Philosophy and the Sciences in Antiquity

Philosophy and the Sciences in Antiquity
Author: R.W. Sharples
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2019-06-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351151703

Originally published in 2005. There has been much discussion in scholarly literature of the applicability of the concept of 'science' as understood in contemporary English to ancient Greek thought, and of the influence of philosophy and the individual sciences on each other in antiquity. This book focuses on how the ancients themselves saw the issue of the relation between philosophy and the individual sciences. Contributions, from a distinguished international panel of scholars, cover the whole of antiquity from the beginnings of both philosophy and science to the later Roman Empire.

Science Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity

Science Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity
Author: Liba Taub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2017-04-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521113709

This book explores how science and mathematics were communicated in antiquity in a wide variety of texts, including poetry, letters and biographies.

The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity

The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity
Author: Leonid Zhmud
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2008-08-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110194325

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.

The Exact Sciences in Antiquity

The Exact Sciences in Antiquity
Author: Otto Neugebauer
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1969-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780486223322

Based on a series of lectures delivered at Cornell University in the fall of 1949, and since revised, this is the standard non-technical coverage of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics and astronomy, and their transmission to the Hellenistic world. Entirely modern in its data and conclusions, it reveals the surprising sophistication of certain areas of early science, particularly Babylonian mathematics. After a discussion of the number systems used in the ancient Near East (contrasting the Egyptian method of additive computations with unit fractions and Babylonian place values), Dr. Neugebauer covers Babylonian tables for numerical computation, approximations of the square root of 2 (with implications that the Pythagorean Theorem was known more than a thousand years before Pythagoras), Pythagorean numbers, quadratic equations with two unknowns, special cases of logarithms and various other algebraic and geometric cases. Babylonian strength in algebraic and numerical work reveals a level of mathematical development in many aspects comparable to the mathematics of the early Renaissance in Europe. This is in contrast to the relatively primitive Egyptian mathematics. In the realm of astronomy, too, Dr. Neugebauer describes an unexpected sophistication, which is interpreted less as the result of millennia of observations (as used to be the interpretation) than as a competent mathematical apparatus. The transmission of this early science and its further development in Hellenistic times is also described. An Appendix discusses certain aspects of Greek astronomy and the indebtedness of the Copernican system to Ptolemaic and Islamic methods. Dr. Neugebauer has long enjoyed an international reputation as one of the foremost workers in the area of premodern science. Many of his discoveries have revolutionized earlier understandings. In this volume he presents a non-technical survey, with much material unique on this level, which can be read with great profit by all interested in the history of science or history of culture. 14 plates. 52 figures.

Ancient Medicine

Ancient Medicine
Author: Vivian Nutton
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2023-11-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000963861

The third edition of this magisterial account of medicine in the Greek and Roman worlds, written by the foremost expert on the subject, has been updated to incorporate the many new discoveries made in the field over the past decade. This revised volume includes discussions of several new or forgotten works by Galen and his contemporaries, as well as of new archaeological material. RNA analysis has expanded our understanding of disease in the ancient world; the book explores the consequences of this for sufferers, for example in creating disability. Nutton also expands upon the treatment of pre-Galenic medicine in Greece and Rome. In addition, subtitles and a chronology will make for easier student consultation, and the bibliography is substantially revised and updated, providing avenues for future student research. This third edition of Ancient Medicine will remain the definitive textbook on the subject for students of medicine in the classical world, and the history of medicine and science more broadly, with much to interest scholars in the field as well.

Time in Antiquity

Time in Antiquity
Author: Robert Hannah
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2008-11-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134323166

Time in Antiquity explores the different perceptions of time from Classical antiquity, principally through the technology designed to measure, mark or tell time. The material discussed ranges from the sixth century BC in archaic Greece to the 3rd century AD in the Roman Empire, and offers fascinating insights into ordinary people’s perceptions of time and time-keeping instruments.

Ancient Natural History

Ancient Natural History
Author: Roger French
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2005-08-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134962673

Ancient Natural History surveys the ways in which people in the ancient world thought about nature. The writings of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Strabo, Pliny are examined, as well as the popular beliefs of their contemporaries. Roger French finds that the same natural-historical material was used to serve the purposes of both the Greek philosopher and the Christian allegorist, or of a taxonomist like Theophrastus and a collector of curiosa like Pliny. He argues convincingly that the motives of ancient writers on nature were rarely `scientific' and, indeed, that there was not really any science at all in the ancient world. This book will make fascinating reading for students, academics and anyone who is interested in the history of science, or in the ancient history of ideas.

The Science of Roman History

The Science of Roman History
Author: Walter Scheidel
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2018-04-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400889731

How the latest cutting-edge science offers a fuller picture of life in Rome and antiquity This groundbreaking book provides the first comprehensive look at how the latest advances in the sciences are transforming our understanding of ancient Roman history. Walter Scheidel brings together leading historians, anthropologists, and geneticists at the cutting edge of their fields, who explore novel types of evidence that enable us to reconstruct the realities of life in the Roman world. Contributors discuss climate change and its impact on Roman history, and then cover botanical and animal remains, which cast new light on agricultural and dietary practices. They exploit the rich record of human skeletal material--both bones and teeth—which forms a bio-archive that has preserved vital information about health, nutritional status, diet, disease, working conditions, and migration. Complementing this discussion is an in-depth analysis of trends in human body height, a marker of general well-being. This book also assesses the contribution of genetics to our understanding of the past, demonstrating how ancient DNA is used to track infectious diseases, migration, and the spread of livestock and crops, while the DNA of modern populations helps us reconstruct ancient migrations, especially colonization. Opening a path toward a genuine biohistory of Rome and the wider ancient world, The Science of Roman History offers an accessible introduction to the scientific methods being used in this exciting new area of research, as well as an up-to-date survey of recent findings and a tantalizing glimpse of what the future holds.

Ancient Science and Dreams

Ancient Science and Dreams
Author: Mark Holowchak
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780761821571

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.

Health in Antiquity

Health in Antiquity
Author: Helen King
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2004-08-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134599730

This book looks at issues surrounding health in a variety of ancient Mediterranean societies.