Toward the Scientific Revolution
This MIT OpenCourseWare subject traces how ideas about nature and how to study it developed from antiquity through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The course follows cosmology, natural history, physics, mathematics, and medicine as intertwined fields, showing how conceptual shifts connected to changing institutions such as universities, monasteries, and courts. Topics include ancient Greek natural philosophy, medieval scholasticism, and the intellectual currents feeding into the Scientific Revolution. Materials include the full syllabus, readings, and assignments as published by MIT, letting a self-directed learner reconstruct the semester's arguments about how Western thought moved from classical cosmology to early modern science. No lectures are video recorded, but the reading list and assignment sequence give a clear structure for independent study. The course is free to access under MIT's OpenCourseWare license, with no certificate offered.