Question

What was the relationship between medieval theories about scientific reasoning and the kind of reasoning favored during the Scientific Revolution?

Answer 1

Medieval science was dominated by Aristotelian thought to make discoveries in the field of natural philosophy. A revision of the ancient sciences began to take place around 1500 and an important exercise in the translation of ancient texts.

When the Renaissance arrives, there is a great interest in research in mathematics, botany, zoology, astronomy, physics, medicine or history.

The most important change that took place in the conception of the world begins when, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, mathematical language began to be given more importance to explain the facts (the Arab contribution was fundamental to take this step as early as the Middle Ages), In parallel, the divine character was gradually put aside.

Answer 2

The connection between the way of reasoning in the medieval ages and the era of the Scientific Revolution was the interest of acquiring knowledge of nature, mathematics and philosophy through the study of ancient Greek and Arabic texts. This goes in counterposition to the common now-a-days belief that the Middle Ages were a time of darkness where scientific advances and knowledge basically disappeared. In part, this started happening when the Roman Empire desintegrated and knowledge of Greek was reduced, given that most scientific texts and studies were originally in this language and in Arabic. However, as time passed, and medieval Europe reorganized, members of the Catholic clergy and monks undertook the task of again translating, studying and carrying on the knowledge from Greek and Arabic texts and the Scientific Revolution was built upon the information that had been gathered throughout time, including the Middle Ages, especially, the High Middle Ages.