After the Greeks:

the Middle Ages

  After Alexander (334-323
The Romans BC), Greek empire
flourishes for a while
 Greece slowly declines as
Rome expands its empire
 Empire completes conquest
of Britain, W. Europe, N.
Africa and Asia Minor
(Turkey) by about 180 AD
 The Romans
 Though victorious, Rome embraces Greek
learning while contributing little to natural
science
 Other than compiling, popularizing, translating
 Exceptions: engineering, city planning, war,
surgery and medicine
 Other contributions: law, administration
 Decline of Rome
 Frominternal strife, barbarian attacks,
empire dead by ~500 AD
 Other factors: Christians? lead poisoning?
 Huns, Vandals, Goths etc. run around in
W. Europe, leaving path of destruction
 Science grinds to a halt: The Dark Ages
 InWest, learning confined to the Church
 China, India, Middle East prospers
Science in the Middle Ages (500-1400)
 Alchemy, medicine
 Math (algebra)
 Monasteries: Botany, agriculture
 Architecture – castles, churches
 New Tech in the Middle Ages
 Heavy plow → farming in hard soil
 Stirrup → feudalism?
 Horizontal loom → computers
 Soap, toilets
 Paper (from China)
 Ship rudder
 Major Events
 Crusades (11th-13thC): cultural exchange through war
 Plagues: social equalizer; fatalism, labor shortage?
 1066 Norman invasion of England → English
Language (Old English of barbarians + Old French)
 The first universities
 First
in Middle East, then Bologna (1119)
 Secular, creates demand for books, lecturers
 Subjects: Grammar, Latin, Greek, and Rhetoric
 Celebs of the Middle Ages
 AlRazi (~900), Avicenna (~1000), Averroes
(~1150): medicine, math
 Al-Khwarizmi: math, optics
 Charlemagne (~850) – initiated a short-lived
renaissance in W. Europe
 St. Thomas Aquinas (~1200) – settled
philosophical issues between church and
society, science and religion
 Any women? Hildegarde von Bingen (~1100)
 Doctor, pharmacist, composer; gravitation?
Final Notes about the Middle Ages

 Science and religion enjoy a long peaceful

coexistence
 Technology is possible with little science,
up to a point
 The West has no monopoly over science