The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why It Had to Be Reborn

490 Pages·2004·15.73 MB·English

by  Lucio Russo (auth.)

TheForgottenRevolution
Springer-Verlag
Berlin
Heidelberg
GmbH
Lucio Russo
The Forgotten
Revolution
HowScienceWasBornin300BC
andWhyItHadtoBeReborn
WiththeCollaboration
oftheTranslator,SilvioLevy
1 3
LucioRusso SilvioLevy (Translator)
DipartimentodiMatematica MathematicalSciencesResearchInstitute
UniversitàdiRoma"TorVergata" 17GaussWay
ViadellaRicercaScientifica Berkeley,CA94720-5070,USA
00133Roma,Italy e-mail:[email protected]
FirstpublishedasLarivoluzionedimenticata
©GiangiacomoFeltrinelliEditoreMilano,1996
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MathematicsSubjectClassification(2000):01A20
ISBN 978-3-540-20396-4 ISBN 978-3-642-18904-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-18904-3
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©Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2004
Originallypublished by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,etc.inthispublicationdoesnot
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Foreword to the English Edition
TheoriginalplanforthebookyouareholdingwassimplytohaveanEn-
glish translation of the second Italian edition. This would probably have
happenedasplannedifsomeoneotherthanSilvioLevyhadbeenchosen
as the translator. But after having exchanged with him the first few hun-
drede-mailmessages,Irealizedthattheworkwastakingonanaltogether
different aspect: he not only pointed out slips and inaccuracies of vari-
ous kinds, but also kept suggesting editorial changes to the text. I made
manyofhisproposedalterations,whileothersledtolongexchangeswith
varyingoutcomes.Inbothcasesthefinalproductwasimprovedthanksto
hiscontribution.(ThethirdItalianeditionwillincorporatemanyofthese
changes.) Silvio also drew a number of illustrations, procured and fine-
tunedmanyothers,compiledthegeneralindexandhandledthetechnical
aspects of the project. I am very grateful to Catriona Byrne of Springer-
Verlag,who,inproposinghiscollaboration,notonlyallowedthistobea
betterbook,butalsogainedmeafriend.
LucioRusso
Rome,September2003
e
e
.
Contents
Introduction 1
1 TheBirthofScience 5
1.1 TheErasureoftheScientificRevolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 OntheWord“Hellenistic” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.4 WasThereScienceinClassicalGreece? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.5 OriginsofHellenisticScience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2 HellenisticMathematics 31
2.1 PrecursorsofMathematicalScience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2 Euclid’sHypothetico-DeductiveMethod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.3 GeometryandComputationalAids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.4 DiscreteMathematicsandtheNotionofInfinity . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.5 ContinuousMathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.6 EuclidandHisPredecessors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.7 AnApplicationofthe“MethodofExhaustion” . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.8 TrigonometryandSphericalGeometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3 OtherHellenisticScientificTheories 57
3.1 Optics,ScenographyandCatoptrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.2 GeodesyandMathematicalGeography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.3 Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.4 Hydrostatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.5 Pneumatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.6 Aristarchus,Heliocentrism,andRelativeMotion . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.7 FromtheClosedWorldtotheInfiniteUniverse . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.8 PtolemaicAstronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
viii Contents
4 ScientificTechnology 95
4.1 MechanicalEngineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.2 Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.3 MilitaryTechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.4 SailingandNavigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.5 NavalArchitecture.ThePharos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.6 HydraulicandPneumaticEngineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.7 UseofNaturalPower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.8 TheAntikytheraMechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.9 Heron’sRole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.10 TheLostTechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5 MedicineandOtherEmpiricalSciences 143
5.1 TheBirthofAnatomyandPhysiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.2 RelationshipBetweenMedicineandExactSciences . . . . . . . . . 145
5.3 AnatomicalTerminologyandtheScrewPress . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
5.4 TheScientificMethodinMedicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.5 DevelopmentandEndofScientificMedicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
5.6 BotanyandZoology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5.7 Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6 TheHellenisticScientificMethod 171
6.1 OriginsofScientificDemonstration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
6.2 PostulatesorHypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
6.3 SavingthePhainomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
6.4 Definitions,ScientificTermsandTheoreticalEntities . . . . . . . . 179
6.5 EpistemeandTechne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
6.6 PostulatesandtheMeaningof“Mathematics”and“Physics” . . . 187
6.7 HellenisticScienceandExperimentalMethod . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
6.8 ScienceandOrality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
6.9 WhereDoClichésabout“AncientScience”ComeFrom? . . . . . . 197
7 SomeOtherAspectsoftheScientificRevolution 203
7.1 UrbanPlanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
7.2 ConsciousandUnconsciousCulturalEvolution . . . . . . . . . . . 209
7.3 TheTheoryofDreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
7.4 PropositionalLogic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
7.5 PhilologicalandLinguisticStudies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
7.6 TheFigurativeArts,LiteratureandMusic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
8 TheDecadenceandEndofScience 231
8.1 TheCrisisinHellenisticScience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
8.2 Rome,ScienceandScientificTechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
8.3 TheEndofAncientScience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Contents ix
9 Science,TechnologyandEconomy 243
9.1 ModernismandPrimitivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
9.2 ScientificandTechnologicalPolicy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
9.3 EconomicGrowthandInnovationinAgriculture . . . . . . . . . . 249
9.4 NonagriculturalTechnologyandProduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
9.5 TheRoleoftheCityintheAncientWorld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
9.6 TheNatureoftheAncientEconomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
9.7 AncientScienceandProduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
10 LostScience 269
10.1 LostOptics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
10.2 Eratosthenes’MeasurementoftheMeridian . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
10.3 Determinism,ChanceandAtoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
10.4 CombinatoricsandLogic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
10.5 PtolemyandHellenisticAstronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
10.6 TheMoon,theSlingandHipparchus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
10.7 APassageofSeneca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
10.8 RaysofDarknessandTriangularRays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
10.9 TheIdeaofGravityafterAristotle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
10.10 Tides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
10.11 TheShapeoftheEarth:SlingorEllipsoid? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
10.12 SeleucusandtheProofofHeliocentrism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
10.13 Precession,Comets,etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
10.14 PtolemyandTheonofSmyrna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
10.15 TheFirstFewDefinitionsintheElements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
11 TheAge-LongRecovery 329
11.1 TheEarlyRenaissances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
11.2 TheRenaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
11.3 TheRediscoveryofOpticsinEurope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
11.4 ALateDiscipleofArchimedes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
11.5 TwoModernScientists:KeplerandDescartes . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
11.6 TerrestrialMotion,TidesandGravitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
11.7 Newton’sNaturalPhilosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
11.8 TheRiftBetweenMathematicsandPhysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
11.9 AncientScienceandModernScience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
11.10 TheErasureofAncientScience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
11.11 RecoveryandCrisisofScientificMethodology . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Appendix 399
ListofPassages 403
References 419
GeneralIndex 435
.
Introduction
TheperiodfromthelatefourthtothelatesecondcenturyB.C.witnessed,
in Greek-speaking countries, an explosion of objective knowledge about
theexternalworld.WhileGreekculturehadreachedgreatheightsinart,
literature and philosophy already in the earlier classical era, it is in the
so-called Hellenistic period that we see for the first time—anywhere in
the world—the appearance of science as we understand it now: not an
accumulationoffactsorphilosophicallybasedspeculations,butanorga-
nizedefforttomodelnatureandapplysuchmodels,orscientifictheoriesin
asensewewillmakeprecise,tothesolutionofpracticalproblemsandtoa
growingunderstandingofnature.Weowethisnewapproachtoscientists
such as Archimedes, Euclid, Eratosthenes and many others less familiar
todaybutnolessremarkable.
Yet,notlongafterthisgoldenperiod,muchofthisextraordinarydevel-
opmenthad beenreversed. Rome borrowed what it was capable of from
theGreeksandkeptitforalittlewhileyet,butcreatedverylittlescienceof
its own. Europe was soon smothered in the obscurantism and stasis that
blockedmostavenuesofintellectualdevelopmentforathousandyears—
until, as is well known, the rediscovery of ancient culture in its fullness
pavedthewaytothemodernage.
Whatwerethelandmarksinthemeteoricriseofscience2300yearsago?
Whyaretheysolittleknowntoday,evenamongscientists,classicistsand
historians?Howtotheyrelatetothepost-1500sciencethatwe’refamiliar
with from school? What led to the end of ancient science? These are the
questions that this book discusses, in the belief that the answers bear on
choiceswefacetoday.