SOURCE: "Albertus Magnus and the Rise of an Empirical Approach in Medieval Philosophy and Science," in By Things Seen: Reference and Recognition in Medieval Thought, edited by David L. Jeffrey, University of Ottawa Press, 1979, pp. 175-85.

In the following excerpt, Shaw argues that Albert's works were among the first to emphasize experimentation in the biological sciences.

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Insofar as it is possible to generalize meaningfully about such things, it is true that at the beginning of the thirteenth century Plato was the establishment philosopher, but at the end of the same century he was not so firmly established. At the end of the century, though Aristotle was not yet recognized as a Christian, he was not completely ostracized from the Church, and he was certainly at home in the Continental universities. This radical change was due, in part, to the efforts of Albertus Magnus.

When Albert began his...