Albertus Magnus

Albertus Magnus, O.P. (1193/1206 – November 15, 1280), also known as Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, is a Catholic saint. He was a German Dominican friar and a bishop. Those such as James A. Weisheipl and Joachim R. Söder have referred to him as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages, an opinion supported by contemporaries such as Roger Bacon. The Catholic Church honours him as a Doctor of the Church, one of only 35 persons with that honor. Albertus was educated principally at Padua, where he received instruction in Aristotle's writings. A late account by Rudolph de Novamagia refers to Albertus' encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary, who convinced him to enter Holy Orders. In 1223 (or 1229)  he became a member of the Dominican Order, against the wishes of his family, and studied theology at Bologna and elsewhere. Selected to fill the position of lecturer at Cologne, Germany, where the Dominicans had a house, he taught for several years there, at Regensburg, Freiburg, Strasbourg and Hildesheim. In 1245 he went to Paris, received his doctorate and taught for some time as a master of theology with great success. During this time Thomas Aquinas began to study under Albertus. Albertus is frequently mentioned by Dante, who made his doctrine of free will the basis of his ethical system. In his Divine Comedy, Dante places Albertus with his pupil Thomas Aquinas among the great lovers of wisdom (Spiriti Sapienti) in the Heaven of the Sun. Albertus is also mentioned, along with Agrippa and Paracelsus, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in which his writings influence a young Victor Frankenstein. Albertus' writings collected in 1899 went to thirty-eight volumes. These displayed his prolific habits and literally encyclopedic knowledge of topics such as logic, theology, botany, geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology, phrenology and others. He was perhaps the most well-read author of his time. He digested, interpreted and systematized the whole of Aristotle's works, gleaned from the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian commentators, in accordance with Church doctrine. Most modern knowledge of Aristotle was preserved and presented by Albertus. Albertus' activity, however, was more philosophical than theological. The philosophical works, occupying the first six and the last of the twenty-one volumes, are generally divided according to the Aristotelian scheme of the sciences, and consist of interpretations and condensations of Aristotle's relative works, with supplementary discussions upon contemporary topics, and occasional divergences from the opinions of the master. His principal theological works are a commentary in three volumes on the Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Magister Sententiarum), and the Summa Theologiae in two volumes. The latter is in substance a more didactic repetition of the former.

Roger Bacon

The Opus Majus (Latin for "Greater Work") is the most important work of Roger Bacon. It was written in Medieval Latin, at the request of Pope Clement IV, to explain the work that Bacon had undertaken. The 840-page treatise ranges over all aspects of natural science, from grammar and logic to mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Bacon sent his work to the Pope in 1267, accompanied by a letter of dedication which was found by F. A. Gasquet in the Vatican Library and published in 1897. It was followed later the same year by a smaller second work, his Opus Minus, which was intended as an abstract or summary of the longer work, followed shortly by a third work, Opus Tertium, as a preliminary introduction to the other two. An incomplete version of Bacon's Opus Majus was published by William Bowyer in London in 1733. It was edited by Samuel Jebb from a manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge which omitted the seventh part. Bacon's Opus Majus contains treatments of mathematics and optics, alchemy, and the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies. The training Bacon had received showed him the defects in existing academic debate.[citation needed] Aristotle was known only through translations, as none of the professors would learn Greek; the same was true of Scripture and many of the other auctores ("authorities") referenced in traditional education. In contrast to Aristotle's argument that facts be collected before deducing scientific truths, physical science was not carried out by observations from the natural world, but by arguments based solely on tradition and prescribed authorities. Bacon withdrew from the scholastic routine and devoted himself to languages and experimental research. The mathematicians whom he considered perfect were Peter of Maricourt and John of London, and two were good: Campanus of Novara and a Master Nicholas. Peter was the author of a famous letter to a friend, Epistola de Magnete, in which he described some of the earliest European experiments with magnetism. Campanus wrote several important works on astronomy, astrology, and the calendar. Bacon often mentioned his debt to the work of Robert Grosseteste and Adam Marsh, as well as to other lesser figures. He was clearly not an isolated scholar in the thirteenth century. In his writings, Bacon calls for a reform of theological study. Less emphasis should be placed on minor philosophical distinctions than had been the case in scholasticism. Instead, the Bible itself should return to the centre of attention and theologians should thoroughly study the languages in which their original sources were composed. He was fluent in several languages and lamented the corruption of the holy texts and the works of the Greek philosophers by numerous mistranslations and misinterpretations. Furthermore, he urged all theologians to study all sciences closely, and to add them to the normal university curriculum. With regard to the obtaining of knowledge, he strongly championed experimental study over reliance on authority, arguing that "thence cometh quiet to the mind". Bacon did not restrict this approach to theological studies. He rejected the blind following of prior authorities, both in theological and scientific study, which was the accepted method of undertaking study in his day. In the Opus Minus he criticizes his contemporaries Alexander of Hales and Albertus Magnus, who, he says, had not studied the philosophy of Aristotle but only acquired their learning during their life as preachers.[36] Albert was received at Paris as an authority equal to Aristotle, Avicenna, and Averroes, leading Bacon to proclaim that "never in the world [had] such monstrosity occurred before." The study of optics in part five of Opus Majus draws heavily on the works of both Claudius Ptolemy (his Optics in Arabic translation) and the Islamic scientists Alkindus (al-Kindi) and Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham). He includes a discussion of the physiology of eyesight, the anatomy of the eye and the brain, and considers light, distance, position, and size, direct vision, reflected vision, and refraction, mirrors and lenses. His research in optics was primarily oriented by the legacy of Alhazen through a Latin translation of the latter's monumental Kitab al-manazir (De aspectibus; Perspectivae; The Optics), while the impact of the tradition of al-Kindi (Alkindus) was principally mediated through the influence that this Muslim scholar had on the optics of Robert Grosseteste. Moreover, Bacon's investigations of the properties of the magnifying glass partly rested on the handed-down legacy of Islamic opticians, mainly Alhazen, who was in his turn influenced by Ibn Sahl's 10th-century legacy in dioptrics. He was a forerunner in Calendar Reformation. Drawing on the recently discovered Greco-Muslim astronomy and on the calendaric writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bacon criticized the Julian calendar, describing it as intolerable, horrible and laughable. He had correctly deduced that the assumption of Julius Caesar's year of length of 365 days and a quarter was wrong. He proposed to correct its errors by deleting a day from the calendar every 125 or 130 years. By not doing this correction, a surplus of time that over the centuries had accumulated to nine days during his time. He proposed to Pope Clement IV in 1267 in his Opus Majus to rectify these errors by dropping a day every 125 years. He charged that the then notion of fixed equinoxes and solstices were also wrong. As this is important in calculating the date of Easter, he was extremely distressed that Christians were celebrating Easter and other holy festivals on the wrong dates, because of this error. Unfortunately the untimely death of Pope Clement IV in 1268 put paid to his hopes. Finally his fears were accepted and corrected only in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII in the Gregorian Calendar reformation. In his own writings of 1260–1280 Bacon cited Secretum secretorum, which he attributed to Aristotle, far more than his contemporaries did. Often used as an argument for the special influence that this work had on Bacon's own is the manuscript of Secretum that Bacon edited, complete with his own introduction and notes, something Bacon seldom did with others' works. Although some early 20th century scholars like Robert Steele have pushed further along this path, arguing that Bacon's contact with the Secretum was a turning point in Bacon's philosophy, transforming him into an experimentalist, there is no clear reference to such a decisive impact of the Secretum in Bacon's own words. The dating of Bacon's edition of the Secretum is a key argument in this debate, but is still unresolved, with those arguing for a greater impact dating it earlier than those who urge caution in this interpretation. The cryptic Voynich manuscript has been attributed to Bacon by various sources, including by its first recorded owner, in a book drafted by William Romaine Newbold and posthumously edited and published by Roland Grubb Kent in 1928, and in a 2005 book of Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone published by Doubleday and Broadway Books. In strongly worded terms, historians of science Lynn Thorndike and George Sarton have dismissed these claims as unsupported. Another work of contentious date and even origin is the Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae, et de Nullitate Magiae (meaning Letter on the Secret Workings of Art and Nature, and on the Vanity of Magic), sometimes alternatively entitled De Mirabili Potestate Artis et Naturae (On the Wonderful Powers of Art and Nature). This treatise dismisses magical practices like necromancy, and contains most of the alchemical work attributed to Bacon, chiefly a formula for philosopher's stone, and perhaps one for gunpowder. It also contains a number of passages about hypothetical flying machines and (what we today call) submarines, attributing their first use to Alexander the Great. Bacon is also the ascribed author of the alchemical manual Speculum Alchemiae, which was translated into English as The Mirror of Alchimy in 1597. It is a short treatise about the composition and origin of metals, espousing "conventional" (with respect to the period) Arabian theories of mercury and sulfur as the constituents of metals, and containing vague allusions to transmutation. About this work, John Maxson Stillman wrote that "there is nothing in it that is characteristic of Roger Bacon's style or ideas, nor that distinguishes it from many unimportant alchemical lucubrations of anonymous writers of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries". M. M. Pattison Muir had a similar opinion, and Edmund Oscar von Lippmann considered this text a pseudepigraph.

Surya Siddhanta

The Surya Siddhanta is one of the earliest doctrine or tradition (siddhanta) in archeo-astronomy of the Hindus. Its original version is by an unknown author. It describes the archeo-astronomy theories, principles and methods of the ancient Hindus. This siddhanta is supposed to be the knowledge that the Sun god gave to an Asura called Maya. Asuras were enemies of the Deva, the Gods of Hindus. Asuras were believed to be residents of the nether worlds. Significant coverage is on kinds of time, length of the year of gods and demons, day and night of god Brahma, the elapsed period since creation, how planets move eastwards and sidereal revolution. The lengths of the Earth's diameter, circumference are also given. Eclipses and color of the eclipsed portion of the moon is mentioned. This explains the archeo-astronomical basis for the sequence of days of the week named after the Sun, Moon, etc. Musings that there is no above and below and that movement of the starry sphere is left to right for Asuras makes interesting reading. Varahamihira in his Panchasiddhantika contrasts it with four other treatises, besides the Paitamaha Siddhantas (which is more similar to the "classical" Vedanga Jyotisha), the Paulisha and Romaka Siddhantas (directly based on Hellenistic astronomy) and the Vasishta Siddhanta. Citation of the Surya Siddhanta is also found in the works of Aryabhata. The work referred to by the title Surya Siddhanta has been repeatedly recast. There may have been an early work under that title dating back to the Buddhist Age of India (3rd century BC). The work as preserved and edited by Burgess (1860) dates to the Middle Ages. Utpala, a 10th-century commentator of Varahamihira, quotes six shlokas of the Surya Siddhanta of his day, not one of which is to be found in the text now known as the Surya Siddhanta. The present version was modified by Bhaskaracharya during the Middle Ages. The present Surya Siddhanta may nevertheless be considered a direct descendant of the text available to Varahamihira. This article discusses the text as edited by Burgess. For what evidence we have of the Gupta period text, see Pancha-Siddhantika. It has rules laid down to determine the true motions of the luminaries, which conform to their actual positions in the sky. It gives the locations of several stars other than the lunar nakshatras and treats the calculation of solar eclipses. as well as solstices eg.summer solstice 21/06

húbris

A húbris ou hybris (em grego ὕϐρις, "hýbris") é um conceito grego que pode ser traduzido como "tudo que passa da medida; descomedimento" e que atualmente alude a uma confiança excessiva, um orgulho exagerado, presunção, arrogância ou insolência (originalmente contra os deuses), que com frequência termina sendo punida. Na Antiga Grécia, aludia a um desprezo temerário pelo espaço pessoal alheio, unido à falta de controlo sobre os próprios impulsos, sendo um sentimento violento inspirado pelas paixões exageradas, consideradas doenças pelo seu caráter irracional e desequilibrado, e concretamente por Até (a fúria ou o orgulho). Opõe-se à sofrósina, a virtude da prudência, do bom senso e do comedimento ("Aquele a quem os deuses querem destruir, primeiro deixam-no louco"— Eurípides). Aristóteles definiu hubris como uma humilhação para a vítima, não por causa de qualquer coisa que tenha acontecido ou que ela tenha feito ou pudesse fazer contra você, mas meramente por descaso seu em relação à ela. Húbris não é o acerto de contas por erros cometidos - isso é vingança. Húbris é o descaso que alguém tem pelos outros, ou pelos deuses, achando que pode fazer tudo que quiser. A húbris é relacionada ao conceito de moira, que em grego significa 'destino', 'parte', 'lote' e 'porção' simultaneamente. O destino é o lote, a parte de felicidade ou desgraça, de fortuna ou desgraça, de vida ou morte, que corresponde a cada um em função da sua posição social e da sua relação com os deuses e os homens. Contudo, o homem que comete húbris é culpável de desejar mais daquilo que lhe foi concedido pelo destino. O castigo dos deuses para a húbris é a nêmesis, que tem como efeito fazer o indivíduo retornar aos limites que transgrediu ("Podes observar como a divindade fulmina com os seus raios os seres que sobressaem demais, sem permitir que se jactem da sua condição; por outro lado, os pequenos não despertam as suas iras. Podes observar também como sempre lança os seus dardos desde o céu contra os maiores edifícios e as árvores mais altas, pois a divindade tende a abater todo o que descola em demasia."— Heródoto, História viii.10).A húbris é um tema comum na mitologia, as tragédias gregas e o pensamento pré-socrático, cujas histórias incluíam com frequência protagonistas que sofriam de húbris e como consequência da sua transgressão eram castigados pelos deuses (o qual não necessariamente implica um desfecho trágico). A tragédia ocorre com a ultrapassagem do metron pelo homem, uma transgressão contra a ordem social e, portanto, contra os deuses imortais: a hybris. Isto origina a nêmesis, o ciúme divino, provocando que seja lançada contra o herói a Até, a cegueira da razão. Ele virá a ser subjugado sem apelo pela moira, o destino cego. Na Teogonia de Hesíodo, as diferentes raças de homens (de bronze, de ferro, etc) vão sucedendo-se enquanto as anteriores são condenadas pela sua húbris. Em certo jeito, a infração de Agamemnon no primeiro livro da Ilíada é relacionada com a húbris, por ter despojado Aquiles da parte da pilhagem que lhe deveria corresponder por justiça. Pela sua vez, Heráclito amostra a húbris como o assinalamento de uma infração para o Nous ou deus legal: «O sol não traspassará as suas medidas, pois se não será descoberto pelas Erínias, assistentes da Dice.» Porém, Heráclito acredita que enquanto haja discórdia, poderão as partes fundir-se no Um. Portanto aqui a húbris é um fluir de opostos, fazendo possível a vida. Havia também uma deusa chamada Hybris, a personificação do anterior conceito: insolência e falta de moderação e instinto. Hybris passava a maior parte do tempo entre os mortais. Segundo Higino era filha de Érebo e a Noite, atribuindo outros autores a maternidade de Coros, o daimon do desdém. No direito grego, a húbris refere-se com maior frequência à violência ébria dos poderosos para os débeis. Na poesia e a mitologia, o término foi aplicado àqueles indivíduos que se consideram iguais ou superiores aos deuses. A húbris era com frequência o 'trágico erro' ou hamartia das personagens dos dramas gregos.