Science In Antiquity Research Articles

The History of Ancient Science: A Personal View

My subject is the history of science in antiquity, where the convention I adopt for “antiquity” is that it covers everything from the earliest recorded Mesopotamian investigations in the third millennium BCE down to the end of the third century CE, by which time two particularly significant upheavals had taken place at either end of the Euro-Asia land mass. I refer to the Christianization of the Greco-Roman World and the rise of Buddhism in China. That study poses a number of distinctive problems, both substantive and methodological, which I shall go on immediately to identify. At the same time it is particularly worthwhile, in my view, for the light it can throw on very early efforts at understanding the physical world. Let me give a brief preliminary explanation of my main thesis.

АНАЛОГОВОЕ И ДИГИТАЛЬНОЕ КАК ТИПЫ КОНСТИТУИРОВАНИЯ И ДЕСТРУКЦИИ СУЩЕГО

The analog type of thinking reality takes the form as initial point of reflection. The digital type takes as initial points of reflection the formula and the code. Example of analog type of reflection is thinking of antiquity. In antique science starting point of reflection is a form, and the formula is always based on the form. Example of digital type of reflection is Western science. It turns over the relationship between the form and the formula. The form here is understood on basis of the formula. Let’s question: does the cognitive capabilities of analog type reflection are exhausted? In biology Aristotle’s conception of «form as the first essence» is replaced by the formula of genetic code. But here, in our view, is inexplicable following point. Genetic mechanism of information transference only explains how a formula is converted to another formula. But it remains fundamentally incomprehensible how formula can determine the form of body. This mechanism of multiplication of formula or code may generate only fractal forms. On this principle is only vegetative growth takes place. Mechanism of code’s itself-replication leads to unrestricted fractal growth in all directions. But forms of superior organisms – are not fractal forms. What mechanism of limitation prevents here unrestricted fractal code spreading? We prove that it is qualitatively different principle of formation, which cannot be explained by logic of the code’s self-replication. We advance hypothesis about the existence of additional biofield mechanism of form-creation, which operates on the analog basis.

"Dell'ugna un leone": le détail comme paradigme épistémologique en sciences de l'Antiquité

Abstract–. This paper focuses on the analysis of detail, treated as a heuristic model for the sciences of Antiquity, from three different perspectives. First, it offers an analysis of the different ways the detail has been used in search of an archetype – both in textual criticism with K. Lachmann and in the history of the Byzantine miniature with N. P. Kondakov. The next step is to develop a historiographical approach to show how the detail was introduced in human sciences under the influence of natural sciences, and in particular of G. Cuvier, and the impact this had on the working methods which have been used. Finally, I discuss which ideas have been circulated in Classical studies on the concepts, and purposes, of the original and the copy.

Conceptual Roots And Synergistic Communalities In Economics And Marketing

Marketing as a scientific discipline has a very long practice but relatively brief history, as opposed to Economics, crowned as the queen of social sciences in antiquity. Both disciplines share an interest in consumer behavior, on both micro and micro levels. However, taught at different schools and departments of universities, these disciplines developed own methodologies and research approaches, foregoing obvious synergies. This paper discusses several concepts and theories developed in one of the disciplines that ought to be taught in the other.

Gondishapur School of Medicine: the most important medical center in antiquity.

Iran has a rich civilization and a long history during which medical science flourished at specific periods. For instance, medicine blossomed in Sassanids era (226 - 652 AD). One of the most remarkable cultural and scientific centers of Sassanids era was the city of Gondishapur located in the south-west Iran in Shah-Abad near Susa in Khuzestan Province. The city was rebuilt in the third century AD, whereupon it soon became the most important scientific focal point of the ancient world. Gondishapur Medical School was a renowned cosmopolitan institution and had a crucial impact upon the further development of Islamic medicine. Actually, at this school, the Greek, Persian, and Indian medical heritage was conserved, developed, and it was then transferred to the Islamic world and subsequently to the West. Gondishapur Hospital was also an excellent model for establishment of hospitals especially in the Islamic countries. Presented here is a brief account of the foundation of Gondishapur School of Medicine and its role in promoting medical science in antiquity.

Integrated geophysical and topographical investigation in the territory of Ancient Tarquinia (Viterbo, central Italy)

AbstractThis paper presents the results of an ongoing study of the territory of Ancient Tarquinia (Viterbo, central Italy). The work is part of the University of Milano's ‘Tarquinia Project’, which studies the monumental area of this territory with particular emphasis on the ‘Ara della Regina’ temple site.To enhance the knowledge of this territory, a scientific collaboration between the University of Milano (Department of Science of Antiquity) and the Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage (ITABC‐C.N.R.) was initiated in 2000 and is still in progress. The primary objective of the study was to determine the location and degree of conservation of unknown buried structures below the sites studied, using the integration of topographical surveys, three‐dimensional laser scanner surveys of the temple and ground‐based remote sensing surveys.The remote sensing surveys were carried out using the ground‐penetrating radar (GPR). The analysis of the GPR time‐slice maps indicates that some structural formations and walls of the buildings are still present below the surface. The results presented and discussed in this paper demonstrate the potential of both the topographical survey combined with the three‐dimensional laser scanner survey of the monument and the remote sensing technique for understanding of the presence and the extent of buried buildings with respect to the temple area. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Ancient Meteorology. "Sciences in Antiquity"

Ancient Meteorology. "Sciences in Antiquity"

Medicine and Divination in India

(Michio Yano is the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Studies at Kyoto Sangyo University, teaching Indian culture and history of science as professor. He re- ceived his D. Litt. from Kyoto University in 1996. He is the chief editor of SCIAMVS, an international journal for the history of exact sciences in antiquity and Middle Ages. He is an effective member of the International Academy of History of Science and was recently elected assessor of the Division of History of Science, in the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science.) * * *

The linguistic thought of Friedrich August Wolf

SummaryThis paper examines the linguistic thought of Friedrich August Wolf (1759–1824), the founder of modern classical philology, and tries to show that contrary to what is commonly assumed, grammar played an important role in his research program for a ‘science of antiquity’. Specifically, Wolf encouraged the study of philosophical grammar, which was the leading linguistic paradigm in Germany around 1800, and he developed an original theory of tense within this methodological framework. But philosophical grammar would appear obsolete soon after the establishment of historical-comparative linguistics and this, it is argued, is an important reason for the enmities in the first half of the 19th century between Indo-Europeanists and the Classical scholars who stayed within the old linguistic paradigm.

Diverse Roots Even Only in the West

Ancient Medicine . By Vivian Nutton . Routledge, London. 2004. 500 pp. $115, £65. ISBN 0-415-08611-6. Sciences of Antiquity. In this detailed survey of the course of Western medicine from early Greece to the late Roman Empire, the author uses both archaeological and written records to explore such topics as the training and practices of doctors, the diseases they attempted to treat, their social circumstances, and the connections between medicine and religion.

The Linguistic Thought of Friedrich August Wolf: A reconsideration of the relationship between classical philology and linguistics in the 19th century

This paper examines the linguistic thought of Friedrich August Wolf (1759–1824), the founder of modern classical philology, and tries to show that contrary to what is commonly assumed, grammar played an important role in his research program for a ‘science of antiquity’. Specifically, Wolf encouraged the study of philosophical grammar, which was the leading linguistic paradigm in Germany around 1800, and he developed an original theory of tense within this methodological framework. But philosophical grammar would appear obsolete soon after the establishment of historical-comparative linguistics and this, it is argued, is an important reason for the enmities in the first half of the 19th century between Indo-Europeanists and the Classical scholars who stayed within the old linguistic paradigm.

Detection as Method: Reconstructing the Past in Godwin and Freud*

AbstractPsychoanalysis emerged as a distinct science toward the end of a century that witnessed important developments in two fields using investigative methods closely resembling its own: the historical sciences – especially the new sciences of antiquity and prehistory such as archeology, geology, and paleontology – and detective fiction. Psychoanalysts, historians, and detectives employ similar methods of induction and inference in their attempts to reconstruct causal sequences of past events and weave them into a coherent narrative form. However, the new science of mind differed from the emerging sciences of prehistory and the new genre of fictional forensics in its swift adoption of a transparent “literary” model of interpretation largely untroubled by the challenges to theorization posed by new material data, as opposed to linguistic or symbolic evidence. Two figures in particular can help us trace these interlocking developments in psychoanalysis, the historical sciences, and literary detection: Sigmund Freud and William Godwin. The former drew on the fields of archeology and detection to illustrate the methodology of his new science of mind, while the latter not only concerned himself with the practice and theory of history, but also, according to many scholars of the genre, all but invented modern detective fiction and the psychological thriller.

Pre-Kepler Mathematical Descriptions of the Heavens

In a book review in the December 2003 issue of Physics Today ( Physics Today 0031-9228 56 12 2003 61 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1650230. page 61 ), Gale E. Christianson states that Johannes Kepler was “the formulator of the first mathematical laws of the heavens.” Actually, although Kepler gave an excellent description with his three laws, other mathematical theories of planetary motion had been given previously, going back to antiquity. One could make a good case that the first mathematical description of the heavens predates Claudius Ptolemy, going back to Eudoxus and his theory of uniform motions on concentric spheres (around 370 BC), or even earlier. 1 1. O. Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, 2nd ed., Dover, New York (1969). The most successful and most mathematically sophisticated planetary-motion theory was from Ptolemy in the second century AD. He gave a surprisingly accurate method for computing the positions of the five then-known planets and our moon. His lunar theory also gave good predictions concerning parallax, the size of the Moon and its distance from Earth, and lunar eclipses. The Ptolemaic system had Earth as its center point and based all motion on circles, but by use of epicycles and eccentric circular motion, it achieved great accuracy. 2 2. S. Sambursky, The Physical World of Late Antiquity, Basic Books, New York (1962). In that regard, it was not superseded until Kepler’s work in the 17th century.Another mathematically sophisticated formulation that preceded Kepler was the Copernican theory, from the 1540s. Although Copernicus had the Sun as the center point, he still used circular motion, and made greater use of epicycles than did Ptolemy. 3 3. M. B. Hall, The Scientific Renaissance, 1450–1630, Dover, New York (1994), chap. 3. REFERENCESSection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCES <<1. O. Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, 2nd ed., Dover, New York (1969). Google Scholar2. S. Sambursky, The Physical World of Late Antiquity, Basic Books, New York (1962). Google Scholar3. M. B. Hall, The Scientific Renaissance, 1450–1630, Dover, New York (1994), chap. 3. Google Scholar© 2004 American Institute of Physics.

The Babylonian theory of the planets

In the second millennium b.c., Babylonian scribes assembled a vast collection of astrological omens, believed to be signs from the gods concerning the kingdom's political, military, and agricultural fortunes. The importance of these omens was such that from the eighth or seventh until the first century, the scribes observed the heavens nightly and recorded the dates and locations of ominous phenomena of the moon and planets in relation to stars and constellations. The observations were arranged in monthly reports along with notable events and prices of agricultural commodities, the object being to find correlations between phenomena in the heavens and conditions on earth. These collections of omens and observations form the first empirical science of antiquity and were the basis of the first mathematical science, astronomy. For it was discovered that planetary phenomena, although irregular and sometimes concealed by bad weather, recur in limited periods within cycles in which they are repeated on nearly the same dates and in nearly the same locations.N. M. Swerdlow's book is a study of the collection and observation of ominous celestial phenomena and of how intervals of time, locations by zodiacal sign, and cycles in which the phenomena recur were used to reduce them to purely arithmetical computation, thereby surmounting the greatest obstacle to observation, bad weather. The work marks a striking advance in our understanding of both the origin of scientific astronomy and the astrological divination through which the kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia were governed.Originally published in 1998.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library and Renaissance Culture

Preface Foreword Acknowledgements Contributors Abbreviations The Vatican and Its Library The Popes and Humanism The Ancient City Restored: Archaeology, Ecclesiastical History, and Egyptology The Recovery of the Exact Sciences of Antiquity: Mathematics, Astronomy, Geography Life Sciences and Medicine in the Renaissance World Music and the Renaissance Papacy: the Papal Choir and the Fondo Cappella Sistina Eastern Churches and Western Scholarship Paper Obelisks: East Asia in the Vatican Vaults Chinese, Korean and Japanese Tertns and Naines Notes Suggestions Manuscripts and Printed Books from the Vatican Library listed by Fondi Index.

La proportionnalité des grandeurs dans la doctrine de la nature d'Aristote

SUMMARY. — I investigate some texts taken principally from Aristotle's Physics, in order to analyze the manner in which mathematics is used in that work. The discussion focuses on the notion of proportionality, for it gave rise to certain modernized interpretations of Aristotle's doctrine. I show that science in Antiquity does not truly succeed in treating speed in itself as a physical "magnitude " and that on the other hand the idea of "force", for other reasons, does not have all of the characteristics of this notion of "magnitude" either. It follows that the modernized interpretations are at least inexact and rash.

4. Aachen Alcuin Symposium Science and History in Western and Eastern Civilization, 8th and 9th Centuries: Aachen, Germany, September 25–28, 1991

The purpose of this international, interdisciplinary symposium—organized by the three foregoing persons—was to deal with the state of the art of the mathematical sciences in the Latin West, Byzantium, and the Muslim world in the time of Alcuin of York, Emperor Charlemagne's chief scientific advisor. Special emphasis was placed on the heritage of antique science in Western Europe as well as on the juxtaposition of astronomy and cosmography, computistics and mathematics, and the applied sciences in these three cultures.

Homage to Babylonia

This article describes some of my experiences of using the mathematics of the Old Babylonian period in my classes. It will not be a connected account of Babylonian mathematics – for that readers can turn to the excellent and easily available book The exact sciences in antiquity [1] and the article will make little sense unless you have read that book or others like it, or know a little about cuneiform mathematics already. I have got to stress that reading a book like Neugebauer's is the minimum preparation before presenting the material that this article discusses. I have neither the time nor the ability to discuss the context in which these materials should be placed. Indeed, placing these materials into their exact historical context is not really possible: even professional historians do not agree about what might seem to the amateur quite simple matters. So in this article I shall be offering readers some nice resources that I have enjoyed using with classes, I shall discuss how they might be used at various places in the curriculum, and indicate some of my faltering attempts to integrate this material into my pupils' general education.

Marshall Clagett's Greek Science in Antiquity: Thirty-Five Years Later

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Second LookMarshall Clagett's Greek Science in Antiquity: Thirty-Five Years LaterJ. T. VallanceJ. T. Vallance Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 81, Number 4Dec., 1990 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/355549 Views: 4Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1990 History of Science Society, Inc.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Michael M. Sokal The History of Science Society, 1970-1999: From Subscription Agency to Professional Society, Isis 90, no.S2S2 (Oct 2015): S135–S181.https://doi.org/10.1086/384612 John Neu Current Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, 1991, Isis 82 (Oct 2015): 1–271.https://doi.org/10.1086/356021

Basic Problems in the History of Science in Antiquity

Basic Problems in the History of Science in Antiquity