Medieval notions

How fundamentally this point of view differs from that of modern science and how accordant it nevertheless is with the greater part of medieval logic in such matters, it is needless to emphasize. Plato places all the emphasis on deductive logic, and his employment of inductive logic is almost subconsciously applied, so little effort is made to control his notions of the causes of things on the basis of observed facts. He is mainly endeavoring to interpret the will of the creative power through his own ideas of harmony, beauty and beneficence. 

In the Aristoteles de Lapidibus, lead is also alluded to very casually as a constituent of glass.33 One cannot fail to be impressed by this failure of later medieval writers to note adequately the real composition of glass. It shows how these writers are prone to depend on the writings of earlier authorities without attempting to improve upon them on the basis of actual technical experience which must have been not difficult of access. The notion of body and spirit in the sense of nonvolatile and noncombustible as compared with the volatile and combustible (in the limited sense of conversion into gaseous products of combustion)... 

The chemical philosophy of Paracelsus as comprised in the works attributed to him is in general thoroughly medieval. Based upon the traditional speculations of his predecessors, but elaborated in fanciful extensions by his own imagination, full of occult and superstitious notions current in his period, it did not tend to add clarity or rationality to chemical theory in general. 

From the outset, we should very carefully define the terms of our discourse. The notion of laws of nature has medieval origin as the edicts of an all-powerful deity to his angelic servants about how the functioning of the world should be arranged and directed. It may be helpful to distinguish three quite different senses in which laws of nature are considered in modern discussions. On occasion, the discussion has become sidetracked and obscure because of conflation and confusion of two or more of these senses. 

Less well recognized, however, is the philosophical pedigree of this notion of secondary causality and the crucial role it has played in natural theology from the Middle Ages to the present. As the medieval historian of philosophy, Armand Maurer, puts it ... 

Paracelsus made conscious and explicit an important psychological undercurrent that had been manifest in medieval alchemy but had not been openly discussed the spirit in nature, or the notion of spirit coming not only from above but also from below. We shall see this theme in the Splendor Solis, even though the images (if they originated around 1500) predate Paracelsus writings. 

After presenting evidence found in both published and unpublished sources, I reached several conclusions concerning Byzantine xenones, conclusions that challenged traditional notions of how medieval physicians practiced their profession. In place of a system based on private practitioners who charged fees to cure patients in their shops or to visit the sick in their own homes, the Byzantine health care service offered free medical care to aU, but provided this treatment through the wards and outpatient clinics of the xenones. ... 

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