The Historical Origins of Science Lecture Notes PDF

The Historical Origins of Science Start with the Greeks? Before? The 16th Century?  Carl Sagan and Eratosthenes Please view the following video: https://youtu.be/G8cbIWMv0 rIEratosthen es was a scientist  History of the word “Science” From the Latin scientia, simply...

The Historical Origins of Science Start with the Greeks? Before? The 16th Century?  Carl Sagan and Eratosthenes Please view the following video: https://youtu.be/G8cbIWMv0 rIEratosthen es was a scientist  History of the word “Science” From the Latin scientia, simply meaning "knowledge“ Prior to the 1700s, the preferred term in European societies for the study of nature was “natural philosophy” (Newton’s major work is titled Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica) By the 1800s a more narrow sense of science (separate from natural philosophy) had developed linked to an expanding set of well-defined laws (beginning with Galileo's laws, Kepler's laws, and Newton's laws of motion)  Eratosthenese—the first “scientist?” He was the third chief librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria, the center of learning in the ancient world In his own time, would likely have been called a “philosopher” Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd American President wrote: “Bacon, Locke and Newton. I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those Aristotle's “Four Causes”  Teleology/Study of Final Causes The Greek word telos meaning end or purpose, is behind the philosophical term, teleology, meaning the study of the purposes of things Teleology has been discarded by modern scientists necessary component of the explanation of the operation of natural systems For Aristotle, the study of “physis” (Greek “matter” from where we get “physics”) was a “Second philosophy” that was dependent on the “first philosophy” of metaphysics—the study of the unmoved mover or God, who laid out the purposes of all things Material and Efficient Cause According to the “Mechanistic view” of modern science (From time of Francis Bacon), the only “cause” seen to be at work in the universe would be the interactions of atoms according to strict natural laws Physical interactions are the real causes behind every effect All causation is really “bottom-up” (from the  Aristotle’s Astronomy Not show are the small spheres embedded in the main ones  Aristotle’s ‘Gravity’ The Aristotelian explanation of gravity is that all bodies move toward their natural place For the elements earth and water, that place is the center of the (geocentric) universe The natural place of air is likewise a concentric shell surrounding that of water (bubbles rise in water) and fire is higher than that of air but below the innermost celestial sphere (carrying the Moon)