How to Accurately Account for Astrology’s Marginalization in the History of Science and Culture: The Central Importance of an Interpretive Framework

Abstract

Astrology is a complex, multifold and long-lived subject that has been approached from many different perspectives in a broad range of scholarly disciplines. In order to understand its many roles within the history of science, theology, and culture, one needs a well-articulated historically and conceptually sound interpretive framework. In this article, a framework is proposed based on the curricular structures at medieval universities by which fundamental conceptual patterns and practices were passed down from generation to generation. It is argued that this will be helpful both for framing answerable questions, and for approaching their solutions. This goes particularly for the complex long-term patterns of astrology’s marginalization from the domain of legitimate knowledge and practice during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. Astrology is a complex, multifold and long-lived subject that has been approached from many different perspectives in a broad range of scholarly disciplines. In order to understand its many roles within the history of science, theology, and culture, one needs a well-articulated historically and conceptually sound interpretive framework. In this article, a framework is proposed based on the curricular structures at medieval universities by which fundamental conceptual patterns and practices were passed down from generation to generation. It is argued that this will be helpful both for framing answerable questions, and for approaching their solutions. This goes particularly for the complex long-term patterns of astrology’s marginalization from the domain of legitimate knowledge and practice during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.