Instructions for Using This Page
Each of the sections of this web page links to a resource that will help to remind you of this module of our Science, Philosophy and Spirituality course. Just click on the section, and you will be linked to the resource.
When you are reading an article from this website online, blocks of text in bold coloured type that make reference to an external source are “clickable”. If you click on them, you will be taken to the resource to which they refer.
Enjoy!
PDF of the slides shown in the session.
The roots of modern science reach backwards in time to before the great age of Greek and Hellenistic learning and spread across Europe, Islamic empires, India and China. This module reviews how the ideas of the Medieval and Renaissance periods nourished those roots.
Article
Link to my article, “The Roots of Modern Science”, which summarises the material discussed during the module.
It covers Islamic science, scholasticism, and the impact of the Renaissance and the Reformation.
Timeline
Timeline of selected events, ideas and publications covering both the “Golden Age of Islam” and “the Renaissance”.
Books referenced in Module: “The Roots of Modern Science”
A new global focus, that describes the role of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Islamic countries, India and China in the evolution of science, as well as Greece and Western Europe.
A brilliant book, that traces the journey of three Greek or Hellenistic documents through seven great Islamic Cities, to demonstrate the contribution made by Islamic science to moderns science’s roots.
A description of how Muslim mathematicians gathered knowledge from the furthest corners of the known world, and integrated them to provide the new mathematics that were necessary to nourish the roots of modern science.
A unique book that tells the life-story of a 14th-century monk. Through his eyes, we learn how medieval monks became scholars, learned mathematics and learned how to use the 14th-century equivalent of a smartphone – the astrolabe. (See video)
Prof. Jim Al-Khalili guides readers through the amazing world of the Abbasid dynasty’s “House of Wisdom” in Baghdad, and highlights some of the forgotten muslim scientists who made discoveries that shaped the modern world. (See video)
Companion book to the three-part BBC TV Series of the same name. (See video link below)
Videos You Might Like to Watch on YouTube
Link to a three-part documentary series on Science and Islam introduced and narrated by Prof. Jim Al-Khalili. Each part lasts one hour, and in this version they are combined into a single video. Clicking on the link takes you to the YouTube site where the video may be viewed.
Ten-minute video in which Seb Falk, Cambridge Don and author of “The Light Ages”, describes the importance of the astrolabe to 14th-century science, and demonstrates its use. Clicking on this box will take you to the video on YouTube.
Link to Course Home Page
Click this link to return to the Home Page for Season 1 of the Shepway and District u3a Science, Philosophy and Spirituality programme.
