The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity

The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity
Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages : 344
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9783110194326
ISBN-13 : 3110194325
Rating : 4/5 (26 Downloads)

Synopsis The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity by : Leonid Zhmud

This is the first comprehensive study of what remains of the writings of Aristotle's student Eudemus of Rhodes on the history of the exact sciences. These fragments are crucial to our understanding of the content, form, and goal of the Peripatetic historiography of science. The first part of the book presents an analysis of those trends in Presocratic, Sophistic and Platonic thought that contributed to the development of the history of science. The second part provides a detailed study of Eudemus' writings in their relationship with the scientific literature of his time, Aristotelian philosophy and the other historiographic genres practiced at the Lyceum: biography, medical and natural-philosophical doxography. Although Peripatetic historiography of science failed in establishing itself as a continuous genre, it greatly contributed both to the birth of the Arabic medieval historiography of science and to the development of this genre in Europe in the 16th-18th centuries.

Ancient Science and Dreams

Ancient Science and Dreams
Author :
Publisher : University Press of America
Total Pages : 220
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0761821570
ISBN-13 : 9780761821571
Rating : 4/5 (70 Downloads)

Synopsis Ancient Science and Dreams by : Mark Holowchak

In Ancient Science and Dreams, M. Andrew Holowchak analyzes the ancient notion of science of dreams throughout Greco-Roman antiquity, from the Classical Greece in the fifth century B.C. to the Roman Republic in the fourth century A.D. Holowchak investigates psycho-physiological accounts, interpretation of prophetic dreams, and the use of dreams in secular and non-secular medicine. Culling from some of the fullest and most important accounts of dreams and ordering the presentation in each section chronologically, the author analyzes the extent to which empirical and non-empirical factors guided ancient accounts in Greco-Roman antiquity.

The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity

The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 592
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781400849567
ISBN-13 : 140084956X
Rating : 4/5 (67 Downloads)

Synopsis The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity by : Benjamin Isaac

There was racism in the ancient world, after all. This groundbreaking book refutes the common belief that the ancient Greeks and Romans harbored "ethnic and cultural," but not racial, prejudice. It does so by comprehensively tracing the intellectual origins of racism back to classical antiquity. Benjamin Isaac's systematic analysis of ancient social prejudices and stereotypes reveals that some of those represent prototypes of racism--or proto-racism--which in turn inspired the early modern authors who developed the more familiar racist ideas. He considers the literature from classical Greece to late antiquity in a quest for the various forms of the discriminatory stereotypes and social hatred that have played such an important role in recent history and continue to do so in modern society. Magisterial in scope and scholarship, and engagingly written, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity further suggests that an understanding of ancient attitudes toward other peoples sheds light not only on Greco-Roman imperialism and the ideology of enslavement (and the concomitant integration or non-integration) of foreigners in those societies, but also on the disintegration of the Roman Empire and on more recent imperialism as well. The first part considers general themes in the history of discrimination; the second provides a detailed analysis of proto-racism and prejudices toward particular groups of foreigners in the Greco-Roman world. The last chapter concerns Jews in the ancient world, thus placing anti-Semitism in a broader context.

The Origins of Modern Science

The Origins of Modern Science
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 415
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781316510308
ISBN-13 : 1316510301
Rating : 4/5 (08 Downloads)

Synopsis The Origins of Modern Science by : Ofer Gal

"This book attempts to introduce to its readers major chapters in the history of science. It tries to present science as a human endeavor - a great achievement, and all the more human for it. In place of the story of progress and its obstacles or a parade of truths revealed, this book stresses the contingent and historical nature of scientific knowledge. Knowledge, science included, is always developed by real people, within communities, answering immediate needs and challenges shaped by place, culture, and historical events with resources drawn from their present and past. Chronologically, this book spans from Pythagorean mathematics to Newton's Principle. The book starts in the high Middle Ages and proceeds to introduce the readers to the historian's way of inquiry. At the center of this introduction is the Gothic Cathedral - a grand achievement of human knowledge, rooted in a complex cultural context, and a powerful metaphor for science. The book alternates thematic chapters with chapters concentrating on an era. Yet it attempts to integrate discussion of all different aspects of the making of knowledge: social and cultural settings, challenges and opportunities; intellectual motivations and worries; epistemological assumptions and technical ideas; instruments and procedures. The cathedral metaphor is evoked intermittently throughout, to tie the many themes discussed to the main lesson: that the complex set of beliefs, practices, and institutions we call science is a particular, contingent human phenomenon"--

Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism

Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 552
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0674539184
ISBN-13 : 9780674539181
Rating : 4/5 (84 Downloads)

Synopsis Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism by : Walter Burkert

For this first English edition of his distinguished study of Pythagoreanism, Weisheit und Wissenschajt: Studien zu Pythagoras, Philolaos, und Platon, Walter Burkert has carefully revised text and notes, taking account of additional literature on the subject which appeared between 1962 and 1969. By a thorough critical sifting of all the available evidence, the author lays a new foundation for the understanding of ancient Pythagoreanism and in particular of the relationship within it of "lore" and "science." He shows that in the twilight zone when the Greeks were discovering the rational interpretation of the world and quantitative natural science, Pythagoras represented not the origin of the new, but the survival or revival of ancient, pre-scientific lore or wisdom, based on superhuman authority and expressed in ritual obligation.

The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 1, Ancient Science

The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 1, Ancient Science
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages :
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781108682626
ISBN-13 : 1108682626
Rating : 4/5 (26 Downloads)

Synopsis The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 1, Ancient Science by : Alexander Jones

This volume in the highly respected Cambridge History of Science series is devoted to the history of science, medicine and mathematics of the Old World in antiquity. Organized by topic and culture, its essays by distinguished scholars offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date history of ancient science currently available. Together, they reveal the diversity of goals, contexts, and accomplishments in the study of nature in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and India. Intended to provide a balanced and inclusive treatment of the ancient world, contributors consider scientific, medical and mathematical learning in the cultures associated with the ancient world.

Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature

Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature
Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
Total Pages : 275
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781479823048
ISBN-13 : 147982304X
Rating : 4/5 (48 Downloads)

Synopsis Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature by : Jonathan Ben-Dov

Until very recently, the idea of ancient Jewish sciences would have been considered unacceptable. Since the 1990s, Early Modern and Medieval Science in Jewish sources has been actively studied, but the consensus was that no real scientific themes could be found in earlier Judaism. This work points them out in detail and posits a new field of research: the scientific activity evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Jewish pseudepigrapha. The publication of new texts and new analyses of older ones reveals crucial elements that are best illuminated by the history of science, and may have interesting consequences for it. The contributors evaluate these texts in relation to astronomy, astrology, and physiognomy, marking the first comprehensive attempt to account for scientific themes in Second Temple Judaism. They investigate the meaning and purpose of scientific explorations in an apocalyptic setting. An appreciation of these topics paves the way to a renewed understanding of the scientific fragments scattered throughout rabbinic literature. The book first places the Jewish material in the ancient context of the Near Eastern and Hellenistic worlds. While the Jewish texts were not on the cutting edge of scientific discovery, they find a meaningful place in the history of science, between Babylonia and Egypt, in the time period between Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The book uses recent advances in method to examine the contacts and networks of Jewish scholars in their ancient setting. Second, the essays here tackle the problematic concept of a national scientific tradition. Although science is nowadays often conceived as universal, the historiography of ancient Jewish sciences demonstrates the importance of seeing the development of science in a local context. The book explores the tension between the hegemony of central scientific traditions and local scientific enterprises, showing the relevance of ancient data to contemporary postcolonial historiography of science. Finally, philosophical questions of the demarcation of science are addressed in a way that can advance the discussion of related ancient materials. Online edition available as part of the NYU Library's Ancient World Digital Library and in partnership with the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW).

Blacks in Antiquity

Blacks in Antiquity
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 396
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0674076265
ISBN-13 : 9780674076266
Rating : 4/5 (65 Downloads)

Synopsis Blacks in Antiquity by : Frank M. Snowden

Investigates the participation of black Africans, usually referred to as "Ethiopians," by the Greek and Romans, in classical civilization, concluding that they were accepted by pagans and Christians without prejudice.

Race, Science, and the Nation

Race, Science, and the Nation
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 359
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781135054694
ISBN-13 : 113505469X
Rating : 4/5 (94 Downloads)

Synopsis Race, Science, and the Nation by : Chris Manias

Across the nineteenth century, scholars in Britain, France and the German lands sought to understand their earliest ancestors: the Germanic and Celtic tribes known from classical antiquity, and the newly discovered peoples of prehistory. New fields – philology, archeology and anthropology – interacted, breaking down languages, unearthing artifacts, measuring skulls and recording the customs of "savage" analogues. This was a decidedly national process: disciplines institutionalized on national levels, and their findings seen to have deep implications for the origins of the nation and its "racial composition." However, this operated within broader currents. The wide spread of material and novelty of the methods meant that these approaches formed connections across Europe and beyond, even while national rivalries threatened to tear these networks apart. Race, Science and the Nation follows this tension, offering a simultaneously comparative, cross-national and multi-disciplinary history of the scholarly reconstruction of European prehistory. As well as showing how interaction between disciplines was key to their formation, it makes arguments of keen relevance to studies of racial thought and nationalism. It shows these researches often worked against attempts to present the chaotic multi-layered ancient eras as times of mythic origin. Instead, they argued that the modern nations of Europe were not only diverse, but were products of long processes of social development and "racial" fusion. This book therefore brings to light a formerly unstudied motif of nineteenth-century national consciousness, showing how intellectuals in the era of nation-building themselves drove an idea of their nations being "constructed" from a useable past.

Science Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity

Science Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 211
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781108132602
ISBN-13 : 110813260X
Rating : 4/5 (02 Downloads)

Synopsis Science Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity by : Liba Taub

We access Greek and Roman scientific ideas mainly through those texts which happen to survive. By concentrating only on the ideas conveyed, we may limit our understanding of the meaning of those ideas in their historical context. Through considering the diverse ways in which scientific ideas were communicated, in different types of texts, we can uncover otherwise hidden meanings and more fully comprehend the historical contexts in which those ideas were produced and shared, the aims of the authors and the expectations of ancient readers. Liba Taub explores the rich variety of formats used to discuss scientific, mathematical and technical subjects, from c.700 BCE to the sixth century CE. Each chapter concentrates on a particular genre - poetry, letter, encyclopaedia, commentary and biography - offering an introduction to Greek and Roman scientific ideas, while using a selection of ancient writings to focus on the ways in which we encounter them.