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A review by bkoser
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature by C.S. Lewis
5.0
Chapter 1: The Medieval Situation
Medieval Europeans were not superstitious, romantic savages. They were scholarly organizers who based their knowledge on books, predominantly Greek and Latin classics. The romantic strain they received from barbarian ballads of knights slaying dragons to save princesses; it was important and valuable, but not central to their thought. The central work of art and organization was their cosmological model.
Chapter 2: Reservations
The medieval model as it existed in the mind of artists is not the same as the history of medieval science, in the same way that Freud affected 20th century literature more than Einstein. The model was in tension with Christianity. Medievals held the model loosely; Galileo caused trouble not by agreeing with Copernicus but by insisting he was right.
Chapters 3 and 4 are a survey of notable writers and works, demonstrating the development and affect of the model. Lewis thought the highest of Plotinus, then Boethius, whose "Consolation of Philosophy" he calls one of the most popular and influential Latin books of all time. "To acquire a taste for it is almost to become naturalised in the Middle Ages."
Chapter 5 outlines the elements and the spheres (heavenly bodies).
Chapter 6 lists the "longlivers": elves, fairies, nymphs, etc.
Chapter 7 is mostly the Earth, beasts, and souls.
Chapter 8 examines the influence of the model on art. The medievals' worst fault was tedium: everything had a place and meaning in their cosmos, so they felt everything was interesting. Their greatest virtue was the ease of their poetry; it feels not at all straining or self-conscious.
The Epilogue might be the best chapter. Lewis grants that the medieval model was flawed in that it is not true. However, neither is our modern model. You may have "trusted the science" in Newton's day, only to be proved wrong by Einstein. Since Lewis's death, quantum theory has apparently contradicted Einstein.
Any model of the universe is a map: it describes reality, but it is not itself reality. A model can never represent reality completely, just as a map is a shadow of a place.
The popular conception is that Darwin produced biological evolution theory by his observations. But the dominant thought had switched from devolution to evolution before Darwin; the revolutionaries and romantics demanded a developing world, for which the scientists then found evidence. Another example of philosophy driving science: In the 19th century, most astronomers did not believe in alien life. With the advent of space travel and science fiction, by the mid-20th century most astronomers believed in the inevitability of aliens.
Lewis ends by calling not for a return to the medieval model, but a return to the medieval humility.
Medieval Europeans were not superstitious, romantic savages. They were scholarly organizers who based their knowledge on books, predominantly Greek and Latin classics. The romantic strain they received from barbarian ballads of knights slaying dragons to save princesses; it was important and valuable, but not central to their thought. The central work of art and organization was their cosmological model.
Chapter 2: Reservations
The medieval model as it existed in the mind of artists is not the same as the history of medieval science, in the same way that Freud affected 20th century literature more than Einstein. The model was in tension with Christianity. Medievals held the model loosely; Galileo caused trouble not by agreeing with Copernicus but by insisting he was right.
Chapters 3 and 4 are a survey of notable writers and works, demonstrating the development and affect of the model. Lewis thought the highest of Plotinus, then Boethius, whose "Consolation of Philosophy" he calls one of the most popular and influential Latin books of all time. "To acquire a taste for it is almost to become naturalised in the Middle Ages."
Chapter 5 outlines the elements and the spheres (heavenly bodies).
Chapter 6 lists the "longlivers": elves, fairies, nymphs, etc.
Chapter 7 is mostly the Earth, beasts, and souls.
Chapter 8 examines the influence of the model on art. The medievals' worst fault was tedium: everything had a place and meaning in their cosmos, so they felt everything was interesting. Their greatest virtue was the ease of their poetry; it feels not at all straining or self-conscious.
The Epilogue might be the best chapter. Lewis grants that the medieval model was flawed in that it is not true. However, neither is our modern model. You may have "trusted the science" in Newton's day, only to be proved wrong by Einstein. Since Lewis's death, quantum theory has apparently contradicted Einstein.
Any model of the universe is a map: it describes reality, but it is not itself reality. A model can never represent reality completely, just as a map is a shadow of a place.
The popular conception is that Darwin produced biological evolution theory by his observations. But the dominant thought had switched from devolution to evolution before Darwin; the revolutionaries and romantics demanded a developing world, for which the scientists then found evidence. Another example of philosophy driving science: In the 19th century, most astronomers did not believe in alien life. With the advent of space travel and science fiction, by the mid-20th century most astronomers believed in the inevitability of aliens.
Lewis ends by calling not for a return to the medieval model, but a return to the medieval humility.