Thanks Arthur McGowan.
Posted on 02/05/2015 10:40:09 PM PST by Arthur McGowan
Were the Middle Ages, also known as the Dark Ages, characterized by oppression, ignorance, and backwardness in areas like human rights, science, health, and the arts? Or were they marked by progress and tolerance? Anthony Esolen, an English Literature professor at Providence College, explains.
The Roman west was overrun by barbarians, ran out of free land and slaves, and collapsed. Re-creating a civilized order took a few centuries. When people don’t have to spend their time fighting for food and hearth, they can think a bit about medicine and engineering. When people have the leisure to think, things steadily improve. Natural disasters (like plagues) are always unexpected and take away the time to think. (Plus, you can’t think when you’re dead.)
There was no “Dark Ages”, as invented by 19th century haters of the church. They made it up as a rhetorical tactic. There was steady improvement, and it’s just that improvement is not linear, it’s exponential. The curve of improvement not only slopes up (hence the word improve) but it has a naturally increasing slope. The slope just reached a point where all of mankind began to feel it, and we call the “Industrial revolution”. Then, other “revolutions”, all of which are just points on the line where some opinion leaders notice the steady march of improvement and create an interesting phrase.
“The Dark Ages, characterized by oppression, ignorance, and backwardness. So, the professor is going to say Republicans were in charge?”
And George Bush. Can’t forget him.
Giants such as Columbus, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli, Luther, and others established themselves as figures of renown who each contributed to changing the world forever.
-— I am reading a book right now by James Walsh called: “The Thirteenth - Greatest of Centuries” ——
I have to get that. I’ve always believed that the 12th was the height of Scholasticism and Christian culture.
The birth of modern science came with the promulgation of the dogma of “creation from nothing,” leading to the physics breakthroughs of Buridan and Newton.
There’s a great article on the web called “The Origin of Science” by Stanley Jaki.
Bump
Thanks Arthur McGowan.
There a lots of people who “changed the world” that the world would have been better off without.
did anyone else notice how ‘global warming’ contributed to the expansion of humanity in europe?
Even after the PU video many not realize how important Christianity was to it all from the fall of Rome on.
The Dark Ages term, if I recall correctly, was coined by historians who were referring to a time period where there was a dearth of written material created.
“We dismiss the achievements of our ancestors and fall short of them. They honored their ancestors and surpassed them.”
Money shot.
The scholars of Constantinople, fleeing west, sparked the Renaissance in western Europe.
“A World Lit Only By Fire” by William Manchester is a book I no longer lend out. I’ve “lost” 4 or 5 copies over the years. It’s really a wonderful book about the period between the middle ages and the start of the Renaissance.
-— The Dark Ages term, if I recall correctly, was coined by historians who were referring to a time period where there was a dearth of written material created. -—
I didn’t know that.
Unfortunately, the modern view of the Dark and Middle Ages has been shaped almost entirely by Monty Python.
Ridicule is a powerful weapon.
It is funny how God works. Bad dogma leads to scientific breakthroughs the ideas of which continue bless the world even today.
I posted this one back in 2003.
The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined?
"Michael the Syrian : "The Sun became dark and its darkness lasted for eighteen months. Each day it shone for about four hours, and still this light was only a feeble shadow...the fruits did not ripen and the wine tasted like sour grapes."
Sparked might be the best term. There are two major thought groups when it comes to human innovation. One argues that it is breakthroughs lead usually by a single man or small group which then lead to innovative change. The other is that dozens of small, sometimes imperceptible improvements coalesce and innovation takes a leap. My own view is that it is a mix.
I could see Eastern scholars confirming knowledge, spreading new knowledge and helping ‘innovators’ see differently. Human history is more dynamic than people realize and involves a lot of lost knowledge. There used to be a time when the ‘best’ minds refused to believe ancient people could travel the world. Then came Kon-Tiki.
I always laugh when someone makes a definitive statement about what the ancients knew. Have you read this book?
It tells the story of archeologists and their bias. How their conviction that the motel they’ve discovered is an ancient burial ground colors their interpretation of every item that they find.
It took me a long time to figure out what you meant by “PU video.” I thought you must have disliked it.
The introduction of the potato from Peru in the 1500's caused a population explosion in Europe.
The potato famine so devastated Ireland that even today Ireland is the only modern country that has a population less than it did in 1840.
(I know the severity of the famine had English help)
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