Unit B 3 and 5. Science in Antiquity and the Middle Age PDF

Science in the Antiquity and the Middle Age  Modern Humans (homo sapiens) Homo means humans and Sapiens means one with knowledge Evolved about 300,000 – 200,000 BCE (Before Common Era). Archaic (old-fashioned) humans existed before that and interbred with the homo sapiens. Archaic huma...

Science in the Antiquity and the Middle Age  Modern Humans (homo sapiens) Homo means humans and Sapiens means one with knowledge Evolved about 300,000 – 200,000 BCE (Before Common Era). Archaic (old-fashioned) humans existed before that and interbred with the homo sapiens. Archaic humans were also in different forms: - homo erectus (two million years ago), - homo neanderthal 200,000 – 40,000 BCE. The Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo extracted and sequenced the first Neanderthal genome from ancient bones and showed that the homo sapiens and neanderthal had co-existed for thousands of years. All of us may be carrying traces of their genes. Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age Man was a hunter and a nomad. Could make his own tools, invented fire, and made potteries. It lasted for half a million years. Neolithic or New Stone Age Started about 10,000 years ago in southwest Asia. Man became a food producer (agriculture), and kept and bred domestic animals. Became a settler rather than a nomad. Urban Revolution Began in about 4000 and 3000 BC in Africa (valleys of Nile and Tigris and Euphrates) and India (Indus valley). It began in about 2000 BC in China. Writing was invented, in 3500 BC in Africa and India and in about 2000 BC in China. River Valley Civilizations in the Ancient World Why civilizations grew up in river valleys 1. Availability of water 2. Availability of fertile land 3. Availability of fish 4. Easy transportation Four River Valley Civilizations 1. Tigris and Euphrates Civilization Land between two rivers Tigris and Euphrates (Mesopotamia) passing through the present-day Syria and Iraq – the Fertile Crescent, the Middle East, 8,000 B.C.E. Sumerians, Akkadian, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, and Phoenicians built great empires here. 2. Indus Valley Civilization 7,000 – 600 BCE. At Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa near the river Indus. 3. The Nile River Valley Civilization 6,000 BCE, along the River Nile in Egypt and Sudan. 4. Yellow River Valley Civilization Northern China, 5,000 BCE. The first dynasty in China, the Xia Dynasty, started  European Ages Age of Greek 8th Century BCE – 1st Century Supremacy BCE) Age of Roman 1st Century BCE – 4th Century Empire CE Dark Age 5th – 10th Century CE Middle Age 11th – 14th Century Age of Renaissance 15th – 16th Century (Reformation) Age of 17th – 18th Century Enlightenment Modern Age 19th Century – Middle East and Greece The Middle East is the crossroads of three continents – Europe, Asia, and Africa. Many travellers passed through the middle east. Egyptian civilization reached Greece and other places in about 2000 BC. Sea route made Greece easily approachable. Greece became a center of progress in about 1400 BC. Greek merchants and colonists were visiting Italy and Spain in about 700 BC. Greeks colonized the coastal area of Turkey during that time. In 1000 BC, Greeks borrowed many new things from Africa and Science in Ancient Greece Mycenaean civilization: - There was no religion, no theology, only folklore. Gods and men mingled freely. - Homer (800 BCE) wrote the Iliad (Trojan War and the city of Troy (in modern-day Turkey)) and the Odyssey. - The Greek mind was vacant, and philosophy took its birth there. The Seven Sages (most prominent philosopher Thales in 6th century BC): - Origin of the whole universe is water - Earth is flat and is resting on a vast mass of water. - The regularity of the universe is an ordered structure and to maintain the order, every part of the universe is designed to meet some purpose (teleology), relying on the greatness of God. Thales’ student Anaximander criticised Thales’ view on water. If water is the fundamental matter, it cannot remain in both liquid and solid states. Thus was born the criticism of the doctrine of science.  Two centuries after Thales, most natural philosophers accepted a doctrine of four elements: earth, water, fire, and air Later, indefinite (or sky) was added as another element. Indian philosophy speaks of these elements – a striking similarity: Seventh chapter (Jnan-Bijnana Yoga), Stanza 5: Bhumih, Apah, Analah, Baayuh, Kham, Manah, Budhhih, eba cha Ahamkara, iti, iyam, me, bhinnaa prakrutih astadha.  6th Century BCE also saw Pythagoras. Found that musical notes produced by a monochord is proportional to the length of the string. Thus was born Mathematical Physics: Number provided the answer to the question of the origin of forms and qualities. Hippocrates, in 5th Century BCE, insisted that disease was not due to the God’s wrath and human’s sin, but due to natural causes. Hippocrates oath by doctors.  Sophists (most famous being Protagoras) - asked their disciples to win arguments through fair or foul means, - denounced the supernatural basis of ethical actions, - insisted that ethical actions are functions of human senses, the distinction between right and wrong has no objective basis, and that the right thing to do is to pursue one’s own interests. Socrates invited arguments and exposed their inadequacies. Fearing Socrates’ growing popularity, the Sophists conspired to cause his death. Plato (4th Century BCE) struggled against Sophists and championed the cause of the principle of the general (the universal) rather than the particular (the specific), thus reaffirming his faith in the God.  Aristotle (4th Century BCE): Human actions are based on reasons rather than dictates of the supernatural. Alexander (4th Century BCE): Conquered Minor Asia and part of India and opened the flow of oriental science to Europe. Archimedes (3rd Century BCE) was a mathematician. His work on principle of buoyant force started the discipline of hydrostatics. Euclid (3rd Century BCE) did a lot of work on plain geometry and number theory (book: Elements). He championed deductive reasoning. A marriage of the works of Aristotle and Archimedes took place in the field of astronomy. Plato-Aristotle had imagined the planetary orbits as circular. Sky was considered another Possible Causes of Greece Becoming the Cradle of Science Pre-Socrates Natural Philosophy - God as the ultimate cause of everything. - Homer’s Odyssey mentions how the many soldiers who kept Troy within their seize for months died of plague because of the wrath of God Apollo due to the Greek king had insulted the priest of Apollo. Greek scientists thought otherwise later. - Hippocrates firmly believed that the five elements enter and leave the body and sometimes leave their mark in the form of diseases. Rational Argumentation. Greece was a democracy for many years where policy decisions were taken based on debates arguments (although females and slaves were not permitted to debate). Rhetoric and argumentation became important. The Discovery of Logic. Aristotle’s syllogism: A premise, a statement, and a conclusion. The Axiomatic Ideal. Euclid’s axiomatic deductions in geometry. Ex: A Triangle. Science in Roman Empire Rome was a republic for 450 years. Julius Caesar became the dictator but was assassinated after one year of his reign and his adopted son Augustus Caesar took over in 27 BCE and started the Roman empire. The Roman Army was highly trained and disciplined and won almost the entire Europe and parts of Africa (North Africa) and Asia (Middle East). Well known for administration, law, justice, and tax system, Romans had many engineering achievements, very good roads, bound book, use of concrete, and underground sewage system. Roman empire grew very big. The German barbarians, who constituted most of its army revolted. The Huns (Iranian nomads) attacked incessantly. The emperor was seen as the God. Rise of Christianity added fuel to fire. Britain and France separated. The Roman Contribution to Engineering Arches, vaults, and domes are the contribution of Romans to architecture. Roman roads and bridges, built using cement and concrete, were the best up to at least the 19th Century. Roman dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, and channels exist even today. Roman Contribution to Science Ptolemy (2nd Century CE): Developed a geo-centric mathematical model to describe the motion of the earth. Galen (2nd - 3rd Century) emphasized anatomy and physiology and introduced dissection of human body. Romans ignored Greek Science and Philosophy. In fact, many parodies were made and Greek ideas were used for entertainment rather than for information. Roman mind was for practical applications rather than for inquiry into the abstract. Rise of Christianity in the Pursuance of Science in the Roman Period The Hebrew ethics placed great emphasis on the letter of the law. Jesus Christ championed the spirit rather than letter of the law. The spirit, according to him, was the love for God and for neighbours. Jesus, thus, was more a reformer of the Hebrew tradition than a radical change agent. The Bible contains the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christianity recognized God and equality among all. To spread Christianity, the disciples, Greek rhetoric, arguments, and metaphysics. Science in Islam Islam (Prophet Mohammad) was founded in the 7th Century in Mecca, Southi Arabia. Soon, the Islamic empire spread to various parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Quran praised medicine and astronomy as close to God. The Arab world assimilated Greek science, philosophy, and geometry, and Indian mathematics into their knowledge. Arabians were great traders. They needed astronomy and the use of mathematics and geometry. Science in Ancient Arab* Quran: The scholar’s ink is more sacred than the blood of martyrs. For every disease, Allah has given a cure. Vast expanse and common language Greek, Latin, Chinese, and Indian texts were translated, and libraries were established. *Falagas, M. E., Zarkadoulia, E. A., and Samonis, G. A. (2006), Arab Science in the Golden Age (750 – 1258) and Today, Arab Science Today, Vol. 20, pp. 1581 – 1586.  Arab scholars were well-known in the fields of Medicine, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Geometry. Medicine Abu Bakr: Differentiated smallpox from measles. Yuhanna ibn Massuwayh: Dissection and Allergy Az Zaharawi: Father of Surgery Ibn Sina: Differentiated meningitis from other neurological diseases. Hospitals were set up and mobile hospitals were in use. Pharmacology Use of herbs, cotton, sandalwood, camphor, alum, syrups, etc. Ibn al-Baytar: Book titled The Comprehensive Book on Materia Medica and Foodstuffs. Terms such as alcohol, alkali, drug, and aldehydes, are derived from Arabic. Astronomy and Mathematics Ibn Firnas: Constructed a planetarium Muhammad and Hasan Banu Musa: Measurements of spheres and trisection of angles, drawing ellipses. Al Khwarazmi: Arithmetic (Hindu influence) and Algebra Ahmad al-Nahawandi: Trigonometry Chemistry Jabir Ibn Haiyan: Experiments in alchemy led to experiments in chemistry. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi 9th Century Persian Mathematician Wrote the book on Calculation with Hindu Numerals 12th Century: Translated into Latin with the title Algoritmi de Numero Indorum This got translated into Al-Khwarizmi on the Indian Number System. From this, the word Algorithm has evolved. Fibonacci Numbers 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21... First described by Indian mathematician Pingala in about 200 BCE on enumerating possible patterns of Sanskrit Poetry formed from syllables of two lengths. Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa’s introduced it to the west through his 1202 book Liber Abaci (Book of Calculation). Fall of the Arab World Turkey separated. European Crusades in 1097 – 1291 weakened the Arab world. Southern Spain was taken over by Spanish Christians. Baghdad fell to Mongols. Science in Medieval Europe Restoration of Greek Knowledge to the West One hundred years of war (Crusades) with the Islamic world, particularly the defeat of Islamic reign in Spain left many translations of Greek treasures to Arabic. Toledo (Spain) in 1085 fell to Christians. Among what was left behind was one of the finest libraries. Christian monks started to translate them into Latin. By the 13th Century, much of Greek knowledge was available to the Latin West. Medieval Europe is not known for any great scientific achievements. But, this period marks the confluence of science, astronomy, philosophy, and theology, as the 14th Century Italian poet Dante puts them all in his best poem The Divine Comedy (his travel to different regions of Hell) and the rise Renaissance (15th – 16th Century) Dante (13th Century Italian poet and philosopher) had already raised humanism to a great height – The Divine Comedy - Rise of Humanism French translation of Renaissance: Rebirth. Reformation: Martin Luther of Germany (1517) protested against the practice of the Church to condone sin by selling to him/her indulgences (spiritual privileges). Three towering personalities in Italy in the field of painting: - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael  Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci, 1503 – 1517) Mysterious Look and Enigmatic Smile Rise of Modern Science A painter, sculptor, producer-director, and military engineer, Leonardo da Vinci observed the projectile movement of a mortar bomb and challenged the prevailing view that it follows two straight-line paths. Search for antiquity came across an alternative view of creation by sage Hermes Trismegistos, a contemporary of Moses. Hermitic writings painted human as an image of God, capable of creating, not just a rational being. Human must learn the nature’s secrets to experiment on it. Andreas Vesalius (1543) improved dissection of human body (improvement over Galen). A young Polish student, Nicolaus Copernicus, on a visit to Italy got fascinated with this approach. Back in Poland, he developed the Scientific Revolution Nicholaus Copernicus, in 1543, lying in his death bed, was correcting the final proofs of his manuscript on his planetary system (De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelistium – On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies) where Sun was at the centre and all the planets were revolving around it (heliocentric view). Copernicus said that some stars are fixed in the sky because they are far, far away and there is enormous empty space separating them from our world. This idea went against Dante’s Cosmos and Aristotle’s social hierarchy. So most did not accept Copernicus’s idea. Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601), a Danish nobleman made very accurate observations of celestial objects and took the German mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) as his assistant. It is said that Tycho never parted with his data. Only after Tycho’s death Kepler stole the data and developed the three laws of planetary motion. In 1608, Lipperhey, a Dutch lens maker, invented the telescope. Galileo developed his own telescope in 1609 and observed the satellites of Jupiter, Galileo (1564 – 1642) Copernicus’ book was banned by the Church. Galileo published his work defending the conclusions made by Copernicus. Enraged with this publication, the Pope summoned him to Rome for a court hearing. Facing the Inquisition that lasted for five months, the 70-year-old Galileo had to kneel and repeat after the judge the humiliating words of his repentance. He remained under house arrest until the very end of his life. Contributions of Galileo Galilei Laws of falling bodies Observation of celestial objects with the help of telescope Integrated observations and mathematical language Nature “is an open book which lies before your eyes; but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and characters in which it is written. This language is mathematics, and the characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures.” This implies that not the sensual observation (sound, touch, etc.) but the quantifiable observations are important.  Kepler had heard about the British scientist Gilbert according to whom Earth was a magnet. That is why the compass always points northward. Kepler seized upon this idea and suggested that a centripetal force from the sun equals the centrifugal force due to revolution of the planets and keep them on their orbits. Questions That Neither Kepler nor Galileo Could Satisfactorily Answer If the Earth revolves on its axis, then why do objects not fly off it? Galileo: RPM of a body is very small. And why do objects dropped from towers not fall to the west as the Earth rotates to the east beneath them? Galileo: Both the tower and the Earth rotate. And how is it possible for the Earth, suspended in empty space, to go around the Sun—whether in circles or ellipses—without anything pushing it? Galileo: A body moving on a frictionless horizontal plane would Why Scientific Revolution Took Place in Europe, Not Anywhere Else After about 1000 years of war, Europe passed through a long period of peace and prosperity. Interaction with the Arab world and with the Chinese led to the import of science and technology to Europe. After the fall of Constantinople (Capital of Roman empire, now in Turkey) in 1453, many eastern scholars fled to Italy carrying with them Greek books and manuscripts. Knowledge of Greek works helped the development of inquiring minds. Discovery of sea routes and the practice of colonization led to easy availability of goods, raw materials, manpower (slaves), and knowledge. Rise of Protestants and discovery of the planetary motions encouraged people Science and Technology in China Technological inventions such as Acupuncture, Abacus, Sundial, Compass Gunpowder, Slide Calipers, Papermaking, and Printing. Great Wall of China during 3rd Century BCE by the 1st emperor Qin Shi Huang. 2nd Century AD: First Seismological Detector. 3rd Century AD: Ma Jun used mechanical chain pumps to water royal gardens, mechanical puppet theatre operated by a large, hidden waterwheel, Use of kites. Studied astronomical objects: Supernova SN 185, SN 1006, and SN  7th – 13th Century: Iron plows, horse collar, suspension bridges, parachute, natural gas as fuel, dry docks for boat repair. Pre-modern science developed without support of much scientific theory. Mongols and Christian missionaries helped Europe to access Chinese innovations. Christian missionaries brought science and mathematics to China. Arab world could access Chinese innovations from the Mongols. Science in Ancient India Veda (2000 BCE) means knowledge. Vedic knowledge is just not about self but also about science - physics, mathematics, astronomy, logic, cognition and other disciplines. Vedangas are the appendices of the Vedas. The six Vedangas deal with: - Kalpa, performance of ritual with its basis of geometry, mathematics and calendrics; - Shiksha, phonetics; - Chhandas, metrical structures; - Nirukta, etymology; - Vyakarana, grammar; and - Jyotisha, astronomy and other cyclical phenomena.  Ether Sound Emotion Sky Visva Air Touch Intellect Devah Space Indra Fire Form Mind Earth Agni Water Taste Pran Earth Smell Body Water separates earth and fire, and air separates fire and ether. Mathematical and Physical Sciences Geometry and Mathematics Geometry and mathematics have a Vedic origin – The shape of the altar. The Shulba Sutras (800 BC), the Appendix to the Rig Veda, contains geometry, arithmetic, and algebra. Vedas could handle very large values. Brahmagupta, Jayadev, Bhaskaracharya, and many others  E F D To prove geometrically that N O G H K That is to show that Area(ABDE) + Area (BCKJ) = Area(ACOF) L B A J Notice that I Area(AEF) = Area(KCO) Area(BCI) = Area (KNO) M C K Area(FDN) = Area(ALM) Area(CKJI) = Area(LMCB) Katayana (800 BCE) - Hence proved. Shulbasutras  Earth Satur Moon Mercur n Venu y s Sun Mars Jupite r Vedic Planetary Model  Script: Saraswati that got replaced by Brahmi Saraswati – the Goddess of Learning because the script was developed on the bank of the river Saraswati. Pingala (1st Century BCE) Chhandahshastra: Used Binary numbers Panini (6th Century BCE): Grammar of Sanskrit – 4,000 Rules Bata (wind), Pita (gall), Kafa (phlegm) – the tridosh theory of Ayurbeda – have a close parallel with Plato’s ideas on the three elements Indians excelled in Mathematics, Logic, Astronomy, Epistemology, and Aayurveda Nyaya Sutra: Gotama Mathematics and Astronomy: Aryabhatta Astronomy: Gautama Siddhartha (Qutan Xida, in Chinese) became the President of the Official Board of Astronomy in China in the 8th century. Aayurveda: Charaka (Charaka Samhita - medicine) and Sushruta (Sushruta Samhita - surgery) Epistemology: Carvaka (Critic of Veda) and Nagarjuna (Buddhism)