The Beginnings of Western Science

by Lindberg, David C.

• ISBN13: 9780226482316
• ISBN10: 0226482316
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

This landmark book represents the first attempt in two decades to survey the science of the ancient world, the first attempt in four decades to write a comprehensive history of medieval science, and the first attempt ever to present a full, unified account of both ancient and medieval science in a single volume. In The Beginnings of Western Science, David C. Lindberg provides a rich chronicle of the development of scientific ideas, practices, and institutions from the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers to the late-medieval scholastics. Lindberg surveys all the most important themes in the history of ancient and medieval science, including developments in cosmology, astronomy, mechanics, optics, alchemy, natural history, and medicine. He synthesizes a wealth of information in superbly organized, clearly written chapters designed to serve students, scholars, and nonspecialists alike. In addition, Lindberg offers an illuminating account of the transmission of Greek science to medieval Islam and subsequently to medieval Europe. And throughout the book he pays close attention to the cultural and institutional contexts within which scientific knowledge was created and disseminated and to the ways in which the content and practice of science were influenced by interaction with philosophy and religion. Carefully selected maps, drawings, and photographs complement the text. Lindberg's story rests on a large body of important scholarship produced by historians of science, philosophy, and religion over the past few decades. However, Lindberg does not hesitate to offer new interpretations and to hazard fresh judgments aimed at resolving long-standing historical disputes. Addressed to the general educated reader as well as to students, his book will also appeal to any scholar whose interests touch on the history of the scientific enterprise.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi	(4)
Preface	xv
1 Science and Its Origins	1	(20)
What Is Science?	1	(3)
Prehistoric Attitudes toward Nature	4	(9)
Babylonian and Egyptian Science	13	(8)
2 The Greeks and the Cosmos	21	(25)
The World of Homer and Hesiod	21	(4)
The First Greek Philosophers	25	(2)
The Milesians and the Question of Ultimate Reality	27	(5)
The Problem of Change	32	(2)
The Problem of Knowledge	34	(1)
Plato's World of Forms	35	(4)
Plato's Cosmology	39	(5)
The Achievement of Early Greek Philosophy	44	(2)
3 Aristotle's Philosophy of Nature	46	(23)
Life and Works	46	(2)
Metaphysics and Epistemology	48	(3)
Nature and Change	51	(3)
Cosmology	54	(4)
Motion, Terrestrial and Celestial	58	(4)
Aristotle as a Biologist	62	(5)
Aristotle's Achievement	67	(2)
4 Hellenistic Natural Philosophy	69	(16)
Schools and Education	69	(5)
The Lyceum after Aristotle	74	(3)
Epicureans and Stoics	77	(8)
5 The Mathematical Sciences in Antiquity	85	(26)
The Application of Mathematics to Nature	85	(1)
Greek Mathematics	86	(3)
Early Greek Astronomy	89	(8)
Cosmological Developments	97	(1)
Hellenistic Planetary Astronomy	98	(7)
The Science of Optics	105	(3)
The Science of Weights	108	(3)
6 Greek and Roman Medicine	111	(24)
Early Greek Medicine	111	(2)
Hippocratic Medicine	113	(6)
Hellenistic Anatomy and Physiology	119	(3)
Hellenistic Medical Sects	122	(3)
Galen and the Culmination of Hellenistic Medicine	125	(10)
7 Roman and Early Medieval Science	135	(26)
Greeks and Romans	135	(2)
Popularizers and Encyclopedists	137	(10)
Translations	147	(2)
The Role of Christianity	149	(2)
Roman and Early Medieval Education	151	(7)
Two Early Medieval Natural Philosophers	158	(3)
8 Science in Islam	161	(22)
Learning and Science in Byzantium	161	(2)
The Eastward Diffusion of Greek Science	163	(3)
The Birth, Expansion, and Hellenization of Islam	166	(2)
Translation of Greek Science into Arabic	168	(2)
The Islamic Response to Greek Science	170	(5)
The Islamic Scientific Achievement	175	(5)
The Decline of Islamic Science	180	(3)
9 The Revival of Learning in the West	183	(32)
The Middle Ages	183	(1)
Carolingian Reforms	184	(6)
The Schools of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries	190	(7)
Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth-Century Schools	197	(6)
The Translation Movement	203	(3)
The Rise of Universities	206	(9)
10 The Recovery and Assimilation of Greek and Islamic Science	215	(30)
The New Learning	215	(1)
Aristotle in the University Curriculum	216	(2)
Points of Conflict	218	(5)
Resolution: Science as Handmaiden	223	(11)
Radical Aristotelianism and the Condemnations of 1270 and 1277	234	(6)
The Relations of Philosophy and Theology after 1277	240	(5)
11 The Medieval Cosmos	245	(36)
The Structure of the Cosmos	245	(3)
The Heavens	248	(4)
The Terrestrial Region	252	(9)
The Greek and Islamic Background to Western Astronomy	261	(6)
Astronomy in the West	267	(7)
Astrology	274	(7)
12 The Physics of the Sublunar Region	281	(36)
Matter, Form, and Substance	282	(3)
Combination and Mixture	285	(2)
Alchemy	287	(3)
Change and Motion	290	(2)
The Nature of Motion	292	(2)
The Mathematical Description of Motion	294	(7)
The Dynamics of Local Motion	301	(3)
The Quantification of Dynamics	304	(3)
The Science of Optics	307	(10)
13 Medieval Medicine and Natural History	317	(38)
The Medical Tradition of the Early Middle Ages	317	(8)
The Transformation of Western Medicine	325	(2)
Medical Practitioners	327	(2)
Medicine in the Universities	329	(3)
Disease, Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Therapy	332	(7)
Anatomy and Surgery	339	(6)
Development of the Hospital	345	(3)
Natural History	348	(7)
14 The Legacy of Ancient and Medieval Science	355	(14)
The Continuity Debate	355	(5)
The Medieval Scientific Achievement	360	(9)
Notes	369	(38)
Bibliography	407	(34)
Index	441