Dark Ages, Middle Ages, New Ages - Part 2

Today, in history studies, the researchers do not assume anymore a fixed unique date to separate the historic eras. They see the transitions as processes evolving step by step before and after remarkable events. But, in some moment, a new paradigm arrives…

When Thomas Kuhn wrote about “paradigm” he meant only “scientific paradigms” in “scientific revolutions”; he even was not sure about use his concepts to understand biological sciences. Anyway, with the success of his ideas, other fields of knowledge started to use de concept of “paradigm” to understand several kinds of changes under human thinking. So, in the transition from Middle Ages to Renascence Period, it came a moment when people, mainly scholars and professors, did not see anymore themselves and the world as people of decades before. In a certain way we could say that “suddenly” Gothic Art became “strange” or “ugly”, Aristotelian knowledge lost part of its force, and so on… In 14^th century Petrarch started to think that Ancient Times, the time of Romans and Greeks, was a time of knowledge, and between those times and his own time it was a kind of “dark period”. Later this was used to reinforce the caricatured image of Middle Ages that was built mainly by Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment thinkers.   

For Petrarch the old was new, and the new was old. This is a key to understand certain moments and concepts in history.

From time to time in history and even nowadays someone like to speak about something that he called “new”, but in true it is something older than several things around. The vice versa happens too. Sometimes when someone try to start something really new, quickly appears another person to label it as “old”, just to devalue that innovation. Under that way of expression there is also some kind of prejudice about anything considered “old” or even the concept of “old”. In after-Postmodern times is yet difficult to say what is truly “new” or truly “old”…  

Dark Ages, Middle Ages, New Ages...

Most of us received information in History about “Dark Ages”, or “Middle Ages” as a time of ignorance, superstition, disrespect, prejudice, etc., and other “negative” things, and that all of these was overcome with Renascence, Humanism and Enlightenment.

Currently historians know that Dark Ages were not so dark… Middle Ages were not so ignorant… In true, the names Renascence and Humanism were fixed centuries after they occurred. Men of Enlightenment saw their own time as a “time of light”, under the “light of reason” and Middle Ages as a “time of obscurity”. Dark Ages and Middle Ages are concepts created later then the supposed eras. Throw research historians now know that at those times it was light and darkness, as in anytime. We do not know which century was better or worst. Each century has its light and its darkness. Sometimes it seems that the 20^th century could be the worst, other times it seems that could be the best. Anyway, we could say that we are now in a “macro shift” in history, or we could say that we are in after-postmodern times. We are not sure about “new ages”... But, as in all human history, light and darkness are still around…