Greek Science and Philosophy

Abstract

ON Wednesday, May 12, Dr. C. Singer delivered his inaugural address as lecturer in the history of medicine at University College, London. Sir Robert Had field presided over a large and distinguished audience. After alluding to the neglect of the history of science in this country, Dr. Singer referred to the organised effort now being made by Dr. Wolf and others to remedy it at University College. The institution in which Augustus De Morgan spent the whole of his active life was a peculiarly appropriate place for such an experiment. The history of science was a necessary element in any curriculum that sought to give a view of the mental history of the human race. Turning to the various stages through which science has passed, Dr. Singer made some interesting comparisons between the science of the ancient East, the science of Greece, and modern science. Among the characteristics which distinguished Greek science from Oriental science and allied it to ours were the individuality and eponymity of its discoveries, as distinguished from the anonymous thought of preceding civilisations, which always appeared as a social rather than as an individual product. Another and more important feature of Greek thought was the conviction of the reign of law, the idea that order rules in Nature. This belief, almost an article of faith with the Greeks, has been justified more and more with the advance of natural knowledge. On the other hand, Greek science differed from ours in various ways. The most obvious difference was the intimate relation between Greek science and Greek philosophy. This was due to the fact that Greek science was originally a department of Greek philosophy. The divorce between our science and philosophy had many advantages, but also some drawbacks. Another important difference between Greek and modern science is to be found in the method of record. The Greeks were interested in results rather than in methods, and almost always neglected to give an account of their methods. As a consequence, their results cannot be relied upon, and, except by hard research, we can get no glimpse of their methods of working. The mathematical group of sciences, however, formed an exception in this respect. In these the Greeks recorded their methods as well as their results.