420 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



and conceived of himself as master of his fate. On the other 

 hand, ages in which science has been active have been 

 periods in which man became conscious of the lawfulness of 

 nature and of his consequent ineffectiveness. This parallelism 

 suggests that there is some connection between the two 

 facts, at least for the popular mind. The absence of law is 

 associated with human freedom, and the presence of law is 

 associated with human determination. 



The best historical illustration of this is to be found in the 

 contrast between the world-view which was characteristic 

 of the Middle Ages — a period which according to all records 

 was especially deficient in scientific achievements — and the 

 scientific world- view which followed it. 'For the Middle 

 Ages man was in every sense the centre of the universe. The 

 whole world of nature was believed to be teleologically sub- 

 ordinate to him and to his eternal destiny. . . . The pre- 

 vailing world- view of the period was marked by a deep and 

 persistent assurance that man, with his hopes and ideals, 

 was the all-important, even controlling fact in the uni- 

 verse. . . . An explanation in terms of the relation of things 

 to human purpose was accounted just as real as and often 

 more important than an explanation in terms of efficient 

 causality, which expressed their relations to each other. 

 Rain fell because it nourished man's crops as truly as be- 

 cause it was expelled from the clouds. Analogies drawn 

 from purposive activities were freely used. . . . The whole 

 universe was a small, finite place, and it was man's place. 

 He occupied the centre; his good was the controlling end 

 of the natural creation." x 



Sharply contrasted with this was the world- view which 

 developed with the advent of science and its discovery of 

 the mechanical character of natural processes. "Just as it 

 was thoroughly natural for medieval thinkers to view nature 

 as subservient to man's knowledge, purpose, and destiny; 

 so now it has become natural to view her as existing and 



1 E. A. Burtt, Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (New York: 

 Harcourt, Brace, 1925), pp. 4-6. 



