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After Rome fell in the 5th century A.D., Europe endured a long
drought of ideas. The Middle Ages were a time when spiritual,
other-worldly concerns dominated intellectual life; study of
the natural world was directed toward moral and religious truth.
The works of Aristotle
and Plato
were almost entirely lost (and often purposefully destroyed)
during the Dark Ages (455 - 1000 A.D.). The library and
museum at Alexandria, a major repository of learning, was destroyed.
Only in the Muslim
world of Arabia and Spain, and in some Christian monasteries,
was worldly learning preserved to any extent at all. Influences
from China,
India,
and Persia
shaped many of the new scientific developments that did occur.
Alchemists,
the forerunners of modern chemists,
were influenced by Neoplatonist views about the close relationship
between appearance and reality; they sought to change metals
by changing their color. Many natural events were mysterious;
magic or superstition were common, and there was a great overlap
between the natural and the supernatural.
After 1000 A.D., translations of great works were increasingly
available, and craft associations evolved into universities.
Most educated people were clergy, and they worked to justify
their faith with the new learning. With the development of printing
in 1452 and the increasing dispersion of knowledge, a foundation
was being laid for a scientific breakthrough - in the Renaissance.
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