 |
 |
|
What is nature? How is nature known?
The emergence of mathematical astronomy in the Ancient Near East provided the model for exact quantitative science in antiquity.
Ancient technology, including Egyptian medical practice, illustrates the sophisticated evaluation of empirical results (e.g., case studies) that is possible in a technical tradition where practical know-how matters more than theoretical understanding or a belief in natural causes.
The presocratics established a tradition of logical debate as a search for theoretical causes.
The Pythagoreans, both before and after Socrates, sought the explanation of natural things in contemplation of numbers and the relations between numbers.
Plato argued that reality inheres in the immaterial, eternal Forms of things rather than in their material instances, which are but shadows and pale reflections of a reality that is apprehended by the intellect rather than the senses.
Aristotle disagreed, arguing that both the form and the matter of a natural thing are abstractions; that neither the form nor the matter by itself is real. Rather, what is real are the ever-changing things that are always combinations of both forms and matter. Therefore, an understanding of both forms and matter is essential to an understanding of the nature of the thing. That understanding can only be attained through extensive experience which yields universal statements that may be cast into logical demonstrations.
Hellenistic science represents the fusion of the cultures of the Ancient Near East, ancient Egypt, and early (Hellenic) Greece. This cross-cultural fusion is illustrated, for example, in the combination of the quantitative, exact methods of Babylonian astronomy (e.g., Kidinnu) and the qualitative, geometrical methods of earlier (Hellenic) Greek astronomers (e.g., Eudoxos) that is evident in the work of Hipparchos and his successors.
| What is Nature? | How is Nature known? | ||
| Tradition | Type of explanation | Experience component | Mental component |
| Mesopotamian astronomy | Interpretation of natural phenomena as signs of the will of the gods; practical know-how | Long-term, organized, systematic observation | Mathematical description and prediction |
| Egyptian medicine | Interpretation of natural phenomena as signs of the will of the gods; practical know-how | empirical results
of medical regimens, surgical techniques |
Evaluation of case studies |
| Presocratic natural philosophy (physics) | Search for divine first principles understood as theoretical causes | Ordinary, individual experience | Logic |
| Pythagoreans | Numbers as the divine causes of nature | Numerical diagrams and occasional experiments | Geometrical proofs and contemplations of numbers |
| Plato | Forms as the divine causes of nature | Shadows, reflections, pointers | Mathematics, philosophy |
| Aristotle | Natural things contain within themselves the causes of their own motions (or changes). These causes are material, formal, efficient and final. | Extensive experience, observation, experiment | Logical syllogisms |
| Hellenistic science | A fusion of the cultures and scientific methodologies of the Ancient Near East, ancient Egypt, and early Hellenic Greece. | Example of astronomy: Select observations that are significant for specifying geometrical models | Mathematics |
|
HSCI 3013. History
of Science to 17th century |
spellcheck.net | wordcounter.net
Many thanks to the pedagogical model developed in Mythology and Folklore and other online courses by Laura Gibbs, which have been an inspiration for this course.
|
|
This course is currently undergoing major reconstruction to bring it into alignment with the new version of the course at Janux |
|||
