To-day we find it difficult to realise such a state of mind. Every man
of our period who takes the smallest interest in things spiritual--be he
the most orthodox ecclesiastic--at least knows that there are capable
people in the world whose opinions differ from his, who seek fresh
knowledge; he knows it, even though he may pretend that they are people
who have gone astray and have been abandoned by God. No one can be
entirely blind to the new values created by human intellect. But the men
of the Middle Ages were swayed by a monstrous dualism, and despite their
belief in the illimitable power of human cognition, they unquestioningly
accepted the sacred tradition and rejected the naive evidence of the
senses and intellect whenever it seemed to contradict the dogma. Thus
mediaeval science did not represent what it represented in antiquity,
and what it represents now, the study of the true relationship of
things, but rather the application of truths revealed once and for all.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88