Timothy J. Reiss argues that the massive changes in thought in early modern Europe occurred, not because of a move from orality to print culture, but rather because the means and methods of discovery came to depend on the mathematical disciplines, including music, instead of the language arts.
Recent explanations of changes in early modern European thought speak much of a move from orality and emphasis on language to print culture and a 'spatial' way of thinking. Timothy J. Reiss offers a more complex explanation for the massive changes in thought that occurred. He describes how, while the language arts continued to dominate teaching and debate, scientific and artistic areas of activity came to depend on mathematical disciplines, including music, for new means and methods of discovery, and as a basis for wider sociocultural renewal. Knowledge, discovery and imagination in early modern Europe rethinks the relationship between the arts and the sciences in western culture, and questions the now commonplace argument about novelties of print culture and 'spatial' thinking.
