070234 VO Vorlesung (PM4) (2016S)

Much of the science and technology that we are familiar with today has medieval roots. Yet medieval society has a bad reputation when it comes to scientific progress, intellectual achievements or technological innovation. In this series of lectures we look at the medieval foundations of the modern knowledge society and western intellectual tradition. We study how the classical subjects every free person in Antiquity had to master - the so-called 'artes liberales', nowadays the basis of modern liberal arts faculties- were transmitted from the antique to the medieval world and adapted to the needs of a new society. Special attention will be paid to rhetoric and dialectic as agents of intellectual and social change. Medieval students of the liberal arts not only acquired knowledge, but also received training in ethics and social norms to become responsible citizens. The lectures also address recent research in the history of science concerning the circulation of knowledge.