Universities and Intellectual Discovery in the Middle Ages

Episode 11 Universities and Intellectual Discovery

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

China

During the Sui dynasty (581-618), China implemented a civil service exam proposed by Confucius intended to limit the power of local nobility and weed out bureaucratic corruptions. The exam covered the Confucian moral code, the philosophy of yin/yang duality, the I Ching (Book of Changes – used to inform future decisions), medicine, science, astronomy,

Wealthy parents spent fortunes preparing their sons the exam – those who failed became teachers or not infrequently hung themselves. Approximately 130,000 students (25% of the age 19-24 population)  took the exam, which was closed to sons of merchants (viewed as being “too greedy”). Ironically the exam produced deeply conservative bureaucrats who viewed traditional ethics as far more important than innovation and knew virtually nothing about collecting taxes or hiring contractors to build roads.

The Muslim World

In Baghdad, the Abassid Empire established Wisdom Schools, which translated the science, medicine and mathematics texts of Greek and Roman scholars.

Fatima al Firi founded the University of Kareein in Fez Morocco, the largest continuously operational university in the world, and the Mali empire established the Sankoré university in Timbuktu.

Muslim physicians (who needed a license to practice) received training combining the teachings of 2nd century Roman physician Galen and clinical observations. They did surgery using opium and/or wine as anesthesia for cancer, circulation problems and cataracts (which were removed by being drained of fluid.

Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna) was the most famous physician in the Middle Ages. In the 6th century, his Cannon of Medicine was the second most read book after the Bible. He was one of the first to teach that good health relies on a balance of healthy food, lifestyle and medical treatment.

In the 7th century, Indian mathematicians invented the concept of 0 and base 10 numerals. In 825, the Persian mathematician A-Khwarizmi introduced these concepts to the Muslim world in his treatise “On Calculation with Numerals.” By the 10th century, Muslim mathematicians had invented fractions, decimals and algebra.

In the 11th century Lubna, the private secretary to the Cordova Caliph Al-Hakam used Arabic numerals to verify the scientific concepts proposed by Archimedes and other Greek scientists. Pope Sylvester II (999-1003) would introduceMuslim math principles to Europe.

The 12th century Muslim philosopher Averroes rediscovered Aristotle’s Advanced logic, which had been lost to Europeans. Around the same time Muslim Seljik Turks established the first Madrassas in the Near East and Africa. to assist Muslim children to memorize the Koran in Arabic.

Europe

In Europe the first universities were created by cathedrals in the 11th and 12th century, owing to their practice of drawing scholars together to debate theology. Copying the guilds, their advanced scholars referred to themselves as masters and organized themselves into “universitas” (Latin for guild).

As in Rome, advanced education for boys began at 14 (no girls were allowed) and consisted of the trivium: (Latin) grammar, rhetoric and logic. Next came the quadrivium music, arithmetic, geometry and astrology. After two years they took an exam for a bachelor’s degree. After two more years, they could be licensed to become a master. After successfully completing advanced training a student could become a doctor of medicine or philosophy.

All training, including religious training, was based on Aristotelian logic. This led to 13th century scholasticism, which attempted to join faith with reason.*

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*This led to ridiculous debates over the number of angels on the head of a pin and whether a man’s body (in the final resurrection) belonged to him or the cannibal who ate him. The most famous scholastic Thomas Aquinas offers five proofs of God’s existence in his Summa Theologiae. William of Ockham at Oxford was the most prominent critic of scholasticism. He asserted that requiring God to be logical removed the possibility of miracles. Roger Bacon set the stage for the modern scientific revolution by arguing all old beliefs should be tested by experimental science.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172811