Was there Science in the Middle Ages? Scientific Knowledge and Practice Across Medieval Worlds (LV / Seminar)

BA-KulT WTG 2, 4

BA-KulT FW 18, 19, 20

MA-GKWT 2

MA TGWT WTG 2

Präsenzseminar

What makes science „science“? Can we speak of science before the Scientific Revolution? If so, what did it look like and how were the sciences classified? This course explores the nature of scientific knowledge and practice across medieval worlds. We will begin by looking at the roots of medieval science in Ancient Greek natural philosophy before turning to the translation of Greek natural philosophy and science into Arabic and its reception into the Islamic World. Next, we will look at the incorporation of Greco-Islamic natural philosophy in the Latin West with the rise of universities. We will do so by reading primary texts in such sciences as mathematics, physics, astronomy, cosmology, astrology, zoology, and medicine.

A Source Book in Medieval Science, ed. Edward Grant, Harvard University Press, 1974.

David Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450, University of Chicago Press, 2007.