University of Maryland - Fall 2004
HIST 401
Study Questions for Topic 3
Decline of Islamic & Chinese Science; European Renaissance

Questions numbered in multiples of 5 are essay questions (equivalent to 40% on midterm exam); the others are short-answer, one or two paragraphs (10%).

* indicates questions that will not be on an exam but may be used for extra-credit assignments.

"Identify" means give nationality, profession or field of research, major contribution to science/philosophy and its date within ± 100 years.  For a concept or term, explain its meaning and historical significance, including the name of its inventor or person most often associated with it.

If you are unsure about the meaning of any word in the readings or lectures, use a dictionary or ask in class. Exams may include questions asking for the definitions of unusual words that are important in the history of science.

None of these questions may be answered simply "yes" or "no."

When handing in answers for extra credit, indicate which question you are answering by giving its number (e.g. "Topic 1, no. 6")

Note also the distinction between "internal" and "external" (questions #20, 21, & 22 below) which applies to other material in this course.

1. According to Max Weber and others, science grew from "the method of experiment" which arose from the arts and crafts through the social ambitions of the artists. Why does Huff reject this view, and what alternative source does he offer for the rise of modern science?
2. What was the most significant source of the rationalist impulse in the European Middle Ages before the 13th century, and how did it influence the relation between religion and science, according to Huff and Lindberg?
3. What was the view of William of Conches on the relation between science/philosophy and the Bible, and how did his view break from earlier tradition? In what century did he live?
4. What is "Islamic occasionalism" and how was it related to science?
5. Discuss the major features of the European legal tradition, influenced by Christian theology, that differed sharply from Islamic tradition and may have encouraged science in medieval Europe while the Islamic tradition hindered it.
6. What and when was the "papal revolution" and how did it help establish the preconditions for modern science, according to Huff?
7. Explain the difference between apodictic reasoning and dialectical reasoning, as defined by Huff. Which is closer to the method of modern science? (Explain)
8. What is the legal definition of a "corporation" according to Huff? How is the history of this concept related to the origin of modern science?
9. Identify Peter Abelard and al-Ghazali: when (within + 50 years) and where (in which major civilization) did they live? Compare their views on the role of human reason in theology and philosophy.
10. Compare the way Lindberg and Huff describe medieval science in Europe and Islam. Do they disagree on any specific facts? Do they differ in historiographic method? In conclusions?
11. According to Huff, a "long standing theorem in the sociology of science" predicts that the Arabic world should have "made the leap to modern science long before the Europeans." What is this theorem, and why does the prediction fail?
12. How did medieval European universities differ from Islamic colleges (madrasas) in (a) organization, (b) curriculum & certification? How did this difference favor the rise of science in Europe but not in Islam?
13. What were 3 major reasons why Islamic physicians did not achieve a breakthrough to the modern practice of medicine, according to Huff?
14. Like many early astronomical observatories and astronomers in Europe, the Maragha Observatory originally served astrological purposes. Why did this association with astrology make it vulnerable to attack by religious scholars in Islam?
15. *Huff asserts that after the 13th century Islam rejected science and returned to traditional views dominated by religious precepts, as shown by the abolition of the Maragha Observatory, violent opposition to science in the 18th century, and the persistence of geocentric astronomy through the 19th century. He says the ongoing persecution of unorthodox ideas in modern Islam is indicated by the 1989 "fatwa" encouraging the assassination of Salman Rushdie. Discuss this assertion, after looking at a few of the books cited by Huff (authors Appignanesi, Gibbs & Bowen, Heinen, Hoodbhoy, Nasr, Pipes, Sabra).
16. What were the "seven liberal arts" in medieval European universities, and how were they divided into 2 categories? What was the "quadrivium" and how did it differ from the "natural sciences" or "natural philosophy"?
17. How did Aristotelian philosophy conflict with Christianity on the question of "eternity of the world"? How was the conflict resolved by Aquinas and by Bishop Tempier?
18. How did the Condemnations of 1277 encourage speculations about a "plurality of worlds"?
19. Why did Islam ban the printing press until the 19th century? What effect did this have on science?
20. Toby Huff, a professor of sociology, claims that the reasons why Islam failed to develop modern science are sociological ("external"), rather than scientific ("internal"). Discuss his most important evidence for this claim and point out any weaknesses you perceive in it.
21. What were 3 internal factors that inhibited the development of modern science in China, according to Huff? ("Internal" means within science & mathematics.)
22. What were 3 major external factors that inhibited the development of modern science in China, according to Huff? ("External" means outside science & mathematics.)
23. How did the Comet of 1577 save Tycho Brahe's system from certain rejection?
24. Explain Nelson's statement "Had the pioneers [of science] not risked everything in struggle against fictionalism and probabilism, today's physicists would not have been as free as they now are to champion fictionalist and probabilist positions."
25. Why did the rise of modern science happen in 17th century Europe, not some other time & place?
26. What does the term "institution" (as in "institutionalization") mean to a sociologist, in contrast to its ordinary meaning? How does the distinction apply to the history of science?
27. Why (according to Huff and Dear) was the introduction and dominance of Aristotelian philosophy in medieval European universities sometimes favorable rather than unfavorable to science?
28. What evidence does Diamond give for his opinion that "if the populations of Aboriginal Australia and Eurasia could have been interchanged during the late Pleistocene, the original Aboriginal Australians would now be the ones occupying most of the Americas and Australia, while the Aboriginal Eurasians would be the ones now reduced to downtrodden population fragments in Australia"?
29. *Look up two or three reviews of Huff's book in professional history or history of science journals (give exact citations) and summarize their evaluations.
30. "Why did the Fertile Crescent and China eventually lose their enormous leads of thousands of years to late-starting Europe?" Compare the answers of Diamond and Huff to this question.
31. *Look up two or three reviews of Diamond's book in professional history or history of science journals (give exact citations) and summarize their evaluations.
32. Why did China become a powerful unified civilization in spite of its north-south shape?
33. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a highly indented coastline, many internal barriers to motion of people (mountains, lack of long navigable rivers)?
34. Discuss the "continuity debate" on the relation between medieval and early modern science. How is it related to the decision to focus on global or disciplinary change? How (if ever) could the issue be settled?
35. Is history a science, or should it be?
36. *State and prove the Merton mean-speed theorem. Be sure you understand the proof, don't just copy it.
37. *What is the cause of natural motion in Aristotelian physics? State and defend your opinion.
38. Why was projectile motion a problem for Aristotelian physics? How did Buridan solve the problem? Why is his solution different from Newtonian mechanics?
39. *Write Bradwardine's dynamical law using logarithms. Does it satisfy Aristotle's criteria, (a) doubling both force and resistance leaves velocity unchanged; (b) velocity = 0 when resistance force? (c) Does it forbid the existence of a vacuum?
40. Discuss the research of Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham) in optics, including its relation to ancient theories of vision, the extramission and intromission theories, incoherent radiation, the visual cone and the explanation of vision.
41. Explain Lindberg's statement: "To critics of the twelfth-century naturalists, it appeared that philosophy might be about to throw off her handmaiden status."
42. Why did belief in the macrocosm-microcosm analogy favor belief in astrology in the 12th century? How did belief in astrology then help progress in astronomy?
43. Identify: Gerbert of Aurillac.
44. Identify: Gerhard of Cremona.
45. *Read the article on Pierre Duhem in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, review the references to him in Lindberg's book, then write an essay discussing his influence on modern ideas about the history of science and the possibility that his interpretations were influenced by his own philosophical and religious views.
46. Where were the 3 earliest European universities established in the period 1150-1220? What were 2 reasons why they arose and prospered at this time?
47. What was the major purpose of European universities around 1500? What were three major areas of "natural knowledge: taught there?
48. According to Lindberg, the Aristotelian concept of the soul conflicted with Christian theology in the 13th century. What were the opposing ideas? How did Thomas Aquinas resolve the conflict?
49. What did the Bishop of Paris say about multiple universes and vacuum in the "Condemnations of 1277"? Compare the views of Duhem and Lindberg on the general significance of these condemnations.
50. *Discuss the statement "The historian's task is not to grade the past but to understand it." To what extent do Lindberg, Huff, Cohen, Dear, and Diamond agree with this principle and to what extent do they actually follow it? Does the use of a phrase like "The Birth of Western Science" or "The Revolution in Science" and the selection of topics to be covered under that title amount to "grading the past?"
51. What is outside the cosmos (sphere of the stars) according to Aristotle? How was this view modified after 1277?
52. How did John Buridan prove that the Earth does not rotate? How did Nicole Oresme refute this proof?
53. Why was it reasonable and profitable for astronomers before Newton to believe in astrology?
54. Explain the dual meaning of the word "nature" in Aristotelian philosophy. How do we learn the nature of a thing?
55. *Is motion a thing? Discuss the answers of William of Ockham, John Buridan, and Nicole Oresme.
56. *Explain the meaning of the following sentence: "Since, according to Aristotle, substantial forms do not admit of degrees ... Averroes concluded that the forms of the original elements must not be substantial forms but have a status between that of substantial and accidental forms."
57. What were "minima" in medieval Aristotelian philosophy? How are they similar to and different from "atoms"?
58. Why was it reasonable for Aristotelian scientists to believe in alchemy?
59. How did Nicole Oresme represent the intensity of local motion as a quality distributed over time, in particular for the case when the intensity (velocity) is changing uniformly? What did he propose as the representation of the corresponding quantity of motion? What is that quantity?
60. no question
61. Identify: Georg Peurbach. How did his work represent a philosophical change in the nature of science?
62. Identify "Hermeticism" and "the Hermetic Corpus."

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