Greek Science

1
Greek Science

• Summary and Conclusions

2
Characteristic Features

• The kosmos perceived to be a natural whole
  gods not denied, but not considered to be active
  in nature. Probably the most important and
  enduring contribution.
• Nature tends to act the same way, and does
  nothing without a purpose. That is, there are
  laws of nature.
• Humans can recognize those laws do not need
  divine revelation.

3
Why in Ancient Greece?

• Prosperity though not necessarily political
  stability
• Mobility/trade/exploration as venue for
  exchanging ideas
• commercial prosperity, etc. generated a new class
  of citizens (whose wealth was commercial, not
  landed)
• allowed for movement of scholars but they were
  not a caste of priests who had a monopoly on
  interpreting the will of the gods.

4
most significantly

• Scholars and scientists came from all over the
  Greek world that is the interest in the study of
  nature was a common element in Greek urban
  culture (and not just at Athens).
• A civic tradition of public discussion of issues
  citizens decide, not autocrats and kings.

5
The Decline of Science in the Ancient World

• The rise of pseudo science
• Ptolemy on the efficacy of astrology. It would be
  wrong to dismiss this type of astrological
  prediction completely only because it sometimes
  can be wrong. After all we do not discard the art
  of navigation as such simply because it is often
  imperfect...Often there is a problem about the
  foremost and principal fact, the fraction of the
  hour of birth. In general, only observations by a
  "horoscopic" astrolabe at the very moment of
  birth can, for a trained observer, give the exact
  time. Almost all other instruments ... are in
  many ways capable of errors sundials because of
  their incorrect position or the incorrect angle
  of the "gnomon" water clocks because of the
  stoppage and irregular flow of the water.

6
Materia medica

• From the Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder
• But we have shown that the most effective
  protection against snakes is the spittle of a
  feasting person and actual daily experience
  confirms other effective uses of it. We spit
  against illnesses like epilepsy that is we repel
  contagion and the danger of meeting a person lame
  in the right leg. ... for quartan fever the liver
  of a cat killed during the waning moon, preserved
  in salt, to be taken in wine just before attacks.

7
On the decline of ancient science

• the end of the city-state and of public
  discussion
• decline in prosperity of commerce and trade of
  stability security
• alternatively, the formation of barbarian
  kingdoms under an essentially uneducated warrior
  class
• It is not that science disappears, but what there
  is, is practiced (note the pseudo scientific
  texts) at a very low level.

8
The rise of Christianity

• the role of the church "(natural) philosophy is
  the handmaiden servant of theology" St.
  Augustine.
• By default, the Church became the sole source of
  education and literacy.
• It is not the case that the Church was hostile to
  science, rather it saw the natural order as a
  reflection of God's order.

9
Problems

• The negative aspect of the church's role in
  "scientific discovery" in this period is the
  formation of a priesthood that controlled
  learning and whose status was closely tied to its
  monopoly of knowledge and education.

10
The monolithic nature of Christian Europe would
prove to be a major cultural constraint only
when cities again became prosperous, commerce
revived and the unitary structure split by the
Reformation could science (in the form we have
seen among the Greeks) emerge with anything like
the vitality we have seen.
11
Summary Table