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Pastimes : Nostradamus: Predictions -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Father Terrence who wrote (1049)	7/18/1999 1:02:00 PM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1615

You seem to have given Aristotle far too much credit for the Renaissance of Europe. The Renaissance was not influenced by just one man! As any student of history damned well knows, the Renaissance was not just a time of a new revolution in science but also a time of new currents and brilliant accomplishments in scholarship, in literature and in the arts, an era of emerging nation-states, of exploration and discoveries, and of the beginning of the Commercial Revolution. Oh no! Bertrand Russell was not a fool and a charlatan. Simply because you disagree with him does not necessarily make him so. Apparently he meant, with his typical wry sense of humour, that undue reverence for Aristotle had greatly hampered the scientific revolution. Au contraire, Bertrand Russell was a highly respected philosopher in Europe, though not as much in America for his perceived radical views. He was a prolific writer. Just to mention a few works, he wrote "The Principles of Mathematics" (an important work with Alfred Whitehead), "The Problems of Philosophy", "History of Western Philosophy and "An Inquiry into the Meaning of Truth" and "Why I am not a Christian". He was awarded the Order of Merit by his country and a Nobel Prize for literature! PS. I provided the above details largely for the benefit of some readers.

To: Father Terrence who wrote (1049)	7/18/1999 1:56:00 PM
From: Andrew Martin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1615

"The Dark Ages was the stepchild of Plato. The Great Awakening, or the Renaissance, was the rediscovery of Aristotle." Huh? Actually I think it was the Persians, Huns, Visigoths and Vandals who brought about the Collapse of the Roman Empire and thereafter, the Dark Ages. As for the Renaissance, that came about after the fall of the Byzantium empire in the 14th century (to the muslims). Aristotle wasn't 'rediscovered' per se it was simply that the Byzantine scholars (mostly of Constantanople) who relocated to other European cities spread knowledge of the classics among W. Europeans. Aristotle (like most classical literature) had been 'in' among the Byzantiums and as the W. Europeans gained access to classical literature they 'caught on'. It was still a 'church thing' though since Rome had been separate from the E. Orthodox church for about 800 yr.s. Ergo, classical literature was 'their stuff' and not accepted by the (under-read) Church at the time. We know they Roman church had good reason to fear Plato, Aristotle in hindsight. Kinda eroded the Church's power (like in Byzantium). We're still waiting for Plato's other shoe to drop, i.e., deductive reasoning leading to multi-secularism, then moral relativism and finally, the collapse of civilization. Perhaps this is what you mean by the 'Dark ages being the stepchild of Plato?