The Dark and Middle Ages

For the most part only Plato\u27s teachings supported by a limited version of Aristotelian cosmology supportive of Platonism survived the decline of ancient Greek philosophy during the Roman Empire. Christianity later prevailed, and toward the end of the Middle Ages Aristotle’s secular perspective was only taken into account by Arab philosophers such as Averroes and Avicenna. After the collapse of Arab civilization during the twelfth century, the secular concept of a double truth between belief and reason put philosophy on equal footing with religion in such universities as Cordoba and the University of Paris. After a large assortment of ancient Greek texts were shipped from Constantinople to Italy in 1453 to prevent their destruction by pagan invaders, so-called Nominalists among European philosophers such as Duns Scotus and William of Ockham featured the independent analysis of the universe based on assumptions already pursued by Aristotle. In effect Greek philosophy in its entirety came to be “resurrected,” setting the stage for the inception of science as exemplified by Copernicus, Galileo, and Bacon