Assignment

Select one of the prompts below and write your initial response to it. Your response needs to be at least 2 solid paragraphs and offer detail and analysis. Then, select three students (preferably those who have selected different prompts) and respond to them with at least one solid paragraph per response. You will then need to respond to the follow up question posed by the instructor. Your weekly post total should be FIVE by Sunday at midnight in order to get full credit.

1. Discuss the impact of technology on Medieval society and culture and the impact of society and culture on the development of Medieval technology.

2. Strayer asks the question, "Why Europe?" Indeed, why did Europe experience the Scientific Revolution? How did this occur when Europe was so backward after the Sack of Rome?

3. The concept of the Middle Ages or the medieval period comes from the Renaissance. The Renaissance saw a reaching back to the classical past of Greece and Rome, a rebirth of classical ideals. The Middle Ages were seen as dark and sterile, an age of ignorance and superstition when little to nothing new or of value was produced. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

4. Discuss the nature of the Medieval university and the ways in which its structure influenced the reception of Aristotelianism in the Latin West.

5. The intellectual history of the later Middle Ages has traditionally been described as decadent, autumnal, waning. Yet recently a few scholars have asserted that the period between 1250-1450 was one of innovation, change, possibility. Which view is more accurate and why? Medievalists tend to dismiss this argument out of hand. Take a fresh look at this argument and consider the extent to which the Middle Ages was an sterile age, merely passing on diluted versions of the heritage of antiquity, and the extent to which it contributed new and vital elements to the European tradition.