THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN SCIENCE 69 



were already loosened. Thus, the Renaissance appears as a 

 product of the Middle Ages, and not merely as the ancient 

 spirit restored to power. 



It was necessary for the men of the Renaissance to become 

 masters of the old. But the re-birth was not merely a revival 

 of learning, it was a new creation as well. In science, at 

 least, the Renaissance began where the older knowledge had 

 reached the limits of its understanding. Here, for the first 

 time, science found itself, came to take the ancient learning 

 at its true value, and began to shape new courses. Philos- 

 ophy became distinct, on the one hand from science and on 

 the other from current theology. The authority of nature 

 came to be acknowledged, and the rationalistic point of 

 view was established in a manner distinctive of modern 

 thought. During the first century of the Renaissance 

 (1350-1450), many of the older beliefs and superstitions 

 survived, and even flourished with renewed vigor, like the 

 false sciences of alchemy and astrology. But with the 

 growth of skepticism, rationalism more and more prevailed. 

 Thus, through a critical attitude toward the old knowledge, 

 the way was prepared for the development of more positive 

 and constructive thinking after the middle of the fifteenth 

 century. 



DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE SCIENCE OF THE RENAISSANCE 



The terms Revival of Learning and Renaissance, which 

 are both applied to this great period of European history, are 

 descriptive of its best known features the restoration of the 

 older knowledge and the rebirth of its spirit. The ancient 

 culture was restored to Europe in part by its survivals in 

 Italy and Constantinople, 2 and by transfer from the Arab 



2 The Greek tradition had survived continuously in Constantinople, but 

 the limited means of communication during the Middle Ages and the lack of 

 intellectual interest on the part of western Europeans rendered its influence 

 unavailing. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 is an overrated event from 

 the point of view of culture, as the revival of the classics had already taken 



