90 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE 



POSITION OF SCIENCE AS ESTABLISHED BY THE RENAISSANCE 



In the foregoing sections, the scientific awakening of 

 Europe has been traced from its beginnings in the later 

 Middle Ages to its culmination during the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries. In such a complex of men and events 

 it is difficult to keep in mind the larger changes. We shall, 

 therefore, enumerate the broader features of this momentous 

 step in human development by a brief characterization of 

 particular periods. In this, one must remember that dates 

 are arbitrary, that round numbers have no meaning as such, 

 and that such an outline necessarily disregards the over- 

 lapping which is so important a factor in the growth of ideas. 

 With these reservations, the intellectual development con- 

 sidered in the preceding pages may be summarized as follows: 



750-800 Revival of the schools under Charlemagne. 



Evidence of an abundance of intellectual ability. 

 800-1150 Failure of the schools, because of unstable political 

 conditions. 

 Glimmerings of intellectual progress in isolated in- 

 dividuals. 

 Influence of the Arab science during this period. 

 1150-1200 Intense intellectual eagerness culminating in scholasti- 

 cism. 

 1200-1300 The century of scholasticism a great intellectual 

 period, although its point of view was not in line 

 with subsequent developments. 

 The dawn of European science is seen in the cumu- 

 lative influence of the Arab science, and in the 

 scientific insight and vision of Roger Bacon. 

 1300-1350 Disappearance in the progressive centers of Europe 

 of the frame of mind most distinctive of the 

 Middle Ages. 

 Growing skepticism regarding traditional authority. 

 1350-1450 Period of destructive criticism and growing rational- 

 ism which prepared the way for the constructive 

 scientific work of the later Renaissance. 



