In this interview, I spoke with Professor Jed Buchwald of Caltech about medieval scholasticism and how it influenced later scientific thinking. He explained that although many scientists during the Scientific Revolution rejected specific scholastic ideas about nature, they still relied on the logical argumentation and reasoning methods that had been taught in medieval universities. We also discussed how Greek philosophy and mathematics entered Western Europe partly through translations made in the Islamic world, and how scholars such as Thomas Aquinas adapted Aristotle’s ideas to fit within Christianity. Professor Buchwald also explained that medieval scholars viewed qualities such as color and smell as actually existing within objects, which was very different from later scientific ideas about perception. Although the scholarly community was very small and mostly made up of clerics, figures such as Roger Bacon and Ibn al-Haytham made major contributions, especially in optics. Overall, the interview showed that medieval scholarship was not simply “held back” by religion, but instead developed within a different intellectual system using the ideas and tools available at the time.
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