CoursesCourse 2
How science became useful
Greek science was useless on purpose. Modern science remade the world. This course argues that the bridge between them was Christianity, through its universities and its new ideas about freedom, humanity, and nature. Follow the case, see where other historians push back, and try the ideas yourself.
Start lesson 1Lessons
- 1 From useless to usefulIf the Renaissance only revived Greece’s useless science, where did useful modern science come from? This course gives a surprising answer: Christianity.
- 2 A home for free learningTwo powers held in balance, self-governing cities, and a new kind of guild called the university gave Europe a protected place to think.
- 3 Freedom, humanity, and natureChristianity reworked three Greek ideas, and a new kind of science came out of the change: one that seeks power, not only truth.
- 4 The world as a pictureExperiment, number, clock time, and the machine: the habits of the modern scientific worldview, where they came from, and what they leave out.
You’ll be able to
- Trace how Greek learning passed from Athens to Europe’s first universities, and explain the argument that reviving it could not by itself produce modern science.
- Explain how divided powers, self-governing cities, and universities gave free inquiry a protected home in medieval Europe.
- Describe the three changes Christianity made, in this reading, to Greek ideas of freedom, of the human place in the world, and of nature.
- Recognize the modern scientific worldview (experiment, measurement, clock time, the machine) in daily life, and weigh what it leaves out.
About this course
This course, 现代科学的基督教起源 (The Christian Origins of Modern Science), makes its case in four parts. It continues the story begun in Course 1, Why science began in Greece.
The course’s argument and examples lead. We add background for readers outside China, the views of other historians where they differ, and hands-on activities. We say clearly which claims are interpretation and where historians disagree.