typing different texts from them. But the tree gradually loses its shape, it swells, then dries up, and the words in the texts turn out to be crooked, uneven. This led to the idea of casting letters from metal, typing them into a workbench (a ruler with sides) so that they fold into a whole line. This method made it possible to use the cast letters repeatedly, typing new texts from them. And the printing press invented by Gutenberg greatly simplified the task: one book could now be printed in tens and hundreds of copies. The first books of I. Guttenberg were Donat's grammar, calendars, and later - the Bible.

World map

For centuries, people have imagined the earth to be flat. But with the invention of the caravel, a period of great geographical discoveries that influenced human history. Navigation, which had a practical goal - the search for lands rich in gold and expensive spices - led not only to negative consequences (plunder and destruction of the ancient values of the conquered peoples, slavery, etc.), but also to a turning discovery: the earth has the shape of a ball, and the available maps are far from perfect and even erroneous. Ancient assumptions about the sphericity of the Earth have not yet been confirmed. In search of India, the Spanish navigator in 1492 sent his caravels west across the Atlantic Ocean. He discovered Cuba and Haiti, several islands in the Caribbean, but did not realize that he had discovered a new mainland. He called these lands India, and his aborigines - Indians. Officially confirmed the existence of a new continent discovered by Columbus and the fact that the earth has the shape of a ball, the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci in 1499 - 1504. Later (1507), the Lorraine cartographer Waldseemüller named the new continent America in honor of this journey. Taking into account new knowledge about the shape of the Earth, globes began to be created, and they were already marked with new map peace.

Culture and science

Medieval achievements also include development in the field of architecture, literature, and philosophy. Architectural masterpieces of the Middle Ages: Notre Dame de Paris (known as Notre Dame Cathedral), built in Paris from 1163 to 1257; Reims Cathedral in French Reims and other temples erected in a new, Gothic style in Western Europe. In oriental architecture, the most famous building is the Taj Mahal in India, built in 1630-1652. The literary monuments of the Middle Ages include the French epic "The Song of Roland" from the era of the Crusades. Astronomy (astrology) and chemistry (alchemy) developed, the first universities opened in Paris, Bologna, Oxford, and Prague. In the fifteenth century there were already about sixty universities in Europe. A prominent representative of the scientific thought of the Middle Ages was a unique person named Ibn Sina, better known as (908-1037), who gave the world new knowledge in the field of medicine and philosophy. The Italian theologian and philosopher Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was the first to introduce the idea of rational knowledge into the concept of God: “I believe in order to understand.” A clear distinction between faith and knowledge was made by the Italian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas, his famous five proofs of the existence of God are based on a principle contrary to the church: study God's creations and you will comprehend Him.

The situation in medieval science began to change for the better from the 12th century, when the scientific heritage of Aristotle began to be used in scientific everyday life. Revival in medieval science was brought by scholasticism, which used scientific methods (argumentation, proof) in theology. Scholasticism

Scholasticism is the most revered science in the Middle Ages. Combined theology and rationalistic methodology. She demanded from the fundamental structures of science such correspondence to reality, which would not be revealed when comparing them with certain phenomena, but would be guaranteed by their initial correlation with the structure of being.

Scholasticism served as that disciplinary basis, without which it simply could not have arisen modern system natural science knowledge. It was scholasticism that led to the emergence of the canons of scientific research, formed by Okkan, which, in the words of modern Catholic philosophers J. Reale and D. Antiseri, "an epilogue of medieval science and at the same time a prelude new physics". The existing interpretations of the medieval science of Western Europe come from the modernization of the language of that distant era, when medieval natural scientists spoke the language of Aristotle's "physics". After all, there was no other language suitable for describing various physical phenomena at that time .. The most popular books of the Middle Ages there were encyclopedias that reflected a hierarchical approach to objects and natural phenomena.The main scientific achievements of the Middle Ages can be considered the following:

1. The first steps towards a mechanistic explanation of the world have been taken. Concepts are introduced: emptiness, infinite space, rectilinear motion. Of particular importance to us are the discoveries of Galileo in the field of mechanics, since with the help of completely new categories and new methodology, he undertook to destroy the dogmatic constructions of the dominant Aristotelian scholastic physics, based on superficial observations and speculative calculations, overflowing with teleological ideas about the movement of things in accordance with their nature. and purpose, about natural and violent movements, about the natural heaviness and lightness of bodies, about the perfection of circular motion compared to rectilinear, etc. It was on the basis of criticism of Aristotelian physics that Galileo created his program for the construction of natural science.

Galileo improved and invented many technical devices - a lens, a telescope, a microscope, a magnet, an air thermometer, a barometer, etc.

2. New measuring instruments have been improved and created.

Mechanical clocks appeared in medieval Europe primarily as tower clocks, which served to indicate the time of worship. Before the invention of mechanical clocks, a bell was used for this, which was beaten by a sentry, who determined the time using an hourglass - every hour. The mechanical clock on the tower of Westminster Abbey appeared in 1288. Later, the mechanical clock tower began to be used in France, Italy, and the German states. There is an opinion that the mill masters invented the mechanical clock, developing the idea of continuous and periodic movement of the mill drive. The main task in creating the watch mechanism was to ensure the accuracy of the movement or the constancy of the speed of rotation of the gears. The development of watch mechanisms was impossible without technical knowledge, mathematical calculations. The measurement of time has a direct connection with astronomy. Thus, watchmaking combined mechanics, astronomy, and mathematics in solving the practical problem of measuring time.
The compass, as a device that uses the orientation of a natural magnet in a certain direction, was invented in China. The Chinese attributed the orientation ability of natural magnets to the influence of the stars. In the I - III centuries. the compass began to be used in China as a "pointer to the South." How the compass got to Europe is still unknown. The beginning of its use by Europeans in navigation dates back to the 12th century. The use of the compass on ships was an important prerequisite for geographical discoveries. The property of the compass was first introduced in detail by the French scientist Pierre da Maricourt (Peter Peregrine). In this connection he described both the properties of magnets and the phenomenon of magnetic induction. The compass became the first working scientific model, on the basis of which the theory of gravity developed, up to the great theory of Newton.

Optics

The first magnifying glasses appeared a very long time ago, around 700 BC. Many scientists of the Middle Ages, based on the experience of Arab scientists, were engaged in the study of optics.

Robert Grosseteste (1168-1253) was born in Sussex. From 1209 he was a teacher at the University of Paris. His main works are devoted to optics and refraction of light. Like Aristotle, he always tested scientific hypotheses in practice.

Grosseteste's pupil, Roger Bacon (1214-1294) was born in Summerset. He studied at Oxford University, and in 1241 he left for Paris. He did not leave independent experiments, but conducted a series of studies on optics and the structure of the eye. He used Al-Haysan's diagram of the eye to make the images. Bacon understood the principle of light refraction well and was one of the first to propose the use of magnifying lenses as glasses.

They consisted of two convex lenses that magnified objects so that people could see them.

The manufacture and use of spectacles led to the invention of the spyglass and microscope and led to the creation of theoretical foundations optics.

The advent of optics provided not only a huge amount of material for observations, but also completely different means for science than before, made it possible to design new instruments for research.

The compass, spyglass, as well as the growing technique of maritime affairs, made it possible at the end of the 15th and 16th centuries. make great geographical discoveries.

Optics gave rise to such a measuring device as binoculars (determining the distance to an object), used to measure stars and measure the refraction of light. The compass as a measuring device is used to determine the change in the magnetic field.

3. Mathematization of physics began.

Physics

Physics, in the sense that medieval philosophers and scientists themselves put into this concept, was synonymous with the science of motion. “Since nature is the beginning of movement and change, and the subject of our study is nature, it cannot be left unexplained what movement is: after all, ignorance of movement necessarily entails ignorance of nature.” These opening lines of the third book of Aristotle's Physics were well known to all natural philosophers of the Middle Ages.

Movement, according to Aristotle, is always movement towards a certain final state. Natural movement is simply movement towards a state of rest. It has no other definitions than indicating the destination.

With this approach, the movement is described by specifying two points, the start and end points, so that the path traveled by the body is a segment between these points. So motion is what happens between two positive states of rest.

When considering the motion of a body, along with the positions at the initial and final points of its motion, it is always possible to single out an arbitrary number of intermediate points-positions. Instead of movement, in this case we have a set of rest points, between which only a jump-like transition is possible. It is precisely the concept of continuity that should remove these difficulties. In order to avoid jumps, it is necessary to prohibit the existence of two points between which no intermediate point can be chosen. This prohibition constitutes the definition of continuity according to Aristotle. But the possibility of choosing an arbitrarily large number of intermediate points can itself be considered as an argument against the existence of motion.

The prerequisites underlying the Aristotelian concept of the continuity of movement were thoroughly thought out and logically strictly formulated in the teachings of William of Ockham (XIV century). Ockham wrote: “This is what it means to be moved by a movement of displacement: this means that a certain body first occupies one place - and no other thing is accepted at the same time - and at a later time occupies another place, without any intermediate stop and without any entity other than a place, this body and other permanent things, and thus continues uninterrupted. Therefore, besides these permanent things (the body and the places it occupies), there is no need to consider anything else, but it should only be added that the body is not simultaneously in all these places and does not rest in any of them.

For Ockham, as well as for Aristotle, to give a logical definition to something means to indicate something unchanging that underlies it. Therefore, Ockham cannot and does not want to use in his definition any other things than constants. He shows that movement can be defined through them in a negative way. The particle “not”, which is included in the definition of motion (is not located, is not at rest), does not denote any independent entity. Therefore, Ockham concludes that "no other thing is required than body and place" to define motion.

Thus, such a point of view is limited to stating that the state of motion does not coincide with the state of rest. But what it is, Aristotle cannot say, and Ockham no longer considers the question itself meaningful.

4. The development of specific areas of knowledge in the Middle Ages - astrology, alchemy, magic - led to the formation of the beginnings of future experimental natural sciences: astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology. The industrial revolution that took place in modern times was largely prepared by the technical innovations of the Middle Ages.

Astronomy

By the XIV century. scientists learned many ideas of antiquity. But they interpreted them too straightforwardly, believing that the Universe was created unchanged and perfect, and the Earth is at its center.

Jean Buridan (1300-1385), lecturer at the University of Paris, adopted the ancient "push theory". According to this theory, God created the planets and stars, but they move around the Earth independently and at a constant speed. Buridan was afraid to publish his work, because he contradicted the teachings of Aristotle that the will of God moves the planets.

Nicolas Oresme (1320-1382) was born in Normandy. Since 1340, he studied in Paris, with Buridan, and went much further than his teacher in criticizing the works of Aristotle. Oresmus argued that the Earth is not stationary, but rotates around its axis every day. To calculate the movement, he used mathematical calculations. Oresmus' ideas later helped scientists formulate new ideas about the structure of the universe. This made it possible in the 17th century. Galileo and other scientists to reject Aristotle's system

Alchemy

Alchemy is a practical art (not included in the number of theoretical disciplines), black art, you can’t do without demons.

The alchemists, many of whom were the most learned men of their time, sought to obtain the Philosopher's Stone. Copper was combined with tin, thinking that they were approaching gold. Without even thinking that they are making bronze, which has long been known to mankind.

It was believed that it was enough to change the properties of a simple metal (color, malleability, malleability) and it would become gold. The belief that for the transformation of some metals into others a special substance is needed - the "philosopher's stone" has increased. Alchemists struggle with the problem of obtaining this "magisterium", or "elixir of life." They often worked under the patronage of some noble aristocrat. The alchemist received money and time from him... Very little time. Results were needed, and since they were not available, few representatives of the “venerable alchemical art lived to old age.

Albert von Bolstedt, nicknamed the Great Albert, was considered the greatest alchemist of all time. He was the offspring of a noble family. I studied for many years in Italy. At the end of his studies, he joined the monastic order of the Dominicans and, by order of the order's authorities, went to Germany to teach the local clergy everything that had previously been taught to him: to read, write and think.

The great Albert was a very educated man for his time. His fame was so great that the University of Paris invited him to be a professor in the department of theology. But even louder than the recognition of the scientist, his black glory of the sorcerer and sorcerer thundered. There is a legend about him that he was one of the few who possessed the secret of the philosopher's stone. As if with the help of this magic tool, he not only mined gold, but also cured the incurable and returned youth to the elders.

Little by little, the alchemists despaired of finding the Philosopher's Stone and turned to other theories. Their main goal is the manufacture of drugs.

Magic- was understood as a deep knowledge of the hidden forces and laws of the Universe without violating them and, therefore, without violence against Nature. The magician is more of a practitioner-experimenter than a theoretician-conceptualist. The magician wants the experiment to be a success, and resorts to all sorts of techniques, formulas, prayers, spells, etc.

Conclusion

Summing up, I would like to note that medieval culture is very specific and heterogeneous. Since, on the one hand, the Middle Ages continue the traditions of Antiquity, that is, scientists-philosophers adhere to the principle of contemplation (one of the followers of Aristotle, who, at the invitation of Galileo to look through a telescope and see for himself the presence of spots on the Sun, answered: “In vain, my son. I I read Aristotle twice and found nothing in him about spots on the Sun. There are no spots. They come either from the imperfection of your glasses or from the lack of your eyes.") In those days, Aristotle for many pundits was almost an "idol", whose opinion was perceived as reality. His views on ontology had a serious influence on the subsequent development of human thought. No, I'm not saying he was wrong!!! Aristotle is a great philosopher, however, at the same time he is the same person as everyone else, and people tend to make mistakes.

Theological worldview, which consists in interpreting the phenomena of reality as existing according to the "province of God." That is, many scientists-philosophers believed that everything around was created by God according to the laws understandable only to him, and a person should accept these laws as something sacred and in no case try to understand them. As well as their fundamental rejection of experimental knowledge. The specific methods of natural magicians were not yet an experiment in the generally accepted sense of the word - it was something similar to spells aimed at evoking spirits, otherworldly forces. In other words, the medieval scientist operated not with things, but with forces hidden behind them. He could not yet understand these forces, but he was clearly aware of when and on what they act.

On the other hand, the Middle Ages breaks with the traditions of ancient culture, "preparing" the transition to a completely different culture of the Renaissance. In the 13th century, interest in experimental knowledge arose in science. This is confirmed by the significant progress of alchemy, astrology, natural magic, medicine, which have an "experimental" status. Despite the prohibitions of the church, accusations of freethinking, a clear desire to “know the world” formed in the mind of a medieval scientist, more and more often he began to think about the origin of all things and try to explain his assumptions from a different point of view than the church one, later this point of view would be be called scientific.

Dogmatics- a section of theology in which a systematic presentation of the dogmas (positions) of a religion is given. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and other religions have a system of dogmas.

Scholasticism is a type of religious philosophy that seeks to give a rational theoretical justification religious outlook by applying logical methods of proof. Scholasticism is characterized by an appeal to the Bible as the main source of knowledge.

Theology - (from Greek theos - God and ... logic) (theology) - a set of religious doctrines and teachings about the essence and action of God. Assumes the concept of an absolute God, informing a person of knowledge about himself in revelation.

Form start

The great technical inventions made in the Middle Ages had a huge impact on all areas of the economy and culture, on the development of science. Among such inventions, the most significant were the water and windmills, the marine compass, gunpowder, glasses, paper, mechanical watches. Almost all of these inventions came to Europe from the East.

The water mill and water engine are described, as we have already noted, by Vitruvius, but only in the Middle Ages did they become widely used. The idea of a water drive (motor) was first implemented for grinding grain (actually for building mills), but then for other work, for example, c. cloth production, for drawing wire, for crushing ore. The use of the initially rotational movement of a wheel with a horizontal axis of rotation to carry out translational movement or rotation in other planes required the use of mechanisms that transform the movement. To do this, a gearing of a lantern (finger) type and a cranked lever were invented.

Windmills appeared in Europe at the beginning of the 12th century, but became widespread from the 15th century. For the manufacture of mechanisms for water and windmills, their assembly required highly qualified craftsmen who had to have extensive knowledge not only in mechanics, but also in blacksmithing, and in hydraulic engineering and aerodynamics (in modern terminology).

The compass, as a device that uses the orientation of a natural magnet in a certain direction, was invented in China. The Chinese attributed the orientation ability of natural magnets to the influence of the stars. In the I - III centuries. the compass began to be used in China as a "pointer to the South." How the compass got to Europe is still unknown. The beginning of its use by Europeans in navigation dates back to the 12th century. The use of the compass on ships was an important prerequisite for geographical discoveries. The property of the compass was first presented in detail by the French scientist Pierre da Maricourt (Peter Peregrine). In this connection he described both the properties of magnets and the phenomenon of magnetic induction. The compass became the first working scientific model, on the basis of which the theory of gravity developed, up to the great theory of Newton.

Gunpowder was used in China as early as the 6th century. in the manufacture of rockets, fireworks. Many European alchemists worked on the discovery of the secret of gunpowder, namely, how to prepare a mixture that burns without air. But luck smiled at the Freiburg monk Berthold Schwartz. Gunpowder began to play an important role in military affairs from the 14th century. only after the invention of the cannon, the ancestor of which was the "fiery pipe" of the Byzantines. Guns and muskets soon appeared behind the cannon.

The invention of gunpowder had more than just military implications. The manufacture of gunpowder and its explosion, the flight of a projectile from a cannon raised questions of a scientific, theoretical nature. This is, first of all, the study of combustion and explosion processes, issues related to the release and transfer of heat, issues of precision mechanics and technology related to the manufacture of gun barrels, issues of ballistics.

The cannon thus "organized" not only military training grounds, but also extensive "testing grounds" for scientific research.

Science needed paper "like air." Invented in China in the 2nd century, it appeared in the 6th-7th centuries. in Japan, India, Central Asia, in the VIII century. - in the Arab East. Paper came to Europe through the Arabs in the 12th century. In Spain, for the first time in Europe, at the beginning of the XII century. paper production was organized, first from cotton, then from cheaper raw materials - from rags and textile waste. Following paper, which became an incomparably cheaper writing material than parchment, printing also appeared. The forerunner of book printing was xylography (from the Greek "xylon" - a felled tree and "grapho" - I write), that is, engraving on wood. Printed texts could be replicated from woodcuts. Chinese craftsmen invented movable type at the beginning of the 11th century, but it did not appear in Europe until the 15th century. The role of printing in scientific progress and dissemination of knowledge cannot be overestimated.

Glasses were invented in Italy. According to some sources, this invention dates back to 1299 and belongs to Silvino Armati. Others believe that glasses did not appear in Italy before 1350. There is an opinion that the success of education in the Renaissance was largely due to the invention of glasses. Spectacle lenses have become the basis for the creation of such optical instruments as the microscope and telescope.

32) Science of the Renaissance (Peculiarities of the period)

If in the art of the Renaissance sensual corporality became the universal ideal and natural criterion, then in science this role was assigned to rational individuality. Not individual knowledge or opinion, but the certainty of individuality itself turned out to be the true basis of rational knowledge. Everything in the world can be questioned, only the fact of doubt itself is undoubted, which is a direct evidence of the existence of reason. This self-justification of the mind, taken as the only true point of view, is a rational individuality. The science of the Renaissance differed little from art, since it was the result of a personal creative search for a thinker. An artist is a seeker of true images, a thinker is a seeker of true ideas. The artist has a technique of representation, the thinker has a technique of clarification, or a method of cognition. The thinker is able to penetrate beyond the limits of the sensory world into the intentions of the Creator. And just as the creation of the world on the basis of perfect images continued in the work of an artist, so in the work of a scientist God's plans for the world were revealed. It may seem strange, but the tradition of seeing in pure reason a means of comprehending God and his plans, which was followed by Renaissance scientists, developed in medieval mysticism. This tradition originates in antiquity - in the teachings of the Pythagoreans, in the philosophy of Plato. What could feed Plato's conviction that he was given to comprehend the world of ideas, on the model of which the world of things was created? The idea is the self-evidence of reason, taken without any images, itself acting as an instrument for creating and constructing images. The idea, which a mortal can comprehend with great difficulty, is at the same time the initial principle of constructing being, and therefore must be the principle of constructing true knowledge. This was the case with Plato, but M. Eckhart, whose opinion we have already cited, was also convinced that a thinker who cognizes God “without the help of an image” becomes identical with God. The scientists of the Renaissance also believed that the truths revealed by the mind and not having a visual expression were given, as it were, by God himself. On the one hand, scientists paid tribute to their time, when it was customary to believe that the highest truths could be established only by God. On the other hand, there was a kind of "heroism of consistency" in the appeal to God. After all, the logic of thinking required going beyond the limits of imagination, i.e. into the sphere of the unnamed, which nevertheless needed to be named and designated somehow. Knowledge about what cannot be visualized, what is unnatural from the point of view of earthly existence, only in modern times began to be called the natural laws of nature, and Renaissance thinkers referred to God or to the universal Mind. Although the consciousness of Renaissance scientists was a mixture of rationalism and mysticism, it should be noted that their God is not the God of the Old Testament, who forbade Adam to eat the fruits of "the knowledge of good and evil." It was this circumstance that served as the basis for the persecution of some scientists by the Inquisition. The Catholic Church opposed the teachings of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) on heliocentrism. The Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) became a victim of persecution. Galileo Gililei (1564-1642), who is usually referred to as the founders of modern science, was put on trial by the Inquisition. He shared the revivalist idea of human self-creation, one of the consequences of which was the scientific worldview. This idea was presented in the teachings of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), one of the deepest thinkers of the Renaissance; according to him, the essence of the human personality is its expression of the universal, i.e. God. And the Italian philosopher Pico Della Mirandola (1463-1494), the author of the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man, argued that if God is the creator of himself, then man must also create himself. The humanistic orientation of the Renaissance was manifested in the fact that the scientific worldview of the era was associated with the problem of human existence.