Message from Krassimir Markov ---------------------------------------
Dear Pedro and all FIS colleagues, I agree with the thesis that the monasteries are the cradle of the science. No objections! They are "Background" to Modern Science as well as all social phenomena of the ancient world. Without this long period of growing no crops would be collected now. The only what we need to point is the boundary between Ancient and Modern Science. The new emergent quality, which distinguish two periods of evolution of science. The new system, called "Modern Science" had emerged from Ancient Science adding new interconnections between scientists, i.e. between "monasteries" from all over the world. Friendly regards Krassimir P.S. Dear Pedro, please forward. -----Original Message----- From: Pedro C. Marijuan Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2011 3:13 PM To: fis@listas.unizar.es Subject: [Fis] (Monastic) Background to Modern Science Dear James (& Krassimir, Jerry...) and all FIS colleagues, I tend to disagree with James about the relatively minor role assigned to monasteries in the development of medieval science and technology. Let me ad a couple of further arguments: 1. Social complexity. Some FISers will remind Joseph Tainter session we had several years ago on the cost of complexity in the development of social structures (one of his most influential books concerns "Collapse of Complex Societies", 1988, almost two decades before Jared Diamond wrote his famous book on the same matter). Joseph's discussion on the complexity crisis of the Roman Empire is unsurpassed, in a few words, the Empire was based on a structure of 300.000 --500.000 soldiers, say 20 to 50 legions, plus a another similar "army" of tax bureaucrats brutally and corruptly extolling everywhere. In spite of dramatic efforts to re-structure the imperial administration system, only in the wake of very few successful conquests (Egypt, Spain, France, Romania) was economic stability achieved for very short spans. Military over-stretching and the related social complexity and internecine conflicts were making an unwieldy entity. So the East/West division, and the further Barbarians' conquest and emergence of independent kingdoms in the West... But this very catastrophic event gave opportunity to a new social organization in Europe. Crucial to the emergence and advancement of the new pan-European social order was the widespread presence of monasteries created by the Benedictine Order. According to Lewis Mumford (Technics and Civilization, 1934), 40.000 monastic settlements were spreading throughout Western Europe at their historical peak. Whether the figure is credible or not, it depends on the size (in my own "La Rioja" region, very mountainous one, scores of ruined small monastic sites can be found in most valleys, all two-three groups of small villages were sustaining at least one of them, often of minimal size, not beyond 10 or 12 monks). 2. Loci of codices and Scriptures, and of techniques. The Order of St. Benedict was not created ex-nihilo. It fed on previous monastic experiences, mostly of Egyptian ascent, and above all it developed by taking as a model the project of Cassiodorus: a library-type community with the mission of rescuing the vanishing Greek and Latin legacy in papyrus format ("rolls") and to put it into the new Codex format (binded "books" of parchment pages.) See "Avatars of the Word: from Papyrus to Cyberspace" by James O'Donnell (1998). But the monks have to fend for themselves in a time of barbarian-permanent invasions, and the legion discipline was also instituted, and the manual work (to feed for themselves). More and more activities of all kind were added: fantastic wine making, musical notation, glass making, applied mechanics and hydraulics, herreries and furnaces, glass-making, geometry and algorithms... Not casual that the first written notation of "0" in Christian Europe appeared in a Benedictine site (tenth century, in Albelda, La Rioja!!!) Beyond the accompanying and pretty eminent religious contents, the overall social function performed by monasteries was the support of a new civilization order in Western Europe. Had China counted with a similar monastic network, they would have successfully built advanced "recombination of knowledge" upon their superior technology and easily defeated the Moorish (in the famous encounter between their expansive imperialisms in Central Asia, the Talas River battle, won by the Moorish cavalry in 751 AD) and easily extended into Europe... I was willing to continue on Krassimir about modernity and Jerry's logical-chemistry, but my admiration for the monastic system has taken me too long. Just as a brief conclusion, the demolition of Medieval order by nascent absolute states (Spain, France, U. Kingdom) and by the religious crisis and schism, opened two dramatic centuries of superimposed conflicts: the clash between modern state-centered imperialisms amalgamated with the religious wars. As James says, very few overall progress until Europe came to terms with herself, now with the so called Enlightenment... Thanking the patience! ---Pedro -- ------------------------------------------------- Pedro C. Marijuán Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud Avda. Gómez Laguna, 25, Pl. 11ª 50009 Zaragoza, Spain Telf: 34 976 71 3526 (& 6818) Fax: 34 976 71 5554 pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/ ------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis _______________________________________________ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis