Greece Science And Philosophy

The philosophical-scientific writings of the ancient Greeks awed even the practically minded Romans. According to Hellenic tradition, the first philosopher was the 6th-century BC thinker Thales of Miletus, who believed that the universe had an ordered structure and that everything moved toward a predetermined end. This teleology, or end-oriented world-view, contributed to every major Greek philosophy. Pythagoras, a math whiz and purported student of Thales, came up with theorems that still make regular appearances in high school math homework.

Early philosophical works, which survive on fragments of papyrus and in the reports of later writers, paved the road for Socrates (469-399 BC). Although Socrates refused to commit his words to untrustworthy paper, his legacy was preserved and carried on by his pupil Plato (428-348 BC). Socrates described himself as a gadfly, nipping at the ass of the horse that was Classical Athens. He brought philosophy down from the stars and into the agora, where he spent his days picking over the morals and beliefs of anyone who would stop for a chat. This style of asking questions is still called the Socratic Method. Socrates’s radical lifestyle and constant questioning eventually angered influential Athenians, generally because he had proven them fools. In 399 BC, he was tried for impiety, introducing new gods, and corrupting the youth; he was sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning.

Plato became the new master philosopher of ancient Greece, primarily by writing up the sharp conversations that he and Socrates had had with other thinkers over bowls of wine. In The Republic, his most famous work, Plato muses about the components of an ideal state and the definition of a just individual. He believed that knowledge acquired through the senses is impure, and that only the soul can know the essence of things; the objects seen in life are only shadows of true Forms. Plato’s pupil, Aristotle (384-322 BC), diverged from his mentor’s teachings and took a more empirical approach to philosophy, placing value on knowledge gained from experience as well as from abstract reason. Aristotle’s quest for knowledge reached into the realms of physics, biology, and mechanics. A few years later, Euclid wrote The Elements, the source of geometry even to the present. Archimedes created complex mathematical formulas with circles and cylinders, inventing the Archimedes screw, a device to move water, and conceiving of the principles of density and buoyancy during a particularly enlightening bath.

Greeks experimented in medicine as well. In the 5th century BC, before he became famous for his oath, Hippocrates suggested that disease might not be the result of divine punishment. A combination of speculation and observation yielded the idea of “four humors” flowing through the body (yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood), which corresponded to personality traits and the four elements; an imbalance caused illness. Research in Alexandria, Egypt in the 3rd century BC pushed medical knowledge farther. Work on animal brains, hearts, and organs inspired Galen of Pergamum to try the art of human dissection, expanding knowledge about human anatomy.

Under Roman rule, Greek natural science wilted. The Romans were impressed by the body of knowledge the Greeks had acquired, but they were confused by the concept of “knowledge for knowledge’s sake.” During the Middle Ages, advancements in European medicine evaporated entirely. Fortunately, Greek scientists had written about their findings, which have thus survived throughout the ages.