• The middle ages (500-1500) used to be seen as the Dark Ages, but were actually a time of technological progress
• others (Lynn White, Max Weber) have examined how the church may have encouraged technological progress
• some authors (Jean Gimpel) have looked for early examples of the ecological dangers of technology

• the feudal system--kings were weak, slaves were replaced by serfs who had some rights
• Christianity was central to the organization of society

Consider the role of Christianity:

Issue 1: did Christianity teach humans to control nature?

• Lynn White wrote that in the middle ages Christian thinkers believed "it is God's will that man exploit nature for his proper ends." (p. 6)
• Genesis 1:28 (humans have just been created) "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (that is from the King James version--the New International version says "rule over" instead of "have dominion over")
• White argues that people in the middle ages (and since) have interpreted that as nature is there for human use
  
• The Gies's point out that many medieval theologians saw exploitation of nature as a consequence of the fall
• in Eden Adam and Eve were sustained by nature without having to make an effort
  
• after they were expelled from Eden nature was hostile
• humans had to subdue/control nature to survive (see Genesis 3: 16-19)

Issue 2: did Christianity encourage technology?

• Once Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, some Christians went looking for a more radical Christian life, initially as hermits in the desert (eg. St. Simeon Stylite).  By the 370s, church leaders were organizing monasteries where such people could live more radical Christian lives with structure and discipline imposed by the church hierarchy.  Monks vowed poverty, chastity and obedience.
• Benedictine rule (approx 530) stressed work for monks http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02436a.htm
  
• Monasteries were established in isolated places away from the temptations of civilization and had to support themselves. Early on all monks worked with their hands--the first intellectuals who got their hands dirty
• Productive labor was seen as good for the monk's spiritual life--discouraged idleness and taught obedience
  
•  But over time two classes of monks developed--one doing intellectual work such as copying manuscripts and the other doing manual labor
• Cistercians (early 1100s) tried to go back to the old principles, but it didn't last long
• overall, manual labor was still looked down on, but scorn for the practical arts was much less than in the ancient (classical) world

Issue 3: medieval education and the classification of knowledge

• the organization of education adopted by the first universities was seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music
• but there was also some interest in mechanical arts: Hugh of St. Victor divided them into seven categories: Textile manufacture, armament, navigation, agriculture, hunting, medicine, and theatrics (p. 12)
• technology was still looked down on by most intellectuals, but it was getting some attention
• technology and science were not seen as closely related
  

Consider the role of technology in social change in the middle ages

• One historian, Lynn White, argued that the stirrup led to feudalism, and the wheeled plow to the manorial system
• The Gies's don't believe that technology determines society, but they do see a technological revolution taking place in the middle ages: the end of mass slavery, the use of water and wind power, and the open-field system in agriculture, and many new inventions
  
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