The Middle Ages date back to the beginning of the 2nd century. n. e., and its completion by the XIV-XV centuries. The knowledge that was formed during the Middle Ages in Europe is inscribed in the system of the medieval worldview, which is characterized by the desire for all-encompassing knowledge, which follows from ideas borrowed from antiquity: true knowledge is universal, apodictic (evidential) knowledge. But only the creator can possess it, only he can know, and this knowledge is only universal. In this paradigm there is no place for knowledge that is inaccurate, partial, relative, or inexhaustive.
Since everything on earth was created, the existence of any thing is determined from above, therefore, it cannot be non-symbolic. Let us remember the New Testament: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The word acts as an instrument of creation, and transmitted to man, it acts as a universal tool for comprehending the world. Concepts are identified with their objective analogues, which is a condition for the possibility of knowledge. If a person masters concepts, it means that he receives comprehensive knowledge about reality, which is derived from concepts. Cognitive activity comes down to the study of the latter, and the most representative are the texts of the Holy Scriptures.
All “visible things” reproduce, but not equally “invisible things”, that is, they are their symbols. And depending on the proximity or distance from God, there is a certain hierarchy between the symbols. Teleologism is expressed in the fact that all phenomena of reality exist according to the providence of God and for the roles prepared by him (earth and water serve plants, which in turn serve livestock).
How, based on such attitudes, can cognition be carried out? Only under the control of the church. Strict censorship is being formed; everything contrary to religion is subject to ban. Thus, in 1131 a ban was imposed on the study of medical and legal literature. The Middle Ages abandoned many of the visionary ideas of antiquity that did not fit into religious ideas. Since cognitive activity is of a theological-textual nature, it is not things and phenomena that are examined and analyzed, but concepts. Therefore, deduction becomes a universal method (Aristotle’s deductive logic reigns). In the world created by God and according to his plans, there is no place for objective laws, without which natural science could not be formed. But at this time there were already areas of knowledge that prepared the possibility of the birth of science. These include alchemy, astrology, natural magic, etc. Many researchers regard the existence of these disciplines as an intermediate link between natural philosophy and technical craft, since they represented a fusion of speculativeness and crude naive empiricism.
Thus, medieval scientists, as a rule, came from Arab universities, called their knowledge natural magic, understanding by it a reliable and deep knowledge of the secrets of nature. Magic was understood as a deep knowledge of the hidden forces and laws of the Universe without violating them and, therefore, without violence against Nature. A magician is more of an experimental practitioner than a conceptual theorist. The magician wants the experiment to be a success, and resorts to all sorts of techniques, formulas, prayers, spells, etc.
Scholasticism(from Latin - school), which took shape in the 9th-12th centuries, strives to update religious dogmas, adapting them to the convenience of teaching in universities and schools. Great importance is attached to the logic of reasoning, in which scholastics see the path to comprehending God. The flourishing of scholastic scholarship is associated with the sharpening of the logical apparatus, rational methods of substantiating knowledge, in which thesis and antithesis, arguments and counterarguments collide. Anyone who is engaged in teaching calls himself a scholastic: Eriugena, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, Anselm of Canterbury. Important for them are questions about the relationship between reason and faith, science and religion. The relationship between philosophy and theology is interpreted ambiguously. Anselm of Canterbury believes that truths obtained by reason, but contrary to the authority of Holy Scripture, should be forgotten or rejected.
Abelard strives for a clear distinction between faith and knowledge and proposes to first investigate religious truths with the help of reason, and then judge whether they deserve faith or not. He owns the famous principle: “understand in order to believe.” Unlike faith, philosophy, like knowledge, is based on the evidence of reason. Abelard's work “Yes and No” collected 159 tricky questions of Christian dogma. Answers to them were offered from authoritative church scriptures and it was shown that the theologian has both an affirmative and a negative answer to each of the questions.
Famous studyAlbert the Great(1193-1207) had such extensive knowledge of natural history that he was awarded the title “Doctor Universalis” (comprehensive doctor). The philosopher taught at the University of Paris and sought to reconcile theology (as the experience of the supernatural) and science (as the experience of the natural). He considered observation to be the main method of scientific research, and was confident that when studying nature one must constantly turn to observation and experience. In his secret workshop, he conducted numerous experiments. Since he traveled a lot, his heritage includes geographical works that testify to his powers of observation. His experiments in physics report that a glass ball filled with water collects the sun's rays into one point where it concentrates a large number of warmth. He also indicated a method for studying water: if two pieces of linen, dipped into different sources, after drying have different weights, then the piece that turns out to be lighter indicates purer water. The scientific “magician” adhered to the belief that everything happens on the basis of the hidden laws of nature.
In teaching Thomas Aquinas(1225-1274) there are indications of a method of intellectual, i.e., comprehending, contemplation, which captures not the image of an object, beyond which neither physics nor mathematics can go, but the prototype of this image, the actual form of the object, “which is being itself and from which being comes.”
At first, the education system in the Middle Ages was represented by monastic schools that trained clergy. A higher class of schools, which also trained clergy, were the so-called episcopal schools, which began to appear around the 8th century. The bishop and clergy close to him took part in their activities, and daily training carried out by specially trained teachers (magistri).
As for the content of education in all these schools, its first stage was secular knowledge, and the second, higher stage was theology. Secular knowledge was the name given to those seven “liberal arts” that developed in late antiquity. But compared to the Roman era, the content of these arts was significantly curtailed, as it was adapted to the performance of religious, ecclesiastical and theological functions. Grammar, for example, came down to the study of the rules of the Latin language, the language of the Holy Scriptures. Rhetoric was reduced by the church to the ability to compose sermons, and then to the ability to compose various documents. Arithmetic, necessary for elementary calculation, also received the function of a mystical interpretation of numbers found in the Holy Scriptures. Geometry included some, sometimes very fantastic, information regarding various countries and lands, as well as the peoples who inhabited them. Music was entirely reduced to the art of organizing church chants. Astronomy became a subject with the help of which it was possible, first of all, to determine the timing of Christian holidays.
Later, along with church schools, secular ones began to emerge. Among such schools, juridical (legal) schools stood out. They often arose from secular schools of rhetoric. The increasing complexity of the economy and all of life necessarily required legal knowledge. In Bologna already at the end of the 11th century. one of the first European universities arose, which throughout the Middle Ages played the role of the first scientific and teaching center for the study of jurisprudence.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the most important component of education was logic, which was given a significant place in the works of many authors. Consider one of the later concepts of logic, belonging to Raymond Lull(1235-1315). It defines logic as an art with the help of which truth can be distinguished from lies (ambiguous interpretation of truth). Lull's understanding of the task of logic is very fruitful from a historical perspective. Since logicians, like Aristotle himself, set before their science the task of proving truths, and not discovering them, this is precisely the task that Lull set for himself - to supplement the logic of proof with the logic of discovery. To this end, he outlined his attempts to mechanically model logical thinking, with the help of which even a person of average abilities will be able to discover new truths and become convinced of the unshakable truth of only the Catholic religion.
The mechanism he described is a system of seven concentric circles, each of which contains a group of similar concepts. On one of them, for example, such “substances” as god, angel, man, heaven, etc. were placed, on the other - the corresponding absolute predicates, such as power, knowledge, goodness, duration, etc., on the third - such relative predicates as great, good, etc. Rotation of circles relative to each other gives various combinations of terms that represent new concepts (good god, great god, great goodness of god, etc.). Lull's logical mechanism contained a very significant idea of formalizing logical actions by operating with various general signs. The connection of this kind of logical technique with Christian Catholic theology is more than external (it is unlikely that with its help it would have been possible to convert a single pagan to Christianity). But historians of logic in recent decades qualify Lull as a predecessor of combinatorial methods in the latest logic. It is no coincidence that later Lull’s logical mechanism (his very idea) was highly appreciated by Leibniz, considered the father of mathematical logic.
Revealing the features of medieval science, scientists note that, first of all, it acts as a set of rules, in the form of comments. The second feature is the tendency to systematize and classify knowledge. Compilation, so alien and unacceptable for modern science, is a characteristic feature of medieval science, associated with the general ideological and cultural atmosphere of this era.
Medieval Western culture is a specific phenomenon. On the one hand, the continuation of the traditions of antiquity, evidence of this is the existence of such thought complexes as contemplation, a tendency towards abstract speculative theorizing, a fundamental rejection of experimental knowledge, and recognition of the superiority of the universal over the unique. On the other hand, there is a break with ancient traditions: alchemy, astrology, which are “experimental” in nature. And in the East in the Middle Ages there was progress in the field of mathematical, physical, astronomical, and medical knowledge.
Since the 7th century. Important changes have occurred in the political life of the countries of the Near and Middle East. The Arabs in a very short time captured vast territories, which included the lands of Iran, North Africa, the Asian provinces of Byzantium, a significant part of the former Roman Empire, Armenia, North-West India, on which the Arab Caliphate was created.
In the cities of the caliphate, observatories were built, libraries were created at palaces, mosques, and madrassas. Internal and international trade also contributed to the dissemination and transfer of knowledge. The first scientific center of the caliphate was Baghdad (late 8th - early 9th century), where scientists, translators and scribes from different countries were concentrated, there was a large library, constantly replenished, a kind of academy “House of Wisdom” functioned, on the basis of which an observatory was created.
The works of scientists from different countries, who, due to current circumstances, find themselves on the territory of the caliphate, are translated into Arabic. In the 9th century. The book “The Great Mathematical System of Astronomy” by Ptolemy was translated under the title “Almagiste” (the great), which then returned to Europe as “Almagest”. Translations and commentaries of the Almagest served as a model for compiling tables and rules for calculating the positions of celestial bodies. Euclid's Elements and the works of Aristotle, the works of Archimedes, which contributed to the development of mathematics, astronomy, and physics, were also translated. The Greek influence was reflected in the style of the works of Arab authors, which are characterized by systematic presentation of the material, completeness, rigor of formulations and evidence, and theoreticality. At the same time, these works contain an abundance of examples and tasks of purely practical content, characteristic of the Eastern tradition. In areas such as arithmetic, algebra, and approximate calculations, a level was reached that significantly surpassed the level achieved by the Alexandrian scientists.
We are interested in personality Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi(780-850), author of several works on mathematics, which in the 12th century. were translated into Latin and served as teaching aids in Europe for four centuries. Through his “Arithmetic”, Europeans became acquainted with the decimal number system and the rules (algorithms - on behalf of al-Khwarizmi) for performing four operations on numbers written according to this system. Al-Khorezmi wrote the “Book of al-jabr and al-muqabala,” the purpose of which was to teach the art of solving equations necessary in cases of inheritance, division of property, trade, when measuring land, drawing canals, etc. “Al-jabr” (hence the name of such a branch of mathematics as algebra) and “al-mukabala” are calculation methods that were known to Khorezmi from the “Arithmetic” of the late Greek mathematician (third century) Diophantus. But in Europe about algebraic techniques
learned only from al-Khwarizmi. He does not yet have any special algebraic symbolism, even in its infancy. Equations and methods for solving them are written in natural language.
According to the well-known characteristic of Engels, after the Alexandrian period in the development of positive science, it was among the Arabs that it took a further step in its development. This applies to various branches of knowledge, and above all to mathematics and astronomy. The most important achievement of Arabic-language science is to borrow the positional number system from Indian scientists and improve it.
Subsequently, other Arabic-speaking scientists made new achievements in algebra (for example, they considered problems requiring the solution of equations of the third, fourth and fifth degrees, as well as the extraction of roots of the same degrees). The foundations of trigonometry were laid, which was associated with the achievements of Arabic-language astronomy. Yes, astronomer al-Battani(858-927), the author of a commentary on the Ptolemaic Almagest, using the trigonometric functions he first introduced, he made more accurate astronomical observations compared to Ptolemy.
Al-Farabi(870-950) was the first among Arabic-speaking philosophers to comprehend and to a certain extent refine the logical heritage of Aristotle. The thinker collected and organized the entire complex of Aristotle’s “Organon” (having added to it “Rhetoric,” hitherto unknown among Arabic-speaking philosophers), wrote commentaries on all his books and several own works on questions of logic. For his services in the development of logical knowledge, he received the honorary title of “Second Teacher” (“Aristotle himself was considered the First”).
The most remarkable name in the field of physics is al-Haytham al-Ghazen(965-1039) from Basra. His work on optics, published in Latin at the end of the 16th century. and influenced Kepler, not only interpreted the laws of reflection and refraction of light, but also gave a strikingly accurate description of the structure of the eye for that time.
As in antiquity, in the Arabic-speaking Middle Ages there were many encyclopedist scientists who made significant contributions to various sciences. Among them is a Central Asian scientist al-Bi-rut(973-1048), whose works treated issues of mathematics, astronomy, physics, geography, general geology, mineralogy, botany, ethnography, history and chronology. Thus, Biruni established a method for determining geographical longitudes, close to the modern one, and also determined the circumference of the Earth. For the first time in the medieval East, a great scientist made an assumption about the possibility of the Earth revolving around the Sun. In his works, Biruni cited fairly accurate mathematical constants (for example, determining the specific gravities of minerals), determined their prevalence (as well as the prevalence of ores, metals, alloys), and described in detail the calendar systems of various Middle Eastern peoples. Biruni's geographical knowledge is very indicative of the success of this science in the Arabic-speaking world, in which widespread trade in the countries of South Asia, Africa and Europe developed geographical and ethnographic curiosity. Biruni, who lived in India and studied Sanskrit literature, wrote a great work about this country. It should also be noted that he was the first to introduce Indian scientists to the achievements of ancient Greek mathematics and astronomy, translating some of the works of ancient scientists into Sanskrit.
The activities of Arab scientists in the field of alchemy are widely known, which, although they pursued unattainable goals (the transformation of base metals into noble ones), but in the process of these centuries-old searches they discovered new elements (mercury, sulfur), which were subsequently used by chemistry. Although the activities of alchemists (which later became widespread in Europe) could not become experimental natural science, they to some extent contributed to its future emergence.
The achievements of practical medicine in the countries of the Middle Ages are known. Long before Biruni, the author of numerous works on the natural sciences and philosophy Zakaria Razi(864-925) wrote “The Comprehensive Book,” a kind of medical encyclopedia compiled on the basis of the works of ancient and Arabic-speaking scientists with the author’s additions drawn from his own rich medical experience. In his other works, Razi spoke very harshly for his time about miracles allegedly performed by prophets, as deception and trickery, about the harm of religious movements and sects, against religious books.
supplied the works of Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, etc. Hippocrates.
The most prominent representatives of the Middle Eastern Middle Ages include Omar Khayyam(1048-1131), a great Iranian scientist and significant philosopher, a magnificent poet, author of world-famous quatrains (rubai). As a scientist, Khayyam did most of his work in mathematics. In algebra, he systematically presented the solution of equations up to the third degree inclusive, and wrote “Comments” to Euclid’s “Elements.” Khayyam's achievements in the field of astronomy were significant: instead of the lunar calendar brought by the Arabs, he returned to the solar calendar, which was adopted in Iran and Central Asia before the Arab conquest, and improved it.
Abu Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna)(980-1037) - philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, doctor, whose “Canon of Medical Science” has gained worldwide fame and is of certain educational interest today. Based on the ideas of Aristotle, he created a unique classification of sciences.
Ibn Rushd(1126-1198) - philosopher, naturalist, who achieved great success in the field of alchemy, author of medical works, commentator on Aristotle, was a supporter of a single intellect and cosmic determinism. He believed that the active intellect, existing outside and independently of individuals, is the eternal collective mind of the human race, which does not arise, is not destroyed, and contains general truths in a form obligatory for all. It is the substance of truly spiritual life, and the cognitive activity of the individual forms only a partial manifestation of it. Rational knowledge of man is, therefore, an impersonal and supra-personal function: it is the individual’s temporary participation in the eternal mind. The latter is that general essence that is realized in the highest manifestations of individual activity.
These and many other outstanding scientists of the Arab Middle Ages made a great contribution to the development of medicine, in particular eye surgery, which prompted the idea of making lenses from crystal to magnify images. This later led to the creation of optics.
Working on the basis of traditions inherited from the Egyptians and Babylonians, drawing some knowledge from the Indians and Chinese, and, most importantly, adopting the techniques of rational thinking from the Greeks, the Arabs applied all this to experiments with a large number of substances. Thus, coming close to creating chemistry.
In the 15th century after the murder of Ulugbek and the destruction of the Samarkand Observatory, a period of decline of mathematical, physical and astronomical knowledge in the East begins and the center for the development of problems of natural science and mathematics is transferred to Western Europe.
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The most important discoveries of the Middle Ages in the field of science and technology
Introduction
1. Science and technology
Chronology and structure of the Middle Ages
Creators of discoveries
The genius of da Vinci
5. Biological knowledge in the Middle Ages
6. Advances in medicine
In the language of mathematics
Forward to progress
Conclusion
Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the scientific and technological progress of the Middle Ages. Tasks:
Conduct an analysis of the relevance of this topic.
Consider the Middle Ages as an era.
Consider the main discoveries of science and technology from the 5th to the 17th centuries.
The relevance of this topic is due to the fact that from the beginning of the 5th century science began its difficult journey into the age of knowledge and inventions. Amazing discoveries have occurred in its most important areas, and various studies have been carried out based on the combination of science and technology.
In our modern life, electricity, cars, and what can I say, a book - what could be simpler, sheets of paper with typed text have become commonplace. But several centuries ago, printing a book required a lot of effort and time. The Middle Ages - that's what this era is called. The era of the beginning of leading achievements in the field of science and technology. From this era, poetic works have come down to us, in which peoples have captured their genius, wonderful monuments folk art magnificent masses of Gothic architecture, wonderful, beautiful artistic and poetic creations of the Renaissance, the first successes of awakening scientific thought. This era gave us a number of great people of whom humanity is proud. Such as Copernicus, Galileo, Bruno, Brahe, Newton. All these and many more prominent figures, who accelerated the progress of mankind through their lives and activities, belong to the Middle Ages. The great technical inventions made in the Middle Ages had a huge impact on all areas of the economy and culture, including the development of science. Thus, the Middle Ages contributed their considerable share to the common treasury of material and spiritual values of all humanity.
1. Science and technology
Science as knowledge and the activity of producing knowledge arose from the beginning of human culture and formed part of the spiritual culture of society, although the word “science” itself is of relatively recent origin. Translated from Latin, "scientia" (science) means knowledge.
The word "technology" comes from the Greek "techne" - art, skill, skill. The main meaning of this word today is the means of labor and production.
Historically, technology has gone from primitive tools to the most complex modern automatic machines, developing on the basis of scientific achievements.
Science and technology have gone hand in hand throughout the history of mankind and have become especially inseparable in our days, when science is a direct productive force, when without scientific research it is impossible to create samples of new technology. The development of a new technology model, as a rule, begins with scientific research - with scientific research work (R&D). Radical improvement of technology is possible only thanks to science. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to separate the spheres of influence of science and technology. Not a single significant modern scientific discovery is practically feasible on a sheet of paper, that is, without the involvement of technology and experimental equipment. At the same time, the functions of science are broader. The main ones are: descriptive, systematizing, explanatory, production-practical, prognostic, ideological. Only the production-practical function is directly related to the creation of equipment.
2. Chronology and structure of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages (Middle Ages) - historical period, next after the Ancient World and preceding the New Time. The beginning of the Middle Ages is considered to be the collapse of the Western Roman Empire at the end of the 5th century. The Middle Ages contains several stages: the dark time - the early Middle Ages; high - middle period of the Middle Ages; late (mature, developed, classical) Middle Ages.
Early Middle Ages - period European history, which began shortly after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Lasted about five centuries, from approximately 500 to 1000 AD.
The High Middle Ages is a period of European history that lasted from approximately 1000 to 1300. The era of the High Middle Ages replaced the Early Middle Ages and preceded the Late Middle Ages. The main characteristic trend of this period was the rapid increase in the population of Europe, which in turn led to dramatic changes in social, political and other spheres of life.
Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe a period of European history in XVI-XVII centuries.
The Late Middle Ages was preceded by the High Middle Ages, and the subsequent period is called the New Age. Historians differ sharply in defining the upper limit of the Late Middle Ages. If in Russian historical science it is customary to define its end as the English Civil War, then in Western European science the end of the Middle Ages is usually associated with the beginning of the church reformation or the era of great geographical discoveries. The Late Middle Ages is also called the Renaissance.
Most common chronological framework period: mid-5th century - mid-15th century However, any periodization of the Middle Ages is conditional.
Geography of the Middle Ages. The most common geographic areas of development of “scientific” thinking and technological innovation in the period under review: “Western Europe”; "Byzantium" and its zone of influence; "Arab East"; "East" (India, China, Japan); "Pre-Columbian America". The first three areas were most closely connected.
The structure of medieval scientific knowledge includes four main areas: physical-cosmological, the core of which is the doctrine of movement. Based on Aristotle's natural philosophy, it brings together an array of physical, astronomical and mathematical knowledge; doctrine of light; optics is part of the general doctrine - “metaphysics of light”, within the framework of which a model of the Universe is built that corresponds to the principles of Neoplatonism; doctrine of living things,understood as the science of the soul, considered as the principle and source of both plant, animal, and intelligent life; complex astrologer - medicalknowledge, the study of minerals and alchemy.
Technical innovations that had a radical impact on the entire culture of the Middle Ages include: the borrowing of gunpowder, which quickly led to the creation of a gunpowder production plant (the first plant); development of powder granulation technology that increases its efficiency; the rapid development of firearms production has radically changed the methods of warfare and led to the development of new technologies in foundry aimed at increasing the accuracy of throwing; windmills, the borrowing of paper, which led to the creation of printing; the creation and introduction into economic and cultural circulation of various mechanical devices, which over time created an entire infrastructure; development of watchmaking.
3. Discoverers
During the "high" Middle Ages, the role natural sciences society began to change rapidly. Scientific discoveries accelerated the development of technology and technology, which, in turn, led to new discoveries. Science has become the basis for the development of human society. Many scientists made their discoveries during this period. Johann Gutenberg, Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton and a number of other famous scientists.
Roger Bacon (1214-1292)English alchemist, outstanding philosopher. In 1240, he was the first in Europe to describe the technology for making gunpowder. He did a lot of experiments looking for ways to transform some substances into others. For refusing to reveal the secrets of obtaining gold (which he did not know), Bacon was condemned by his fellow believers and spent 15 long years in a church dungeon. At the behest of the general of the order, the works of the monk-naturalist were chained to a table in the monastery library in Oxford as punishment. Bacon foresaw the great importance of mathematics, without which, in his opinion, no science could exist, and a number of discoveries (telephone, self-propelled carriages, aircraft and etc.).
Johann Gutenberg (1397 -1468) German jeweler and inventor of printing.
Gutenberg's ingenious invention consisted in the fact that he made movable convex letters from metal, cut in reverse, typed lines from them and stamped them on paper using a press.
With limited funds and no skilled workers or advanced tools, Gutenberg nevertheless achieved remarkable success. Until 1456, he cast at least five different fonts, printed the Latin grammar of Aelius Donatus (several sheets of it have reached us and are stored in National Library in Paris), several papal indulgences and, finally, two Bibles, 36-line and 42-line; the latter, known as the Mazarin Bible, was printed in 1453-1465. with high quality.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)Polish astronomer, mathematician, economist, canon. He is best known as the author of the medieval heliocentric system of the world.
Heliocentric theory, which stated that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa, as scientists have been accustomed to think since ancient times. Watching the movement celestial bodies, Copernicus came to the conclusion that Ptolemy's theory was incorrect. After thirty years of hard work, long observations and complex mathematical calculations, he convincingly proved that the Earth is only one of the planets and that all planets revolve around the Sun. True, Copernicus still believed that the stars are motionless and are located on the surface of a huge sphere, at a great distance from the Earth. This was due to the fact that at that time there were no such powerful telescopes with which one could observe the sky and stars. Having discovered that the Earth and the planets are satellites of the Sun, Nicolaus Copernicus was able to explain the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky, the strange entanglement in the movement of some planets, as well as the apparent rotation of the sky.
The fate of the new hypothesis was not easy. The book on the revolutions of the celestial spheres (1543) was a shock for astronomers of the 16th century. Many scientists who doubted the infallibility of Ptolemaic constructions were ready to accept the Copernican theory. But, of course, the replacement of the old theory with a new one did not happen immediately. Not all scientific world accepted the heliocentric system - and not at all for ideological reasons. Of course, the sharply negative position of the Christian Church towards the teachings of Copernicus played a role. Initially, the church did not pay attention to the philosophical consequences of the very possibility of placing the Earth on a par with other planets, but in 1616 it corrected its “oversight” - by decree of the Inquisition, the book of Copernicus was included “pending correction” in the index of prohibited books and remained banned until 1828 of the year. The solitary life and later publication of the work saved Nicolaus Copernicus from the persecution to which his followers were subjected. Copernicus was a clergyman and a devout Catholic. Creating his model of the Universe, he sought not to come into conflict with the church, but to find a “golden mean” between faith and scientific truth: both were equally important for Copernicus. However, the heliocentric theory proposed by Copernicus ultimately overturned established ideas about the Universe and marked the beginning of the first scientific revolution.
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)Danish astronomer, astrologer and alchemist. He was the first in Europe to begin conducting systematic and highly accurate astronomical observations, which Kepler used to discover the laws of planetary motion. In 1572, he noticed a supernova - immeasurably distant and very bright - whose appearance in the “unchanging” space behind the Moon would have been impossible. A few years later, Brahe observed an equally incredible appearance of a comet. As a result of large-scale and systematic observations, the researcher determined the position of many celestial bodies and published the first modern catalog stars
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)Italian scientist, physicist, mechanic and astronomer, one of the founders of natural science; poet, philologist and critic. He laid the foundations of modern mechanics: he put forward the idea of the relativity of motion, established the laws of inertia, free fall and the movement of bodies along inclined plane, addition movements; discovered the isochronism of pendulum oscillations; was the first to study the strength of beams.
The famous story of Archimedes jumping out of his bath and running naked through the streets shouting “Eureka!” was as widely known in Galileo’s time as it is today. Archimedes then found a way to determine whether the royal crown was made of pure gold or not. Galileo decided to improve this ancient method. He invented hydrostatic scales, which could be used to weigh objects in air and water. After this, he repeated Archimedes' experiment and presented the results in a short treatise called "The Little Scales."
In 1609, Galileo independently built his first telescope with a convex lens and a concave eyepiece. The tube provided approximately threefold magnification. Soon he managed to build a telescope that gave a magnification of 32 times and discovered mountains on the Moon, 4 satellites of Jupiter, phases of Venus, spots on the Sun. A number of Galileo's telescopic discoveries contributed to the establishment of the heliocentric system of the world, which Galileo actively promoted, for which he was subjected to the Inquisition trial (1633), which forced him to renounce the teachings of Nicolaus Copernicus. Until the end of his life, Galileo was considered a “prisoner of the Inquisition” and was forced to live in his villa Arcetri near Florence. In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared the decision of the Inquisition to be erroneous and rehabilitated Galileo.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)great English physicist, mathematician and astronomer. Isaac Newton was the greatest scientist since Galileo. His work “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” (1687) convincingly demonstrated that the earthly and celestial spheres are subject to the same laws of nature, and all material objects- three laws of motion. Moreover, Newton formulated the law universal gravity and mathematically substantiated the laws governing these processes. Newton's model of the Universe remained virtually unchanged until the new scientific revolution of the early 20th century, which was based on the works of Albert Einstein.
4. The genius of da Vinci
I would also like to highlight one great personality of the Middle Ages.
This is an Italian painter, skilled architect, engineer, technician, scientist, mathematician, anatomist, musician and sculptor, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). The abilities and capabilities of Leonardo da Vinci were, without exaggeration, supernatural. There is a version that Leonardo da Vinci could penetrate into parallel worlds, where he took the ideas for his many wonderful inventions. At that time they were truly perceived as a miracle.
Leonardo da Vinci was an excellent magician (his contemporaries called him a magician). He could create a multi-colored flame from a boiling liquid by pouring wine into it; easily turned white wine into red; with one blow he broke a cane, the ends of which were placed on two glasses, without breaking either of them; I put a little of my saliva on the end of the pen and the writing on the paper turns black. The miracles that Leonardo showed impressed his contemporaries so much that he was seriously suspected of serving “black magic.” In addition, near the genius there were always strange, dubious personalities, like Tomaso Giovanni Masini, known under the pseudonym Zoroaster de Peretola, a good mechanic, jeweler and at the same time an adept of the secret sciences...
Leonardo encrypted a lot so that his ideas would be revealed gradually, as humanity “matured” to them. Scientists only last year, five centuries after the death of Leonardo da Vinci, were able to understand the design of his self-propelled cart and build it. This invention can easily be called the predecessor of the modern car.
In 1499, Leonardo da Vinci, to meet the French king Louis XII, designed a wooden mechanical lion, which, after taking a few steps, opened its chest and showed its insides “filled with lilies.” The scientist is the inventor of a spacesuit, a submarine, a steamship, and flippers. He has a manuscript that shows the possibility of diving to great depths without a spacesuit thanks to the use of a special gas mixture (the secret of which he deliberately destroyed). To invent it, it was necessary to have a good understanding of the biochemical processes of the human body, which were completely unknown at that time! It was he who first proposed installing batteries of firearms on armored ships (he gave the idea of a battleship!), invented a helicopter, a bicycle, a glider, a parachute, a tank, a machine gun, poisonous gases, a smoke screen for troops, a magnifying glass (100 years before Galileo!).
Leonardo da Vinci invented textile machines, weaving machines, machines for making needles, powerful cranes, systems for draining swamps through pipes, and arched bridges. He created drawings of gates, levers and screws designed to lift enormous weights - mechanisms that did not exist in his time. It is amazing that Leonardo da Vinci describes these machines and mechanisms in detail, although they were impossible to make at that time due to the fact that ball bearings were not known at that time (but Leonardo himself knew this - the corresponding drawing has been preserved). Sometimes it seems that da Vinci simply wanted to learn as much as possible about this world by collecting information. Why did he need it in this form and in such quantity? He did not leave an answer to this question.
Biological knowledge in the Middle Ages
In medieval texts, which were to a certain extent natural science in nature, the natural science and figurative vision of the world seem to merge. This does not allow us to identify biological knowledge in them. Therefore, we can talk about biology in the Middle Ages very conditionally. At this time, science in general, and biology in particular, had not yet emerged as independent fields, had not yet separated from the holistic religious-philosophical, distorted perception of the world. Medieval biology is more a reflection of medieval culture than a branch of natural science with its own subject of study.
Sources of information about biological enterprises in the early Middle Ages are works such as “Physiologist”, “Bestiary”, etc. These books contained descriptions of animals and fantastic monsters mentioned in the Bible, as well as stories based on motives (very freely interpreted) from the lives of animals , the purpose of which was religious and moral teachings. Information about animals and plants was contained in the “Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh” (11th century), which was circulated in lists in Rus', and other sources.
The most fundamental sources of information about the biological knowledge of the Middle Ages are the multi-volume encyclopedic works of Albertus Magnus and Vincent de Beauvais, dating back to the 13th century. The Encyclopedia of Albertus Magnus has special sections “On Plants” and “On Animals”. Detailed descriptions of the species of the plant and animal kingdoms known at that time were largely borrowed from the ancients, mainly from Aristotle. Following Aristotle, Albert linked the vital activity of plants with the “vegetative soul.” Developing the doctrine of the functions of individual parts of plants (trunk, branches, roots, foliage, fruits), Albertus Magnus noted their functional similarity with individual organs in animals. In particular, he considered the root to be identical to the animal’s mouth.
In the Middle Ages, the presence of vegetable oils and toxic substances in the fruits of some plants was discovered. Various selection facts have been described cultivated plants. The idea of plant variability under the influence of the environment was expressed in rather fantastic statements that beech turns into birch, wheat into barley, and oak branches into grapevines. Plants in Albert's writings were arranged in alphabetical order. His zoological information is also presented in great detail. They are given, like botanical ones, in a purely descriptive manner with references to Aristotle, Pliny, Galen as the highest authorities. The division of animals into those without blood and those with blood was borrowed from Aristotle. Physiology comes down exclusively to a description, often very expressive, of the behavior and customs of animals. In the spirit of medieval anthropomorphic views, they talked about the intelligence, stupidity, caution, and cunning of animals. The mechanism of reproduction in animals was explained by Hippocrates: the seed appears in all parts of the body, but is collected in the reproductive organs. The idea that the female seed contains the matter of the future fetus, and the male one, in addition, encourages this matter to develop, was borrowed from Aristotle.
The ears, according to Vincent de Beauvais, are designed to perceive the words of people, while the eyes, seeing creations, are designed to perceive the word of God. In accordance with these tasks, the eyes are located in front, and the ears are on the sides, as if indicating that our attention should, first of all, be drawn to God, and only then to our neighbor.
Alchemical treatises can serve as sources of information not only about chemical, but also about biological knowledge. Alchemists operated not only with objects of the mineral kingdom, but also with plant and animal objects. The Book of Plants by the famous 15th century alchemist John Isaac Holland is of considerable interest as a kind of alchemical body of biological knowledge. While studying the processes of decay and fermentation, alchemists became acquainted with chemical composition plant matter. In connection with healing, a different, sometimes purely practical attitude was allowed to the study of animals and plants. The healing effects of herbs and minerals became the subject of special interest of healing monks late Middle Ages.
The question of the instincts and behavior of animals and humans was considered by Roger Bacon. Comparing the behavior of animals with the conscious activity of humans, he believed that animals are characterized only by perceptions that arise independently of experience, while humans have reason.
The range of then ideas about animals and vegetation of distant countries was expanded by poetic descriptions of travel to overseas lands. For example, the Byzantine poet Manuel Phil (XIII-XIV centuries) visited Persia, Arabia, and India. He wrote three poetic works that contained a lot of educational biological material. These are the poems “On the Properties of Animals”, “A Brief Description of the Elephant” and “On Plants”. Phil loved to talk about exotic, sometimes fantastic, animals. However, his fantastic images of animals are also composed of very real, well-known and accurately conveyed elements that reflected the level of zoological knowledge of the 14th century.
Achievements
Medicine in the Middle Ages developed in complex and unfavorable conditions. Nevertheless, the objective laws of social development and the logic of scientific thinking inevitably contributed to the formation in its depths of the prerequisites for the future medicine of the great Renaissance. In connection with technical discoveries, the role of scientific research has increased even more. Since dogmatic views disappeared and mysteries no longer seemed insoluble, everything became the object of study, including the human body and its diseases. Until the 16th century, it was assumed that the disease was a consequence of abnormal displacement of the four body fluids (blood, sputum, yellow and black bile). The Swiss alchemist was the first to challenge this theory. Paracelsus (1493-1541 famous alchemist, physician andophthalmologist) , who argued that diseases were associated with disorders of various organs and could be cured with the help of chemicals. Around this time, the first thorough anatomical study of humans was carried out Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564 doctor and anatomist.) . However, the foundations of modern medical science were laid almost a hundred years later, when an English scientist William Harvey (1578-1657 English physician, founder of physiology andembryology.) discovered that blood circulates in the human body in a closed circle thanks to the contractions of the heart, and not the liver, as previously believed.
Medieval medicine was not sterile. She has accumulated extensive experience in the field of surgery, recognition and prevention of infectious diseases, and has developed a number of anti-epidemic measures; hospital care, forms of organizing medical care in cities, sanitary legislation, etc. arose.
In the language of mathematics
The new science tried to confirm the validity of observations through experiments and translate the results into the universal language of mathematics. Galileo was the first scientist to realize that this approach was the key to understanding all things, and argued that "the book of nature... is written in mathematical symbols." The progress of the mathematical method was rapid. By the beginning of the 17th century, the most common arithmetic symbols (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and equalities) came into widespread use. Then in 1614 John Napier (1550-1617Scottish baron, mathematician, one of the inventors of logarithms, the first publisher of logarithmictables.) introduced logarithms into use. The first adding machine - a distant ancestor of the computer - was constructed Blaise Pascal (1623-1662 French mathematician, physicist, writer and philosopher. Classic of French literature, one of the founders of mathematical analysis, probability theory and projective geometry, creatorthe first samples of computing technology, author of the basic law of hydrostatics.) in the 1640s, and 30 years later the great German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716 German philosopher, mathematician, lawyer, diplomat.) invented a machine capable of multiplication. Leibniz was also one of the creators of differential calculus, which became the most important mathematical method of the time. Isaac Newton came to similar results independently of Leibniz, and these two great men, with far from scientific fervor, entered into a discussion about which of them belonged to the laurels of primacy.
Forward to progress
So to XVII century Science has really advanced far in its development and there is a lot of evidence for this.
Mechanical watches were invented in the 13th century. Improvements in their design, in turn, led to the invention of parts (for example, speed indicators, ratchets, gears), which were subsequently used in other mechanisms.
In medieval European cities Water supply systems are being developed. For this purpose, pumping stations were built, driven by the same hydraulic motor. Some cities had such a water supply system already at the beginning of the 16th century.
In the 14th century, the use of gunpowder began in Europe, which, although it was invented in China, it was again in Europe that it received widespread use and further improvement. Bows, spears and crossbows began to be exchanged for firearms and cannons, which later determined the dominance of Europeans on the world stage. In addition, the telescope, instruments such as a microscope, thermometer, barometer and air pump were invented. Scientific achievements constantly multiplied. Newton discovered the wave nature of light and demonstrated that the stream of light that appears white to us consists of spectral colors into which it can be divided using a prism. Two other famous English experimenters were William Gilbert (1544-1603 English physicist, scientist and doctor.) , who laid the foundations for the study of electricity and magnetism, and Robert Hooke (1635-1703 English naturalist, encyclopedist) , who introduced the concept of “cell” to describe what he saw through the lenses of the microscope he improved.
Irishman Robert Boyle (1627-1691 physicist, chemist and theologian) carried out physical work in the field of molecular physics, light and electrical phenomena, hydrostatics, acoustics, heat, mechanics. In 1660, Guericke improved the air pump and established new facts, which he presented in “New physical and chemical experiments concerning the elasticity of air.” He showed the dependence of the boiling point of water on the degree of rarefaction of the surrounding air and proved that the rise of liquid in a narrow tube is not associated with atmospheric pressure. In 1661 he discovered Boyle's law, designed a barometer and introduced the name barometer. Made the first elasticity studies solids, was a supporter of atomism. In 1663 he discovered colored rings in thin layers (Newton's rings). In 1661 he formulated the concept of a chemical element and introduced the experimental method into chemistry, laying the foundation for chemistry as a science.
And the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens(1629-1695 Dutch mathematician, physicist, astronomer and inventor.) invented a pendulum clock with an escapement mechanism, proving Galileo's conclusion that a pendulum device could be used to control time was correct.
The enumeration of all kinds of inventions and achievements of medieval scientists could go on for a long time.
There will still be inventions ahead, such as the steam engine, electricity and the telephone. The earth will be entangled with wires and railways, and the astronauts will go into outer space. In the meantime... while a lonely medieval scientist in his darkened room forged the history of science...
Conclusion
“Never has the history of the world assumed such importance and significance, never has it shown such a multitude of individual phenomena as in the Middle Ages.”
(N.V. Gogol)
Technology arose along with the emergence of man, and for a long time developed independently of any science. For a long time, science itself did not have a special disciplinary organization and was not focused on the conscious application of the knowledge it created in the technical field. Recipe-technical knowledge has been opposed to scientific knowledge for quite a long time; the question of special scientific-technical knowledge has not been raised at all. “Scientific” and “technical” actually belonged to different cultural areas. It was the engineers, artists and practical mathematicians of the Middle Ages who played a decisive role in the adoption of a new type of practically oriented theory. The ideal of a new science, capable of solving engineering problems by theoretical means, and a new science-based technology were put forward. This ideal eventually led to the disciplinary organization of science and technology. The great technical inventions made in the Middle Ages had a huge impact on all areas of the economy and culture, including the development of science. For a long time, the Middle Ages were characterized as a period of spiritual decline, a period between the great eras: antiquity and renaissance. But without this time, without its discoveries and technical improvements, the advent of a new time would have been impossible. The technological advances of the Renaissance were made possible by the use and development of the inventions and discoveries of the Middle Ages, which together opened up to Europeans greater possibilities for controlling and, ultimately, understanding the world than they could have gained from the classical inheritance.
List of sources and literature used
science discovery middle ages newton
1. Bernal J. Science in the history of society / J. Bernal; lane from English A.M. Vyazmina; total ed. B.M.Kedrova, I.V.Kuznetsova. - M.: Foreign lit., 1956.-735p.
Gorelov A.A. Concepts modern natural science: textbook manual.- M.: Higher Education, 2008.-335 p. - (Fundamentals of Sciences)
Solomatin V.A. History and concepts of modern natural science: a textbook for universities. - M.: PER SE, 2002.-464 p. - (Modern education)
"100 people who changed the course of history" weekly publication, issue No. 9, 2008
History of biology from ancient times to the present day [Electronic resource] http://www.biolhistory.ru/
Historical physics. Leonardo da Vinci [Electronic resource] http://www.abitura.com/
Wikipedia Free encyclopedia[Electronic resource] http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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- Introduction
- Conclusion
- Literature
Introduction
The Middle Ages is a more than thousand-year (V - XV centuries) period in the history of mankind. This is the time of dominance of the religious worldview in spiritual life, when the three world religions that originated in the East - Buddhism, Christianity and Islam - determine philosophical teachings and development artistic culture. When culture exists in folklore-ritual and cult-religious forms, and the artistic canon is of greater importance than the personality of the artist.
Medieval culture was a historically natural and in many ways a progressive stage in the development of mankind. The positive contribution of the Middle Ages to the history of world culture is objectively great. It was partly reflected in philosophy, which, despite the dominance of idealism and scholasticism, contained valuable materialist and dialectical tendencies. It also manifested itself in the field of scientific knowledge. Medieval culture is not a frozen world, but a living movement along the path of searching for the highest perfection. The material basis of medieval culture was feudal relations. The transition to feudalism and its development took place in different nations differently.
The history of the Middle Ages is closer to our time than the history of the ancient world. Many of its “traces” have been preserved on the surface of the earth. In ancient cities you can still see entire neighborhoods built up with houses of medieval artisans, merchants, fortress walls and towers, and majestic temples.
Many historical works and chronicles have been preserved from the Middle Ages. Many works of fiction and works by scientists have also reached us. Before the invention of printing in the mid-15th century. All documents were handwritten.
Development of sciences in medieval Europe
Eastern states were significantly ahead of Europe in economic and cultural development during the early Middle Ages (VII-XI centuries). If, for example, Biruni translated Ptolemy, determined the radius of the Earth, and thought about the heliocentric system of the world, then in Europe naive ideas about the Earth as a flat cake covered with a crystal cap and surrounded by the ocean.
However, already from the 10th century. Economic and cultural ties between Europe and the East begin to develop. They played a big role in this from the second half of the 11th century. famous Crusades, which brought new information to Europeans: economic, technical and cultural.
The development of crafts and trade in Europe contributed to the revitalization of the economy and culture. The first universities appeared, first in Spain, where the Arabs had already organized a university in Cordoba, then in Italy, Paris and England. University medieval Europe was significantly different from a modern university, but to this day the academic degrees of doctor and master, the titles of professor and associate professor, lectures as the main form of communicating knowledge, and faculties as divisions of the university have been preserved.
The lecture (literally, reading) in the medieval university was, by necessity, the main form of communication of knowledge. Books were few and expensive, and therefore reading and commenting on theological and scientific works was an important form of information.
Teaching was conducted in Latin, as were services in Catholic churches. Until the 18th century Latin language was an international scientific language; Copernicus, Newton and Lomonosov wrote in it.
Another prerequisite for the future flourishing of science was the development of technology. Mechanical watches, glasses, book printing, and paper production played a huge role in the development of natural science.
The main factor that determined revolutionary changes in the development of society and science was that within feudal society new productive forces were maturing, which came into conflict with feudal production relations and required both new forms of social existence and new science. In the meantime, scholastic science, cultivated in universities, was based on an essentially anti-scientific principle - the truth was already discovered in the Holy Scriptures and in the works of theological authorities (including Aristotle, who was adapted to the needs of the church worldview), and the duty of scientists was to study and comment on this truth.
Under these conditions, it was difficult for science to develop; free, independent thought was mercilessly suppressed. This era went down in the history of science as a “period of stagnation”, as the “dark night of the Middle Ages”. However, even at this time, people lived and worked who rose above the general level, who were looking for new ways of knowledge. This was, for example, the famous monk Roger Bacon (1214-1294). Bacon was born in England in the county of Somerset, studied at Oxford and Paris universities, and in 1250 joined the Franciscan monastic order. At Oxford he was engaged in scientific research.
His independence of thought brought upon him the charge of heresy, and he was imprisoned. Released by Pope Clement IV, he went to France, but there he was again persecuted and was released from prison only as a very old man in 1288.
Bacon did not limit himself to pointing out the great importance of experience. He experimented tirelessly and himself carried out chemical, optical, and physical experiments and astronomical observations.
Bacon knew the effect of camera obscura, which increases the effect of convex lenses, established that concave mirrors focus parallel beams to a point lying between the center and the top of the mirror, and foresaw the possibility of constructing optical instruments. He took a step forward in explaining the phenomenon of the rainbow, comparing its colors with rainbow colors when light is refracted in crystal, in dew drops, in water splashes.
At the same time, he established that the angle formed by the direction of the ray falling on the water drops with the ray directed from the rainbow to the eye is 42°.
In the XIV century. the reaction begins. The church’s fight against “heresy” is intensifying and torture is being introduced. The teaching was condemned and the work of Nicholas of Hautricourt was burned, who, following the atomists, argued that there is nothing in the world except the combination and separation of atoms. He was forced to renounce his teaching. The Church also condemned the teachings of Wilhelm of Occam, who defended the possibility of two types of knowledge - scientific and divine revelation - and demanded freedom for scientific knowledge. Nevertheless, even in the 14th century. life did not stand still. The development of technology continues, tower wheel clocks appear in Paris, Germany, and Moscow. In 1440, Johannes Guttenberg (1400-1468) invented printing with cut-out letters. A new era was dawning in the development of civilization and science.
In 1519-1522. Ferdinand Magellan's expedition made the first trip around the world, having experimentally proved the sphericity of the Earth and essentially discovered it as a cosmic body. After Magellan, it became impossible to adhere to outdated medieval ideas about the Earth. Magellan opened the way to a new understanding of the Universe, and this understanding was given by Nicolaus Copernicus. It was prepared not only by geographical discoveries. Already in the 15th century. there were people who proclaimed a new approach to understanding nature.
Starting from the second half of the 15th century, the great artists of the Italian Renaissance entered the historical arena: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and others; religious reformers: Luther and Calvin; great humanists: Thomas More, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Francois Rabelais and others; brave travelers: Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan and many others; scientists: Nikolai Cusansky, Tartaglia, Cardano, Ramus, Commandino, Telesius, Guido Ubaldi, Porta. The list of names could be significantly expanded.
Leonardo da Vinci is the predecessor of Galileo, Descartes, Kepler, Newton and other founders of modern natural science. He was one of the first to begin the fight against the scholastic method, proclaimed the foundations of the new method and began to apply it to solving specific problems, in particular to the study of movement.
Leonardo lives in a different time, significantly different from the time of Aristotle. He knows gunpowder, has repeatedly observed the flight of shells and bullets, and the number of observed movements that continue even after the action of a pushing force is greater for him than for Aristotle. Therefore, he takes the next step in understanding the nature of movement and records the presence of inertia and inertial movement in nature, attributing it to the preservation of the “nature of violence.”
The mechanics of Leonardo, Galileo and Newton generalized the new practice of artillerymen, weapons designers, shipbuilders, and sailors.
Leonardo's observation and sharp physical thinking allowed him to make interesting observations and formulate a number of provisions and problems. Thus, it captures the important property of sound and water waves to propagate without interfering with each other (the principle of superposition).
Leonardo's encrypted notes did not enter the life of science in a timely manner, and his rich scientific heritage could not serve the cause of scientific progress. But the fact that Leonardo lived, worked, and thought was of great importance. The foundations of medieval science were being shaken, and the work of Leonardo, an artist, engineer, and thinker, helped to destroy the old and create the new.
Science in the Medieval East
Arab scientists were distinguished by their love of mathematics. Having mastered the knowledge of the ancient Greeks and Hindus, they introduce the use of the decimal system and zero, square and cubic roots. Here, for the first time, the size of the Earth was correctly calculated and the most accurate calendar was compiled. The first after the beginning of AD. We owe the measurement of the Earth to Caliph Al-Mamun: around 820, two Arab astronomers Khalid Ibn Malik and Ali Ibn Isa, on the orders of this caliph, measured one degree of the earth’s circumference on the Senjadlina plain.
Astronomy and astrology developed successfully. Thus, the Baghdad astronomer Albumaeor (9th century) describes the vapors of the planet Mars and comments on this fact as an astrologer, saying that the ignition of these vapors foreshadows the death of kings and a change of kingdoms, for such are the effects of the influence of Mars. Chemistry and alchemy developed intensively: the Arabs, as a result of their search for the elixir of youth and the philosopher's stone, discovered alcohol, turpentine, sulfuric acid, and invented guns.
Information about the level of development of Arabic medicine is given in the treatise of Ibn Ali Useibia “Source of information about the various classes of doctors.” In addition to data on the level of development of medicine at that time, it provides an analysis of the development of medicine in different regions of the Arab East: Iraq, Persia, India, Egypt, Iraq, Spain and the Maghreb. Information is provided about 400 doctors and the level of their merits. The most famous was the physician and philosopher Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), who, in addition to studying human anatomy, compiled unique prescription reference books. Tendency to systematize numerous scientific observations can be traced in philology, biology, and geography.
The Arab East was famous for its cartographers: their topographic maps, compiled by highly skilled draftsmen during their travels, were amazingly accurate. A successful tool for organizing historical and geographical material was found by an Arab geographer and traveler of the 10th century. Shams-ad-din Abu Abdallah Mukaldasi in the form of a description of countries differentiated “by Climate”. Subsequently, Muhammad Idrisi also identified “seven climates” and described the countries inherent in them.
In the 8th – 9th centuries, many scientific works of ancient Greek, Iranian, Indian and other scientists were translated into Arabic. Especially many translations were made under Harun ar-Rashid and his son. A “house of wisdom” was then founded in Baghdad - a repository of manuscripts where books were translated and copied. Following the example of Baghdad, “houses of wisdom” were created in other large cities; In them, scientists received books, housing and money.
Arab mathematicians were familiar with the works of Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes, as well as the works of Indian astronomers and mathematicians. They created algebra (from the word “algebra” - counting) and began to use Indian numerals. These figures were then borrowed from the Arabs by Europeans. Until now in Europe these numbers are called Arabic.
Observatories operated in Baghdad and Damascus. Using sophisticated instruments, astronomers were able to approximately calculate the circumference of the Earth and describe the position of visible stars in the sky. The scientist Al Biruni (973-1048) from Central Asia wrote many valuable works on various branches of knowledge: geography, history, astronomy and other sciences. He expressed a brilliant guess that the center of our Universe is the Sun, and the Earth moves around it.
Written history was born among the Arabs along with Islam. Legends and messages appeared about Muhammad, his biography, and information about how Islam arose. Historians glorified the conquests of the Arabs and in brief outlined the history of Roman, Byzantine and Iranian rulers.
The Arabs held geography in high esteem. The proverb speaks about this: “Whoever sets out on a journey for the sake of science, the doors of heaven open to him.” Geographers not only studied reports about other countries, but also sought to visit them, making long journeys at the risk of their lives. Arab travelers and merchants described the countries of the caliphate, India, China, and penetrated far into Africa and Eastern Europe. They made maps of the countries and seas known to them.
Medicine developed successfully. The great scientist Ibn Sina (980-1037) lived in Central Asia; in Europe he was called Avicenna. He was a very versatile thinker - philosopher, astronomer, geographer, physician, poet. He owns more than a hundred scientific works. In the East, Ibn Sina was called the head of scientists. Ibn Sina became especially famous as a doctor. In his famous work on medicine, he described the signs of many diseases that before him they could not distinguish. The author of the encyclopedia of theoretical and clinical medicine, who summarized the views and experience of Greek, Roman Indian and Central Asian doctors, “The Canon of Medical Science.” For many centuries, this work has been a mandatory guide for doctors.
The contribution of the Arabs to mathematical science was significant. Lived in the 10th century. Abul-Wafa derived the sine theorem of spherical trigonometry, calculated a table of sines with an interval of 15, and introduced segments corresponding to the secant and cosecant.
The poet and scientist Omar Khayyam wrote “Algebra” - an outstanding work that contained a systematic study of equations of the third degree. He also successfully worked on the problem of irrational and real numbers. He owns the philosophical treatise “On the Universality of Being.” In 1079 he introduced a calendar more accurate than the modern Gregorian calendar.
An outstanding scientist in Egypt was Ibn al-Haytham, a mathematician and physicist, the author of famous works on optics.
Medicine has achieved great success - it has developed more successfully than in Europe or the Far East. Abu Bakr Muhammad ar-Razsch, a famous Baghdad surgeon, gave a classic description of smallpox and measles, and used smallpox vaccination. The Syrian Bakhtisho family gave seven generations of famous doctors.
Historical thought also developed. If in the VII-VIII centuries. Historical works had not yet been written in Arabic and there were simply many legends about Muhammad, the campaigns and conquests of the Arabs, then in the 9th century. Major works on history are being compiled. The leading representatives of historical science were al-Belazuri, who wrote about the Arab conquests, al-Nakubi, aag-Tabara and al-Masudi, the authors of works on general history. It is history that will remain virtually the only branch of scientific knowledge that will develop in the 13th – 15th centuries. under the dominance of a fanatical Muslim clergy, when neither exact sciences nor mathematics developed in the Arab East. The most famous historians of the XIV - XV centuries. There were the Egyptian Makrizi, who compiled the history of the Copts, and Ibu-Khaldun, the first of the Arab historians to try to create a theory of history. He identified the natural conditions of the country as the main factor determining the historical process.
Arabic literature also attracted the attention of scientists: at the turn of the 8th - 9th centuries. An Arabic grammar was compiled, which formed the basis of all subsequent grammars.
By the 10th century In many cities, secondary and higher Muslim schools - madrasahs - appeared. In the X - XIII centuries. In Europe, a signed decimal system for writing numbers, called “Arabic numerals,” became known from Arabic writings.
For the first time in the history of world mathematical science, Indian mathematicians introduced the decimal positional number system and began to use zero to indicate the absence of units of a given digit.
Modern style of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Not of Arabic origin, as previously thought, but of Indian origin. It turns out that the Arabs used a positional decimal number system, which they borrowed from the Indians and then gradually transferred to Europe.
Indian mathematicians created algebra and freely operated not only with fractions, but also with irrational and negative numbers.
The Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata gave an approximate calculation of the number accurate to the fourth digit: = 3.1416. In algebra, he gave a rule for extracting square roots from numbers, and considered problems of composing and solving indefinite equations in integers. I worked on summing cubes of natural numbers, etc.
The famous Indian mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara-Akariya was born in 1114. He solved indefinite equations of the form: in integers, gave an interpretation of division by zero and some questions of computational geometry.
The great achievements of Chinese mathematics were the results of calculations made in the 5th century. father and son of Zu Chongzhi and Zu Genzhi. Using methods unknown to us, they obtained exact number to the tenth decimal place. This achievement was recorded in the chronicles, but the works themselves disappeared without a trace.
The Chinese discovered a way to measure physical bodies at a distance and came to the conclusion that “the earth has a form, but the sky has no body.” For the first time in the history of the calendar, precession was used in China; about half a thousand stars were known. They developed diagnostics of diseases: based on the doctrine of dark and light principles, they explained the connection between physiology, pathology and disease, and discovered methods of biological control of plants.
In the 5th century a metal fusion process was developed in which cast iron and malleable steel were melted to create new steel.
In the 3rd century. For the first time in world practice, the Chinese learned to cast metal stirrups of perfect shape. They were brought to the west by the warriors of the Zhuan-Zhuan tribe, which became known as the Avars. A navigation “cybernetic device” has appeared, working on the feedback principle. It was called the "south-pointing cart." This device had nothing to do with a magnetic compass and was just a cart topped with a jade figurine of a sage. Wherever the cart turned, even if it drove in a circle, the outstretched hand of the sage always pointed to the south.
One of the most amazing objects created by Chinese masters were “magic mirrors”. They existed already in the 5th century. The convex reflective side of the mirror was cast from light bronze and polished to a shine. The reverse side was covered with cast bronze drawings and hieroglyphs. Under the bright rays of the sun, one could look through the reflective surface and see the patterns on the reverse side, as if the bronze was becoming transparent. The mystery was solved only in the twentieth century, when the microstructure of metal surfaces became accessible to study.
In the VI century. The first matches appeared in China. It is believed that they owe their appearance to the siege of the imperial palace in 577 in the northern kingdom of Qi.
The great discoveries of Medieval China were unthinkable without the development of scientific knowledge. Through the efforts of mathematicians, the foundations of Chinese algebra were created. Thanks to the inventions of the Buddhist monk Yi Xing (683-727), it became possible to measure the speed of movement of celestial bodies. The development of medicine was facilitated by the creation of a medical administration in the Tang era, with the help of which the teaching of various specialties of medical practice was initiated. The flourishing of geography is associated with the appearance of records of the mountain and river systems of China and the Western Territory. A "Map of the Chinese and Barbarians Living within the Four Seas" was created.
Outstanding discoveries were printing, gunpowder and the compass. In the 9th century The first book was printed from carved boards. In the middle of the 11th century. movable clay typesetting hieroglyphic font appeared, and around the 12th century. - and multicolor printing. These advances led to the creation of the first large libraries and newspaper business. The experiments of Chinese alchemists ended in the 10th century. invention of gunpowder. In the 12th century. Chinese sailors were the first in the world to use a compass.
The invention was also of general cultural significance paper money- banknotes. They appeared in the country at the end of the 8th century. and were then called “flying money”, since the wind easily carried them away from their hands.
In the 10th century The concept of vaccination arose when vaccination against smallpox began to be practiced.
China also took the lead in the invention of mechanical watches. They were made by Yi Xing and improved in 976 by Zhang Xixun. Their inventions became steps towards the creation of the “Space Machine” - the greatest Chinese clock of the Middle Ages, built by Su Sup in 1092. It was an astronomical clock tower 10 meters high. The principle of the Su Supa clock formed the basis of the first mechanical watches in Europe.
The first arch bridge with a length of 37.5 m, which the Chinese still call the Great Stone Bridge, became a miracle of engineering technology of its time. It was built in 610 by Li Chun across the Jiao River in the foothills of Shanxi on the edge of the Great Plain of China. The most famous medieval gently sloping arch bridge in China received the name Marco Polo because it was described in detail by him during a trip around the country and called “the most remarkable in the world.” This bridge was built across the Yuyading River in 1189, west of Beijing. Still in operation today, it consists of 11 arches, each span 19 m long and the total length 213 m.
Another Chinese miracle of foundry and engineering art is the octagonal column - the so-called “Heavenly Axis”. 1325 tons of cast iron were used for its construction in 695. The column (32 m high and 3.6 m in diameter) rested on a foundation with a circumference of 51 m and a height of 6 m. On its top was a “cloud vault” with four bronze dragons (each 3.6 m high) supporting a gilded pearl.
The most famous scientific discovery of the Yuan era was a calendar in which the length of the year was 365.2425 days, which was only 26 seconds different from the time during which the Earth makes one full revolution around the Sun. This coincides with the currently used Gregorian calendar, which appeared 300 years later.
In the Ming Empire, the traditional education system was revived, but it could not reach the scale of the Song era. In both Ming capitals, Beijing and Nanjing, higher education institutions were opened public Schools, in which they taught military sciences, medicine and even magic. Local academy schools, regional, district and district schools were restored. A decree of 1375 ordered the creation of a network of primary village (community) schools. Along with state ones, private educational institutions were opened. All types of schools were under the control of the administration.
The development of scientific knowledge was reflected in the practice of creating encyclopedic works, which summarized knowledge on agriculture, craft technology, and pharmacology. History received particular development during the Ming era. At the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Great Code of the Years of the Yong-le reign was published. This encyclopedia consisted of 11,095 volumes and 22,877 chapters and contained sections on history, geography, medicine, technology and art.
The expansion of geographical horizons was facilitated by the descriptions of the lands made by the participants of the grandiose expedition led by Zheng He, and the “Map of Zheng He’s sea voyages” compiled as part of it. From 1405 to 1435 Seven expeditions of the Chinese fleet were made to the countries of Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and Africa under the leadership of Zheng He, who in different campaigns led from 48 to 62 large ships alone. In addition to cultural educational expeditions, they had trade and diplomatic purposes.
An outstanding figure of the Heian era in Japan was the Buddhist monk, writer, calligrapher, and educator Kukai, also known as Kobo Daishi. He is credited with creating the first Japanese hiragana syllabary based on the Chinese cursive hieroglyphic script. Later, the sounds of the same alphabet began to be written in signs of a different system. Thus katakana was born.
A special section of the graphic art of beautiful writing appears - calligraphy. Its outstanding representatives, along with Kukai, were Kosei (971-1027), Tsofu (925-996) and Sari (933-988). They usually used Chinese characters as a model. However, their brush always gave birth to original beauty.
At the beginning of the 9th century. Through the efforts of Kukai, the first school was opened for the children of ordinary townspeople and low-ranking officials. For the highest aristocracy, a metropolitan university was created, which had four faculties: leading historical and philological, legal, historical and mathematical. The training was conducted according to the Chinese model and included mastery of the six Confucian arts: ritual, music, literature, mathematics, archery and chariot driving. Some noble aristocratic families had their own schools, but university education remained the standard for them.
The temples were real research centers of the ancient Mayans. They adopted the basics of mathematics, astronomy, and writing from the Olmecs. At that time, these sciences were closely related to each other. Observations on starry sky recorded in writing and linked in sequence and periodicity by mathematics. For the first time in the world, the Mayans developed a precise numbering system and applied the idea of taking into account location when writing large numbers. Thousands of years earlier than Europe, they operated with the concept of zero and expressed infinitely large quantities.
The idea that all living things (including stars, luminaries, people) is subject to the periodic numerical laws of harmony, necessity and stability led to the emergence of astrology. The Mayan zodiac was an illustration of a model of the cosmos tied to the reincarnation cycle of man. It had 13 main constellations.
The Mayans determined the length of the year (365.242129 days) and the period of revolution of the Moon around the Earth (29.53059 days), with unusual accuracy, even for our time, they predicted the eclipse of the Moon and the phases of Mars, etc. It remains a mystery how they were able to obtain such precise numbers using such primitive means: a vertical stick and threads to draw visual lines! However, the Mayans had the most accurate chronology system among ancient civilizations.
The Mayans also had a very extensive knowledge of mineralogy and seismology, geography and geodesy, meteorology and medicine. Diagnostics, homeopathy, the art of massage and surgical practice have reached a high level. Complex operations were performed to remove tumors and scrape cataracts using narcotic drugs as anesthesia.
The Mayans developed, enriched and complicated the Olmec hieroglyphic writing with new elements. For the most part, their hieroglyphs have a strictly defined phonetic meaning and are syllables. For a long time they could not be deciphered, and only in 1959 the Leningrad scientist Yu.V. Knorozov read them for the first time. This made it possible to become familiar with the contents of Mayan books. Unfortunately, only three Mayan manuscripts have reached us - many were burned by the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.
The few surviving Mayan books are conventionally called codices and are distinguished by place of storage: Paris, Dresden, Madrid. In addition to them, there are also several manuscripts written in Latin in the first years of the conquest of America by Europeans. These are the Popol Vuh and Chilam Balam. The Popol Vuh consists of three main parts: cosmogonic, mythological (about the two twin brothers Hunahpu and Xbalanque and their journey to the underworld - Xibalba) and anthropogonic (about the creation of the ancestors of mankind). The text conveys the religious, philosophical and aesthetic views of the Mayans.
Among the Incas there were good mathematicians, astronomers, engineers and doctors. The basis of Incan science was mathematics. It was based on the decimal system and marked the beginning of the development of statistics.
Mathematics has found wide application in astronomy. Observatories were located throughout Peru, where the days of the solstices and equinoxes were determined, the Sun, Moon, Venus, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, the constellations of the Pleiades, the Southern Cross, etc. were observed. The Incan solar year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, plus one additional month of five days.
Tawantinsuyu had its own geographers and cartographers who made beautiful relief maps, as well as historians.
But medicine is recognized as the most developed science in the state. Diseases were considered a consequence of sin, so priests and healers practiced medicine. They treated with magical techniques, fasting, and bloodletting. Gastric and intestinal lavages, as well as herbs. In severe cases, they resorted to operations (craniotomy, amputation of limbs), etc. They used a special method of treating wounds - with the help of ants, as well as painkillers, such as coca, which was very highly valued. Evidence of the effectiveness of Incan medicine was the longevity of the inhabitants of the empire - 90-150 years.
However, despite the well-functioning state system and the high level of achievements of the great power of the Sun, it did not last long and suffered the fate of all the civilizations of pre-Columbian America in the 16th century. When she meets the Europeans, she dies, broken by the onslaught of a world of greed and treachery incomprehensible to the Incas.
Features of medieval science
The most important feature of medieval science is the special role of Christian doctrine and the Christian church. The Church had a huge influence on the formation of a religious worldview, spreading the ideas of Christianity, preaching love, forgiveness and understandable norms of social coexistence, faith in universal happiness, equality, and goodness. In the Middle Ages, the picture of the world was based mainly on images and interpretations of the Bible. The starting point for the explanation of the world was the complete, unconditional opposition of God and nature, Heaven and Earth, soul and body. In the minds of people of the Middle Ages, the world was seen as an arena of confrontation between good and evil, as a kind of hierarchical system in which there was a place for God, angels, people, and otherworldly forces of darkness. At the same time, the consciousness of a person in the Middle Ages was deeply magical. It was a culture of prayers, fairy tales, myths, and magic spells.
The medieval culture of the early Middle Ages received a religious overtones. Mathematical and natural sciences have fallen into decline scientific disciplines. Education was completely monopolized by the church. She approved the school curriculum and selected the student population.
In the Middle Ages, there was no true differentiation of scientific knowledge. Many scientists were engaged in different sciences. The scientist Al Biruni from Central Asia wrote many valuable works on various branches of knowledge: geography, history, astronomy and other sciences. The scientist Ibn Sina was a very versatile thinker - philosopher, astronomer, geographer, physician, poet. He owns more than a hundred scientific works.
In the Middle Ages, such peculiar sciences as astrology and alchemy flourished. Astrologers claimed that the future could be determined by the stars. Kings, generals and travelers consulted them before doing anything. Alchemists were busy searching for a “magic stone” with which they could turn any metal into gold. No matter how fantastic the goals of alchemists and astrologers were, their observations and experiments contributed to the accumulation of knowledge in astronomy and chemistry. Alchemists, for example, discovered and improved methods for producing paints, metal alloys, medicinal substances, and created many chemical instruments and devices for conducting experiments.
Conclusion
In the Middle Ages, humanity made a major step forward compared to antiquity in the development of economy, culture and morality.
Many of the existing cities appeared in the Middle Ages. This gave a huge impetus to the development of economy and culture.
Since the Middle Ages, people began to use porcelain dishes, mirrors, forks, soap, glasses, buttons, mechanical watch. Human muscles in some types of work were supplanted by a water engine. Blast furnaces appeared, and metal began to be processed on drilling, turning, and grinding machines. In the production of fabrics, they began to use a foot-controlled spinning wheel and a horizontal loom. The invention of gunpowder and firearms was of decisive importance for the development of military affairs.
In navigation, people used compasses and other instruments. They learned to build more advanced ships. Brave travelers explored a significant part of the land, seas and oceans, discovered America, and circumnavigated Africa from the south. Man was finally convinced of the sphericity of the Earth.
Literature
- Agibalova E.V., Donskoy G.M. “History of the Middle Ages”: Textbook. For 6th grade. general education institutions. – 5th ed. – M.: Education, 1999
- "History of Arithmetic". Manual for teachers. State educational and pedagogical publishing house of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, Moscow 1959.
- Culturology. History of world culture: Textbook for universities / Ed. prof. A.N. Markova. – 2nd ed., revised. and additional – M.: UNITY, 2002.
- Cultural studies for technical universities. "Textbook for technical universities." Rostov n/a: “Phoenix”, 2001.
- Encyclopedic Dictionary of a Young Mathematician / Comp. A.P. Savin. – M.: Pedagogy, 1989.
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Scientists of the Middle Ages.
Thomas Aquinas
Medieval philosopher and theologian. Lived approximately from 1223-1274. Born into an Italian noble family. Despite the protests of his parents, he became a Dominican monk and studied with one of the famous theologians of his time in Cologne. Then, he taught in Paris, and even spent some time at the papal court. Thomas with early childhood was interested in books and thought about God.
He was a quiet, plump, silent and unusually serious boy, constantly looking for answers to questions about the existence of God. Thomas loved books and would probably prefer them to all the treasures in the world. Once asked what he was most grateful to God for, Thomas replied: “I understood every page I read.”
Thomas Aquinas became the founder of a movement that was called scholasticism. It relied on the authority of Aristotle, as well as the early church fathers. It was thanks to Thomas Aquinas that Aristotle's works were recognized in Christian Western Europe. His main thoughts are set out in his work “Summa Theologica”. Thomas Aquinas understood man as a combination of body and soul. He considered the soul immortal. The soul, in the understanding of the philosopher, is a kind of spiritual basis of personality. The whole person is a person.
Thomas Aquinas believed that each soul belongs to its body in strict correspondence, and their unity forms the personality itself. In his works, he develops the idea that man is a creation that has the ability to learn and is also endowed with free will. And virtues manifest themselves in a person if the so-called spiritual abilities have developed, which are intellect and will. He puts forward five proofs of the existence of God and said that scientific truths and dogmas of faith cannot contradict each other, because they are harmoniously connected with each other. He talked about wisdom as the desire to comprehend God, and considered science as a means that contributes to this. After his death, he was given the title “angelic doctor,” and after some time, Thomas was canonized.
Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon lived between 1214 -1294. He was a philosopher, naturalist, taught at Oxford and was a Franciscan monk. He was distinguished by his great encyclopedic knowledge in various fields of science, he wrote several treatises among them: “Great Work”, “Small Work”, “Third Work” and “Compendium of Philosophy”.
Roger paid great attention to “experimental science” and believed that it was on it that any other science was based. He sought to form a so-called encyclopedia of sciences, within which he wanted to combine philosophy, mathematics, physics and ethics.
He argued that man himself always strives for absolute truth, but only that part is revealed to him that God wishes to reveal to him. He was an opponent of the dictates of scholastic philosophy, which was leading at that time. Bacon said that there are three types of knowledge: authority, experience and reasoning. He divided experience into two types - internal and external.
Leonardo da Vinci can be considered a follower of the ideas of Roger Bacon, who in his works was also guided by practical experience and was distrustful of abstract science. Bacon’s ideas did not find support, and moreover, the philosopher’s teaching was condemned by the Franciscan Order, but despite this, it was his concept of “experimental science” and achievements in the field of natural science that gave impetus to the development of modern philosophy. Roger Bacon put forward many ideas and technical thoughts (for example, ideas about creating telescopes and flying machines), which were in many ways ahead of their era.
Yulia Sherstyuk - linguist, political scientist. Moscow.
In Europe during the Middle Ages, which falls between the fifth and seventeenth centuries, the most important sciences were considered to be philosophy, theology, mathematics and mechanics, therefore the most famous scientists of that time are considered to be people who made a great contribution to the development of these particular areas of scientific knowledge .
Nicolaus Copernicus
A Polish scientist who is better known to every modern person for having substantiated the theory of the structure of the world, according to which all planets move around the Sun. In addition, he made other important discoveries:
- painted his self-portrait;
- wrote the work “On the Rotations of the Celestial Spheres”;
- made several important discoveries in medicine and successfully treated his contemporaries.
Galileo Galilei
A physicist and astronomer who continued the work of Nicolaus Copernicus and, based on his works, began to study the movement of bodies on the Earth itself. He built a telescope, described the principle of the pendulum, and made many discoveries in physics that are used by modern scientists.
Roger Bacon
He is also known as the Amazing Doctor because he received his PhD despite imprisonment and criticism from reputable scientists and philosophers. Bacon made many discoveries in various fields of science:
- studied the theory of magnifying glasses and perspective;
- challenged the primacy of scholastic philosophy;
- studied the composition of metals and their benefits for medicine.
William of Ockham
He was a monk of the Franciscan order and wrote a huge number of works on philosophy, becoming the founder of modern science - epistemology. This area of philosophical knowledge uses a principle called “Occam’s Razor” and says: “You should not multiply things unnecessarily.”
Leonardo of Pisa
Better known as Fibonacci, he was a major mathematician of the Middle Ages. He was the first to use the decimal system when solving problems, and also wrote down his calculations Arabic numerals, which have become familiar to most modern people. In his works, he left many mysteries that mathematicians around the world are still puzzling over.
Nicolaus Copernicus - Polish astronomer. He concluded that the Earth rotates around the Sun and around its axis.
Giordano Bruno is an Italian astronomer. His scientific research led to the conclusion that the universe is infinite.
Galileo Galilei - inventor of the telescope, studied the laws of falling bodies, discovered the moons of Jupiter.
Isaac Newton - created the first reflecting telescope, discovered the law of universal gravitation, the laws of the propagation of light; developed a theory proving that nature obeys the laws of mechanics.
Francis Bacon proposed an experimental method for studying natural phenomena.
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