HonestJohn2376
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2020
Such insecurity! Medieval higher education taught a broad range of subjects as a matter of course. Whatever you intended to be, you were taught classics, astronomy and mathematics. So no, Zach, we as a society do not know less about those subjects, but each individual student probably does.
Ultimately, the point actually being made (that Zach has missed) is that the people of the “Dark Ages” were not the dum-dums later historians would make them out to be. Don’t worry, Zach, no one’s saying you’re stupid. Well, we are, but for different reasons.
The broad knowledge base of Medieval higher education was the origin of what we now call the liberal arts. Bear in mind, however, that students who learned the classics, astronomy, and mathematics were university kids or clergy given a private education. It would be fairer to compare an 18-year-old educated medieval kid to an Oxford or Cambridge freshman today. The Medieval kids definitely knew more classics, astronomy, and rhetoric while the modern kids know more mathematics, history, and science. We moderns enjoy a larger database of information, but our ancestors had a more refined "knowledge system" (inspired from the classics) on how to use the information they had.