64 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE 



fragmentary form. Being eagerly devoured by the school- 

 men, they at once became a part of the traditional teachings, 

 rather than a stimulus to a renewal of the Greek spirit of 

 investigation. It is for this reason that the Ptolemaic 

 astronomy and the science of Aristotle were looked upon 

 with suspicion by many of the scholars of the Renaissance. 

 The Arab influence is seen throughout these closing decades 

 of the Middle Ages. Those who struggled against the es- 

 tablished authority seem continually to have drawn inspira- 

 tion from this source rather than from the ancient masters as 

 interpreted by Europe. The philosophical aspects of the 

 Aristotelian doctrines were set forth by the Spanish- Arabian 

 scholar Averroes (1126-1198) and assumed such importance 

 that the Church was at great pains to counteract them. 

 Despite these attacks, the intellectual vistas that were 

 being opened to Europe continued to unfold. 



The union of science and theology, which had been 

 criticized by Averroes, was further protested by Duns 

 Scotus (1265-1308) and by William of Occam (d. 1347), the 

 latter denying that theological doctrines were rationally 

 demonstrable and showing the irrational nature of many of 

 the current teachings. 23 Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274), 

 although a defender of orthodox theology, shows a more 

 scientific spirit than many of his contemporaries, when he 

 declares that "the object of the study of philosophy is not to 

 learn what men have thought but what is the real truth of 

 the matter. " But Aquinas represents the spirit of Scholasti- 

 cism rather than the spirit of science. He is admired at the 

 present day as an earnest seeker after truth, possessed of 

 great intellectual acumen but dominated by the prejudices 

 of his age, rather than one whose ideas were in line with 

 modern thought. 



The culmination of distinctively medieval ideas is seen in 

 the scholasticism of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 



23 Whetham, W. C. D., and C. D., "Science and the Human Mind." Also: 

 Taylor, H. O., " The Medieval Mind," Chap. XLIL 



