Aristotle's works were never lost to Europe, they were doing fine in Spain the entire time. This entire thing is a long propagated mythology that things were at their best when Europe dominated the Mediterranean. The Middle ages were Islamic and Chinese golden ages, and the Han dynasties equalled or surpassed anything in the Greco-Roman sphere.
I don't quite understand. The scholars of Europe did not have access to Aristotle's works. Are you saying that isn't true? Was Spain isolated from the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages?
> This entire thing is a long propagated mythology that things were at their best when Europe dominated the Mediterranean
I don't understand how saying that they lost access to their greatest scholar, Aristotle, and had to rely on people from another part of the Mediterranean to preserve and return his works to them, supports a claim that "things were at their best when Europe dominated the Mediterranean".
Also, do you have some source for what you are saying? If you look at the cite in my post, you can read much of what I said, including about Aristotle.
>I don't quite understand. The scholars of Europe did not have access to Aristotle's works. Are you saying that isn't true? Was Spain isolated from the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages?
Uh yes? Spain was part of the Umayyad Caliphate and then various other Caliphates until the Reconquista ended Islamic Spain in 1491. Islam never lost Aristotle.
Saying that Europe largely lost Aristotle isn't propagating the myth, repeating Hegel and Descartes Eurocentric views is, as is saying civilization is fragile when it survived fine.
A lot of the reason the European's liked old things is that they could then claim it was European knowledge rather than Islamic. Examples include Aquinas commissioning a translation of Aristotle from Greek sources, as the existing copies were translated from Arabic.
As for sources, yours only shows that Aquinas rationalised Aristotle and Catholicism, which is true. On what I've said, if you didn't know about Al-Andalus I don't know where to begin. Anything about the Umayyad Caliphate would be a start, or almost any modern history of the age.
I'm also completely ignoring that the "Fall of Rome" happened in 1453, largely considered the end of the Middle Ages.
The only controversial part of what I said is that they liked old things to avoid the tie to Islam. Al-Andalus was Spain, Islamic philosophy was heavily influenced by Aristotle, everyone called the Byzantine Empire Roman, and we are taught a very Eurocentric history.
Sorry to continue on, wanted to establish that these things are certain. Don't want to fall into a new blend of scholasticism.
