Reddit mentions of A Short History of Scientific Thought

There's a lot I could say as the history of the sciences and medicine is an area of great interest to me (I'm contemplating doing my dissertation on it), but a lot of it largely speculative and without facts to back my points. What I mostly want to draw your attention to is a nice little book I picked up last year, A Short History of Scientific Thought. It's a general piece, but a good start point if you're interested. And each chapter does have a list of further reading at the end.

Admittedly only the first 50 pages cover pre-renaissance, but so much happens after that I can forgive it. It covers changes in thoughts, things like the growth of universities and the impact of the printing press. There's a list of Arab thinkers who covered areas like medicine and astromony from the 8th century to 13th. People forget things like math or medicine too as important areas.

I remember learning about Newton in one lecture, and our teacher made a scathing comment about how he was a Christian and an Alchemist, like it was something to be ashamed of. Religion was interwinded in the history of humanity, and it's foolish to try and seperate them due to modern views. Take Alchemy for example. We all learn it's a bunch of silly hocus pocus. But that wasn't always the case (Check out Distilling Knowledge if you're ever curious about the shift from Alchemy to Chemisty and the history of the disciplines!)

Read and learn my friend! Nothing is ever so black and white as some like to paint it. There are so many branches of science, many of which are more important at different times and likely to get more focus. And remember, it was the churches, the monks and monastaries what preserved and copied many of the ancient texts we have at our disposal today. I think people who claim there was a dark age, a suppression of knowledge are looking at it the wrong way. I am of the personal opinion that the development of the printing press in the 15th Century does not get enough credit. It is due to that we saw the sudden explosion of texts being more readily available to a wider audience. This meant more minds to read, to learn, to critique the assumed knowledge of the time.