John- I fully agree. Yes, I agree with your outline of the neglect of
Aristotle during the period when the Church controlled knowledge - and the
13th c. re-emergence of his works [Aquinas etc]..
Although I myself tend to view causality as more economic and
population-size driven than ideologically driven. That is, I think that
Aristotle's re-emergence was linked to the rise in population of that era
and the need to provide more means of wealth production than the local
feudal holding.
Your Crosby book sounds exactly right. I'll try to get ahold of it. The
sources I've used are
J.D. Bernal's five volumes of 'Science in History'. In this era, it's Vol.
2..the era of the beginning of market trade...and 'money payments rather
than forced services' and.."the development of capitalism as the leading
method of production also witnessed that of experiment and calculation as
the new method of natural science" .
These volumes detail the emergence and development of all kinds of methods
of 'measuring the world'. Bookkeeping and banking methods would have been
vital to the development of larger economies and trade.
Then, there's J.D. Bernal's "The Extension of Man'- a very detailed outline
of technology development 'extending' man's physical capacities to interact
with the world...i.e., moving away from basic human labour, to adding more
power, via such things as the horse harness, water mills, the compass, the
magnet....
And, Fernand Braudel's volumes on 'Civilization and Capitalism',
Particularly Vol 1, 'The Structures of Everyday life, which focuses on
population sizes and economies.
And Vol.3, 'The Perspective of the World', which focuses on economics,
city-states, and technology.
Ideologically - one saw the emergence of a focus on the individual capacity
to observe and reason.
Edwina
----- Original Message -----
From: "John F Sowa" <s...@bestweb.net>
To: <peirce-l@list.iupui.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2017 1:12 AM
Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Nominalism vs. Realism -
On 2/5/2017 12:38 PM, Edwina Taborsky wrote:
that knowledge is derived from the evidence of the senses, is as old
as Aristotle - who espoused just that [along with the use of reason].
But as a societal force, with its insistence that the individual and
that individual's direct contact with the world, is the source of
knowledge - that emerged, in my view, from at least the 13th century
I agree, but I'd add that the rediscovery of Aristotle in the 13th c
led to revolutionary innovations in logic and science.
Before the 12th c translations of Aristotle from Arabic to Latin,
Plato and Neoplatonism had the strongest influence on the Greek
Church Fathers -- and through them -- the Latins.
At the beginning of the 13th c, the translations of Aristotle
were denounced by theologians who had a vested interest in Plato.
The fact that they were translated from Arabic sources also raised
suspicions of heresy. But scientists such as Roger Bacon were
inspired by the science, and Thomas Aquinas made Aristotle safe
for Christianity.
As an interesting history of the upsurge in observation and
measurement in the 13th c and later, I suggest
Crosby, Alfred W. (1997) The Measure of Reality: Quantification
and Western Society, 1250-1600, Cambridge University Press.
Sample factoid: In 1275, there were no mechanical clocks in Europe.
By 1300, every town of any size had a church with a clock tower,
and neighboring towns were competing with each other in building
the most elaborate clocks. The European emphasis on measuring time
is a major difference between European civilizations and traditional
societies everywhere else. And it started in the 13th c.
Although Aristotle didn't say much about music or money, the
emphasis on logical notation and measurement also inspired the
development of modern musical notation, bookkeeping, and banking.
John
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