Classics 189
Inventing Science:
From Thales to Euclid

  1. Overview
  2. Course Methodology
  3. Requirements
  4. Required Texts

Overview

When Aristophanes' parodied fifth-century Athenian intellectuals, he envisioned a single wise-man teaching linguistics, poetry, math, astronomy, and ethics. The distinction beween science and other subjects only gradually took shape. This course will explore the development of scientific thought in antiquity. Its topics will include logic, biology, astronomy, physics, and math, as well as the connection between scientific and non-scientific works (e.g., history, political science, philosophy).

The greatest triumph of this period was the development of an axiom based, rigorously deductive mathematics -- Euclid's synthesis remains the most successful single book on math every written -- but advances were made in many other fields such as geography, astronomy and the natural sciences. Aristotle, in particular, laid the foundations of logic, and his biological works remained influential for two thousand years. We will approach these topics in two main ways:

(1) Thematic: What is going on in a "math" or "biology" or some other discipline.

(2) Cultural: What is going on in the society and how does this influence scientific work? To what extent is scientific work even perceived to be a separate mode of inquiry?

Course Methodology

This is a seminar, and class participation is central. Most classes will include a combination of lecture and class presentations. Preparation will entail both standard library work and regular consultation of the Perseus database of classical Greek texts (available for now in the Jackson Mac Labs and later this semester in the PC labs as well).

Requirements

Midterm and Final Examination (40%): These will evaluate your grasp of the material presented in the course as a whole.

Class Participation, Presentations and Evaluations (30%): You will be asked to make several presentations over the course of the semester as well as to evaluate the presentations of others. Note: class presentations must include written materials (such as outlines, diagrams, "problem sets" or any other materials that help convey your points). These should be brief (1-3 pages) and should be comprehensible on their own. These materials will be placed on-line and will be made available over the World Wide Web.

Course Projects (30%): These will be more extensive and will provide you with an opportunity to connect the topic of this course to some wider context. You might, for example, explain the degree to which Darwinian Biology represents a reaction against Aristotle (and in so doing you can show the degree to which Aristotle continues to set the agenda). You might examine the continuing influence of Euclid on high school geometry. Or you might examine the social context of Greek math: who studied math? when did it become a separate discipline? If you have taken Professor Phillips' Ancient Medicine course, you might wish to explore the connections between medicine and other aspects of Greek thought.

Note: Graduate students will be expected to read a portion of the source materials in Greek. Undergraduates with advanced Greek are strongly urged, although not formally required, to do so as well. Reading lists will be determined in accordance with the student's level of Greek.

Required Texts

Kirk, Raven, and Scofield (KRS), the Presocratic Philosophers

Heath, History of Greek Mathematics, vol. 1

Heath, Greek Astronomy

Plato, Timaeus

Aristotle Reader (Ackril)