Re: CHAT: (no subject)

Ray wrote:
> > Otherwise, we as a civilization are no better (or worse) than
> > the medieval scholastics who faithfully handed down the traditions of
> > the ancients, whatever the validity thereof, because they didn't trust
> > their own doubts.
>
> That's why there were the great scholastic debates between the Scotists &
> Thomists, I guess - neither Duns Scotus nor Thomas Aquinas could trust
> their own doubts. Nor, I guess could William of Occam, Augustine or any
> other of the medievals. And all that stuff history books tell us about the
> Renaissance re-discovering the works of the ancients must an urban myth
> because those dumb old schoolmen had been handing the stuff down all the
> time without question! Gosh.
The Renaissance Myth is, in its absolute form, indeed a myth, yes.  But
it is also true that save for a few centers of learning like Paris,
Oxford, Cambridge, and various places in northern Italy like Padua,
the broad attitude of learned peoples throughout most of that
period was indeed that contemporaries could not hope to meet the
standards of the ancients, and could only hope to transmit that
knowledge to the future.  People like Abelard and Bacon were the
exception, not the rule.

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Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637