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Pious Scientists in the Late Middle Ages
Piety, the awe and respect for God and His Creation, drove philosophers and scientists throughout the Christian era beginning during the Roman Empire and continuing through the European Middle Ages—and beyond. Christian philosopher-scientists relied heavily on their Greek and Roman … Continue reading
Posted in books, Christianity, European history, History of Science
Tagged anselm, Christianity, god, history, philosophy, Piety, Religion, Science, thomas-aquinas
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Early Medieval Pious Scientists
The Fall of Rome had a profound effect on learning and knowledge. After the fifth century A.D. those who were concerned with philosophy, which at this time included science, scrambled to keep track of the great books of the Greco-Roman … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, European history, History of Science
Tagged aristotle, boetius, Christianity, history, isidore-of-seville, john-scotus-eriugena, middle-ages, philosophy, Piety, plato, Science
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Philo Judaeus the Pious Scientist
Ancient thinkers–philosophers and scientists–of the Mediterranean world knew that wisdom is a universal that transcends individual knowing, an awareness of truth that transcends the individual existence of each person. The Old Testament and New Testament imply that the Creation has … Continue reading
Posted in books, Christianity, European history, History of Science
Tagged aristotle, Christianity, history, philosophy, Piety, Religion
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Piety and Science
Records of the human quest for knowledge have existed for four to five thousand years, revealing that as humans have confronted the vastness of the cosmos, as they have watched and listened and felt the natural environment, their response has … Continue reading
Posted in books, Christianity, European history, History of Science
Tagged Christianity, god, history, philosophy, Piety, Religion, Science
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Science in the Ancient World: From Antiquity through the Middle Ages
Ancient science was the intellectual pursuit to understand the origins and workings of nature and humanity. Science is a term that encompasses many methods and varied disciplines over time. Science has engaged human thought for millennia. The questions that … Continue reading
Posted in books, European history, History of Science
Tagged history, philosophy, Science
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Is Science Inherently an Act of Piety?
During the past century science has become so focused on the material and the secular as to deny what was one of the essential characteristics of Western scientists going back three millennia: piety. Ancient Greek scientists perceived religion and science … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, History of Science
Tagged history, History of Science, Piety, Science
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The Mysterious Mr. Lee
Almost 200 years ago, in 1819, a scientist from England, Thomas Nuttall, journeyed up the Arkansas to near this spot, the Three Forks, the confluence of the Arkansas with the Verdigris and Grand rivers. Nuttall was exploring what had been … Continue reading
Superstition and Science
In July, 1819, up the Arkansas River several score miles from here, a remarkable conversation took place that could have only happened in the Old West of cowboys and Indians. The conversation involved an Indian, but not a cowboy, rather … Continue reading
Jean Louis Berlandier
I am teaching this semester a course on the History of Science, and am using two of my books: Science in the Ancient World, and Frontier Naturalist: Jean Louis Berlandier and the Exploration of Northern Mexico and Texas. The latter … Continue reading
The American Plutarch 