Economy and Nature in the Fourteenth Century : Money, Market Exchange, and the Emergence of Scientific Thought (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought)

Economy and Nature in the Fourteenth Century : Money, Market Exchange, and the Emergence of Scientific Thought (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought)
Joel Kaye | 1998-02-13 00:00:00 | Cambridge University Press | 285 | Economics
Intellectual developments pioneered by scholastic natural philosophers of the fourteenth century constituted a critical stage in the emergence of scientific thought. Beneath these technical developments lay a profound reconceptualization of nature. The purpose of this book is to analyze the components of this reconceptualization, and to speculate on the influences that shaped it. It argues that the transformation of the conceptual model of the natural world c. 1260-1380 was strongly influenced by the rapid monetization of European society during the same period.
Reviews
A fascinating study of the impact of economic change on medieval natural philosophy and theology. According to Kaye, competing economic models created tensions between a more theocentric world view and one that could accommodate the workings of an independent and self-regulating marketplace. He also provides fascinating insight into the attempts -- chiefly in France -- to revalue and control currency, which provided vivid examples to medieval observers of what can go wrong with misguided efforts to intervene in supply and demand. The Middle Ages appears surprisingly modern in this clearly written study, which should be of interest not only to scholars but to any intelligent reader interested in learning more about the beginnings of economic history.
Reviews
Intellectual historians have traditionally done a bad job at making connections between thinkers' thoughts and thinkers' environments. Kaye succeeds by pointing out economy's influence on philosphy. I am convinced.

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