Research and Experiment in Early Greek Thought

ancient science;experimentation;Classical Studies;Humanities;Classical Studies

Mayo, TylerJanko, Richard ;

University of Michigan

关键词: ancient science;    experimentation;    Classical Studies;    Humanities;    Classical Studies;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/150050/tmayo_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

It is almost universally believed that the Greeks practiced science several generations before Socrates. What this claim means in detail, however, is still widely debated. In this thesis, I propose to look at one particularly important facet of the modern scientific method—experimentation—and see whether and, if so, how early Greek thinkers used experimentation in their investigation into nature.Since there was no overarching idea of a ;;scientist” current in Greece during this time, I take several types of figures for whom we have textual evidence in turn: natural philosophers, doctors, musical theorists, and historiographers. Despite interpretive issues arising from pseudonymous and fragmentary texts, these authors all had an abiding interest in elucidating the workings of nature. And even though they exhibit differences in their approaches and objects of study, I argue that they all were open to the use of the senses in their investigations. In practice, this included the observation of purposefully contrived and controlled interventions, which is the core of the modern-day experiment, even if ancient tests did not bear the same relationship to theory as experiments do in our understanding of science.