The Medieval World View

1. The Great Chain of Being

1.1. A classical conception of the metaphysical order of the universe. All beings from basic to very highest and most perfect are linked in a hierarchy in order to form one interconnected whole.

1.2. God

1.3. Angels

1.4. Kings and queens/popes

1.5. Archbishops

1.6. Dukes and duchesses

1.7. BIshops

1.8. Commoners

1.9. Tradesmen

1.10. Tenant farmers

1.11. Servants

1.12. Beggars

1.13. Pirates

1.14. Thieves

1.15. Actors

1.16. Gypsies

1.17. Animals

1.18. Birds

1.19. Reptiles

1.20. Insects

1.21. Worms

1.22. Plants

1.23. Minerals

1.24. Rocks

1.25. The philosophy of this is best seen starting with ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. He viewed the universe as being eternal and made up of various distinct forms of being.

1.25.1. In his hierarchy, rocks were at the bottom, because they have no essence, or soul- they are held together by physical forces.

1.25.1.1. Classical philosophy: All living things have souls. Souls determine what power and characteristics each being possesses. Aristotle had a hierarchy of souls, they were classified according to each soul's specific powers.

1.25.1.2. Any being with life has the power to grow and reproduce (including plants etc.) These are the lower forms of life.

1.25.1.3. Animal life has the sensible soul- which includes the higher forms of life as well as the lower forms. Higher forms- sense, memory, movement.

1.25.1.3.1. The Rational Soul- defines the human being, as well as possessing the forms of growth, reproduction, sense, memory and movement, humans also possess the form of rationality.

1.25.1.4. Animals can also be separated into classes according to attributes.

1.26. NEOPLATONISTS took Aristotle's hierarchy of distinct beings and spiritualised it into a mystical unity inspired by Plato.

1.27. The basic structure remained the same, but for Plato, the highest forms were made into spiritual or immaterial beings. For Plato, as form was the immutable archetype existing in a transcendental realm, upon which every material object on earth is based on. Eg. a book is based upon the form of book.

1.28. Humans occupy an interesting place in this hierarchy, as they exist in both the immaterial and material realms. The more absorbed they get in material things and closer they get to evil , the further away they get from good. By contrast, the more they turn upwards to the intelligible realm and the good, the more good they possess.

1.29. Scholasticism: This is St. Augustine's version. In the scholastic understanding of the Great Chain of Being, the place of human beings holds more moral significance. As humans participate in the earthly and spiritual realms, their progression through life is seen as a journey towards God.

1.30. Modern Rationalism: The prevalence of modern science and the Copernican Revolution is often credited with having dismantled The Great Chain of Being as a perception of the world.

2. The Physical Universe

3. The Ptolemaic System

3.1. Ptolemy was an astronomer and geographer.

3.1.1. Believed that the universe is a geocentric cosmology- that the earth is stationary and at the centre of the universe. It was expected that the sun, moon, planets and stars (known as the heavenly bodies) had to travel in a circle (because a circle is the most perfect shape).

3.1.2. But, when the planets are observed from earth, their paths are not circular. Ptolemy's model explained this by saying that irregular movements were due to several circular motions seen from a different perspective.

3.2. The Ptolemaic system accounted for planetary motion, but it was controversial.

3.3. Some Islamic astronomers objected on the basis that it seems an imaginary point.

3.4. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) objected for philosophical reasons.

3.5. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was lead by the holes in the Ptolemaic System the correct elliptical model, shown by his laws of planetary motion.

3.6. The Ptolemaic system was used until the Earth was displaced from the centre of the universe by the Copernican system and Kepler's laws of planetary motion (in the 16th and 17th century)

3.7. Ptolemy thought that the heavenly bodies' circular motions were due to them being attached to unseen, revolving, solid spheres.

3.8. He built a there that the motions of all of the existing plantes could be represented as spheres which could nest inside each other- through islamicastronomers, this became a standard feature of medieval cosmology. The theory was later disproven by Tycho Brahe.

4. Starting from the early, through to the late middle ages, Europeans began to move towards a more ordered, geocentric universe- based on the ideas of Aristotle and Ptolemy

4.1. It was believed that the universe was powered by the 'Prime Mover', which set the whole world into motion.

4.2. Medieval Europeans had no concept of a vacuum, meaning they believed that the heavens contained a celestial fluid that flowed as the sphere of the universe rotated, allowing the planets to stay in motion. It was also believed that this motion created a "music of the spheres", which couldn't be heard by humans, but provided pleasure for angels and supernatural beings.

4.3. European perception of the universe was gradually changed by contact with the Islamic world, where scholars such as Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd had preserved a lot of ancient Greek work that had been lost to Western Europe. Christian scholars such as St. Thomas Aquinas caused these ancient Greek views to be linked with Christian theology, this went on to cause issues for scientists like Galileo some centuries later.

4.4. The psychological universe of Medieval Europeans was centred around humans. For Christians at this time, time has two divisions: the short, unimportant one where they lived their sinful lives, and the cosmically enduring one in which their souls would feel joy. Medieval Europe- no room for nonconformity. Any deviation was the work of the devil. People accepted their place in the social order regardless of how low it was. Everything in the world had the potential to be supernatural; people found messages from God in practically every natural human event.