Western Culture and Science in the Late Middle Ages

This book provides an extensive exploration of Western culture and intellectual history from the Late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, capturing the transformative shifts in thought, science, religion, and society. Beginning with the complexities of medieval philosophy, theology, and scientific inquiry, it traces how the late medieval period laid the groundwork for the Renaissance's revival of classical antiquity. The work delves into pivotal historical moments such as the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and the rise of the Inquisition, highlighting their effects on social structures, intellectual life, and religious authority. The Renaissance emerges as a key cultural movement that redefined humanism, blending art, science, and individualism, laying the foundation for the Scientific Revolution. Figures like Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton challenged the Ptolemaic cosmology and established a new empirical approach to understanding the universe. As the Enlightenment unfolded, reason and progress took center stage, with thinkers like Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Kant advocating for political and moral reforms based on liberty, equality, and rational inquiry. Through a deep analysis of primary sources, key authors, and historical events, this book examines how each of these intellectual currents—humanism, scientific discovery, and Enlightenment ideals—shaped the modern world. The tension between science and religion, the growth of individualism, and the questioning of traditional authority are themes that run throughout, illustrating the profound cultural, political, and intellectual transformations that redefined Western civilization.