Signs and specifics of ancient science. Test - Distinctive features of ancient science from the moment of its inception, its theoretical nature, the desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself

Federal Agency for Education of the Russian Federation

Vologda State Technical University

Department of G and IG

Abstract on the topic:

Science of antiquity

Completed by: student

FEG-31 faculty group

ecology Popova E.A.

Checked: Art. teacher

Nogina Zh.V.

Vologda 2011

Introduction

The emergence of science

Physics

Mathematics

Chemistry

Biology

Ethics

Philosophy

Geography

Astronomy

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

What is ancient science? What is science anyway? What are the main features of science that distinguish it from other types of material and spiritual human activity - crafts, art, religion? Does the cultural and historical phenomenon that we call ancient science satisfy these criteria? If so, was ancient science, in particular early Greek science, historically the first form of science or did it have predecessors in countries with more ancient cultural traditions - such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc.? If the first assumption is correct, then what were the pre-scientific origins of Greek science? If the second is true, then what was the relationship between Greek science and the science of its older eastern neighbors? Finally, is there a fundamental difference between ancient science and modern science?

The emergence of science

There are very large discrepancies among science scientists regarding the very concept of science. It is possible to point out two extreme points of view that are in radical contradiction with each other.

According to one of them, science in the proper sense of the word was born in Europe only in the 16th-17th centuries, during a period usually called the great scientific revolution. Its emergence is associated with the activities of such scientists as Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Newton. It is to this time that the birth of the scientific method itself, which is characterized by a specific relationship between theory and experiment, should be attributed. At the same time, the role of mathematization of the natural sciences was realized - a process that continues to our time and has now captured a number of areas of knowledge that relate to man and human society. Ancient thinkers, strictly speaking, did not yet know experiment and, therefore, did not possess a truly scientific method: their conclusions were largely the product of groundless speculation that could not be subjected to real verification. An exception can be made, perhaps, only for one mathematics, which, due to its specifics, is purely speculative in nature and therefore does not need experimentation. As for scientific natural science, it actually did not exist in ancient times; there were only weak rudiments of later scientific disciplines, representing immature generalizations of random observations and practical data. The global concepts of the ancients about the origin and structure of the world cannot in any way be recognized by science: at best, they should be attributed to what later received the name of natural philosophy (a term that has a clearly odious connotation in the eyes of representatives of exact natural science).

Another point of view, directly opposite to the one just stated, does not impose any strict restrictions on the concept of science. According to its adherents, science in the broad sense of the word can be considered any body of knowledge related to the real world surrounding a person. From this point of view, the origin of mathematical science should be attributed to the time when man began to perform the first, even the most elementary, operations with numbers; astronomy appeared simultaneously with the first observations of the movement of celestial bodies; the presence of a certain amount of information about the animal and plant world characteristic of a given geographical area can already serve as evidence of the first steps of zoology and botany. If this is so, then neither the Greek nor any other of the historical civilizations known to us can claim to be considered the birthplace of science, because the emergence of the latter is pushed back somewhere very far, into the foggy depths of centuries.

Turning to the initial period of the development of science, we will see that various situations took place there. Thus, Babylonian astronomy should be classified as an applied discipline, since it set itself purely practical goals. When conducting their observations, Babylonian stargazers were least of all interested in the structure of the universe, the true (and not just apparent) movement of the planets, and the causes of such phenomena as solar and lunar eclipses. These questions, apparently, did not arise before them at all. Their task was to calculate the onset of phenomena that, according to the views of that time, had a beneficial or, conversely, detrimental effect on the fate of people and even entire kingdoms. Therefore, despite the presence of a huge number of observations and the very complex mathematical methods with which these materials were processed, Babylonian astronomy cannot be considered a science in the proper sense of the word.

We find exactly the opposite picture in Greece. Greek scientists, who were far behind the Babylonians in terms of knowledge of what was happening in the sky, from the very beginning raised the question of the structure of the world as a whole. This question interested the Greeks not for any practical purposes, but for its own sake; its production was determined by pure curiosity, which was inherent to such a high degree in the inhabitants of the then Hellas. Attempts to solve this issue boiled down to creating models of space, which at first were of a speculative nature. No matter how fantastic these models may be from our current point of view, their significance lay in the fact that they anticipated the most important feature of all later natural science - modeling the mechanism of natural phenomena.

Something similar happened in mathematics. Neither the Babylonians nor the Egyptians distinguished between exact and approximate solutions to mathematical problems. Any solution that gave practically acceptable results was considered good. On the contrary, for the Greeks, who approached mathematics purely theoretically, what mattered above all was a rigorous solution obtained through logical reasoning. This led to the development of mathematical deduction, which determined the nature of all subsequent mathematics. Eastern mathematics, even in its highest achievements, which for a long time remained inaccessible to the Greeks, never approached the method of deduction.

So, the distinctive feature of Greek science from the moment of its inception was its theoretical nature, the desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself, and not for the sake of those practical applications that could stem from it. In the first stages of the existence of science, this feature undoubtedly played a progressive role and had a great stimulating effect on the development of scientific thinking.

And so, turning to ancient science during the period of its highest achievements, can we find in it a feature that fundamentally distinguishes it from the science of modern times? Yes we can. Despite the brilliant successes of ancient science of the era of Euclid and Archimedes, it was missing the most important ingredient, without which we now cannot imagine such sciences as physics, chemistry, and partly biology. This ingredient is an experimental method in the form in which it was created by the creators of modern science - Galileo, Boyle, Newton, Huygens. Ancient science understood the importance of experimental knowledge, as evidenced by Aristotle, and before him Democritus. Ancient scientists were able to observe the surrounding nature well. They reached a high level in the technique of measuring lengths and angles, as we can judge from the procedures they developed, for example, to determine the size of the globe (Eratosthenes), to measure the visible disk of the Sun (Archimedes) or to determine the distance from the Earth to the Moon (Hipparchus, Posidonius, Ptolemy). But an experiment as an artificial reproduction of natural phenomena, in which side and insignificant effects are eliminated and which aims to confirm or refute one or another theoretical assumption - antiquity has never known such an experiment. Meanwhile, it is precisely this kind of experiment that underlies physics and chemistry - sciences that have acquired a leading role in the natural sciences of modern times. This explains why a wide area of physicochemical phenomena remained in antiquity at the mercy of purely qualitative speculation, never waiting for the advent of an adequate scientific method.

One of the signs of real science is its intrinsic value, the desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself. This feature, however, does not at all exclude the possibility of practical use of scientific discoveries. The Great Scientific Revolution of the 16th-17th centuries. laid the theoretical foundations for the subsequent development of industrial production, the new direction of using the forces of nature in the interests of man. On the other hand, the needs of technology have become a powerful stimulus for scientific progress in modern times. Such interaction between science and practice becomes closer and more effective over time. In our time, science has become the most important productive force of society.

ancient era science philosophy

In ancient times there was no such interaction between science and practice. The ancient economy, based on the use of manual labor by slaves, did not need the development of technology. For this reason, Greco-Roman science, with a few exceptions (which include, in particular, the engineering work of Archimedes), did not have practical outlets. On the other hand, the technical achievements of the ancient world - in the field of architecture, shipbuilding, military equipment - were not in any way! connections with the development of science. The absence of such interaction was ultimately detrimental to ancient science.

Physics

Being more synthetic in nature than analytical science, physics of ancient Greece and the Hellenistic period was an integral part of philosophy and was engaged in the philosophical interpretation of natural phenomena. As a result, the method and content of physics were of a qualitatively different nature than that which arose as a result of the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. V. classical physics. The beginning mathematization of the physical side of phenomena served as an impetus for the creation of an exact scientific discipline. However, a specific physical method that could lead to the formation of physics as an independent science had not yet developed in the ancient period. The experiments were sporadic and served more for demonstration than for obtaining physical facts. Texts relating to physical phenomena have survived in Latin and Arabic translations since about the 5th century BC, mostly in later versions. The most important works in the field of physical knowledge belong to Aristotle, Theophrastus, Euclid, Heron, Archimedes, Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder. The history of the development of physics in the ancient period is clearly divided into four periods.

Ionian period (600-450 BC). Our own practical experience, as well as that borrowed from ancient cultures, led to the emergence of materialistic ideas about the essence and interconnection of natural phenomena as part of general science and natural philosophy. Its most outstanding representatives were Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, as well as Heraclitus of Ephesus, whose works contained rather modest, but empirically accurate information from the field of natural science. They knew, for example, the properties of compression and liquefaction of air, the rise of heated air, the force of magnetic attraction and the properties of amber. The traditions of natural philosophy were continued by Empedocles of Acraganthus, who proved the materiality of air and created the theory of the elements. Leucippus and Democritus substantiated the anatomical doctrine, according to which the entire multiplicity of things depends on the position, size and shape of their constituent atoms in empty space (vacuum). The opponents of natural philosophy were the Pythagoreans with their ideas about number as the basis of all things. At the same time, the Pythagoreans introduced the concept of measure and number into Physics, developed the mathematical doctrine of harmony and laid the foundation for experimental knowledge about visual perceptions (optics).

Athenian period (450-300 BC). Physics continued to remain an integral part of philosophy, although in new social conditions the explanation of social phenomena began to occupy an increasing place in the structure of philosophical knowledge. Plato applied his idealistic teaching to such physical concepts as motion and gravity. But the most outstanding representative of philosophy of that period was still Aristotle, who shared the views of Plato, but gave a materialistic interpretation to many physical phenomena. His physical theories concern almost all areas of this science. Of particular importance is his theory of motion (kinetics), which represents the initial stage of classical dynamics. He owns the works: “Physics”, “About the sky”, “Meteorology”, “On the emergence and disappearance”, “Questions of mechanics”.

Hellenistic period (300 BC - 150 AD) Physical knowledge reached its peak. The Alexandria Museum, the first real research institute, became the center of physics. Now the mathematical interpretation of physical phenomena came to the fore; At the same time, physics turned to the formulation and solution of practical problems. Physics was studied either by mathematicians (Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy), or by experienced practitioners and inventors (Ctesibius, Phalon, Heron). A closer connection with practice led to physical experiments, but experiment was not yet the basis of physical research. The most significant work was carried out at this time in the field of mechanics. Archimedes substantiated statics and hydrostatics from a mathematical point of view. Ctesibius, Philo of Byzantium and Heron turned primarily to solving practical problems, using mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic phenomena. In the field of optics, Euclid developed the theory of reflection, Heron derived a proof of the law of reflection, and Ptolemy experimentally measured refraction.

The final period (before 600 AD) is characterized not by the development of the traditions of the previous stages, but by stagnation and incipient decline. Pappus of Alexandria tried to summarize achievements in the field of mechanics, and only a few authors, such as Lucretius, Pliny the Elder, Vitruvius, remained faithful to the traditions of ancient Greek Hellenistic science.

Mathematics

In antiquity, the level of development of mathematics was very high. The Greeks used the arithmetic and geometric knowledge accumulated in Babylonia and Egypt, but there is no reliable data to accurately determine their impact, as well as the influence of the tradition of the Kritomicen culture. The history of mathematics in Ancient Greece, including the Hellenistic era, is divided, like physics, into four periods.

Ionian period (600-450 BC). As a result of independent development, as well as on the basis of a certain stock of knowledge borrowed from the Babylonians and Egyptians, mathematics turned into a special scientific discipline based on the deductive method. According to ancient legend, it was Thales who initiated this process. However, the true credit for the creation of Mathematics as a science apparently belongs to Anaxagoras and Hippocrates of Chios. Democritus, observing the playing of musical instruments, found that the pitch of the sounding string varies depending on its length. Based on this, he determined that the intervals of the musical scale can be expressed as ratios of the simplest integers. Based on the anatomical structure of space, he derived formulas for determining the volume of a cone and a pyramid. The mathematical thought of this period was characterized, along with the accumulation of elementary information on geometry, by the presence of the rudiments of the theory of duality, elements of stereometry, the formation of a general theory of divisibility and the doctrine of quantities and measurements.

Athenian period (450 - 300 BC). Specific Greek mathematical disciplines developed, the most significant of which were geometry and algebra. The goal of the geometrization of mathematics, in essence, was to find solutions to purely algebraic problems (linear and quadratic equations) using visual geometric images. It was determined by the desire to find a way out of the difficult situation in which mathematics found itself as a result of the discovery of irrational quantities. The statement was refuted that the ratios of any mathematical quantities can be expressed through the ratios of integers, i.e. through rational quantities. Influenced by the writings of Plato and his students, Theodore of Cyrene and Theaetetus worked on the problem of incommensurability of segments, while Eudoxus of Cnidus formulated a general theory of relations that could also be applied to irrational quantities.

Hellenistic period (300 - 150 BC). During the Hellenistic era, ancient mathematics reached its highest level of development. For many centuries, the Museyion of Alexandria remained the main center of mathematical research. Around 325 BC, Euclid wrote the work “Elements” (13 books). Being a follower of Plato, he practically did not consider the applied aspects of mathematics. Heron of Alexandria paid special attention to them. Only the creation of a new mathematics of variable quantities by scientists in Western Europe in the 17th century turned out to be more important than the contribution that Archimedes made to the development of mathematical problems. He approached the analysis of infinitesimal quantities. Along with the widespread use of mathematics for applied purposes and its application to solve problems in the field of physics and mechanics, a tendency has again emerged to attribute special, supernatural qualities to numbers.

Final period (150 - 60 BC). The independent achievements of Roman mathematics include only the creation of a system of roughly approximate calculations and the writing of several treatises on geodesy. The most significant contribution to the development of ancient mathematics at the final stage was made by Diophantus. Apparently using the data of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematicians, he continued to develop methods of algebraic calculus. Along with the strengthening of religious and mystical interest in numbers, the development of a genuine number theory also continued. This was done, in particular, by Nicomachus of Geras. In general, in the conditions of an acute crisis of the slave-owning mode of production and the transition to a feudal formation, regression was observed in mathematics.

Chemistry

In ancient times, chemical knowledge was closely related to handicraft production. The ancients had knowledge in the field of extracting metals from ores, making glass and glazes, mineral, vegetable and animal paints, alcoholic beverages, cosmetics, medicines and poisons. They knew how to make alloys that imitated gold, silver, pearls and “artificial” precious stones from molten glass dyed in various colors, as well as purple paint based on plant dyes. Egyptian masters were especially famous for this. Theoretical generalizations associated with natural philosophical discussions about the nature of being are found in the works of Greek philosophers, primarily in Empedocles (the doctrine of the 4 elements), Leucippus, Democritus (the doctrine of atoms) and Aristotle (qualitativeism). In Hellenistic Egypt in the 3rd-4th centuries AD, applied chemistry began to develop in line with the emerging alchemy, which sought to transform base metals into noble ones.

Biology

In ancient times, Biology did not exist as an independent science. Biological knowledge was concentrated primarily in religious rituals and medicine. Here the doctrine of the 4 juices played a significant role. In hylozoism, there were ideas about the presence of a certain single primary form of the entire diversity of life manifestations. The pinnacle of ancient biology were the works of Aristotle. Within the framework of his universal theological picture of the world, entelechy, as an actively formative force, determined the direction of transformation of passive matter. In Aristotle's writings, ideas about the hierarchy of things found their further development; the author's observations about the gradual transition in nature from inanimate to living were reflected, which had a huge influence on subsequent theories of development. The Peripatetic school put forward its organic explanation of nature, in contrast to the materialistic direction of the philosophy of Democritus. Roman biology was based on the conclusions of Greek science and the atomism of natural philosophy. Epicurus and his student Lucretius consistently transferred materialistic views to ideas about life. Ancient biology and medicine found their completion in the works of Galen. His observations, made during the dissection of domestic animals and monkeys, remained important for many centuries. Medieval biology relied on ancient biology.

Ethics

Ethics owes its name and distinction to a special scientific discipline to Aristotle, but its foundations were laid by Socrates. The first ethical reflections can be found already in the sayings of the seven sages, of course, without philosophical justification. Pythagoras and his school thoroughly dealt with ethical and religious issues. The anti-democratic aristocratic positions of the Pythagoreans were shared by Heraclitus and the Eleatics. Democritus considered pleasures arising from feelings and excitement to be dubious and relative. True happiness arises from an even and peaceful mood, which is caused by the barely noticeable movement of the atoms of fire. Socrates' teaching on morality was directed against the denial of obligatory moral norms. Aristotle saw the highest happiness for each individual being in the manifestation of its nature. But nature, the essence of man, according to Aristotle, is his reason, the ability to use reason is, therefore, a virtue, and the use of reason in itself brings satisfaction and pleasure. In Rome (with the exception of certain representatives of scientific ethics - Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius), predominantly practically oriented ethics were recognized.

Philosophy

The term probably goes back to Heraclitus or Herodotus. Plato and Aristotle were the first to use the concept of Philosophy, which is close to the modern one. Epicurus and the Stoics saw in it not so much a theoretical picture of the universe as a universal rule of practical life. Ancient philosophy as a whole was distinguished by contemplation, and its representatives were, as a rule, from the wealthy strata of society. There were two main trends - materialism and idealism. The history of ancient philosophy is characterized by theoretical differences represented by certain schools or individual philosophers. Such, for example, as the contradiction in views on being and becoming (Permenides and Heraclitus), on philosophy and anthropological philosophy, on pleasure and virtue or asceticism, on the question of the relationship between form and matter, on necessity and freedom, and others. The discipline of thinking, which was the result of the emergence of ancient philosophy, also became an important prerequisite for the development of science in general. The enduring merit of ancient philosophy, primarily materialist philosophy and the philosophy of Aristotle, is the comprehensive and systematic substantiation of philosophy itself as a scientific theory, the development of a system of concepts, as well as the development of all major philosophical problems.

Geography

Geography was the science that was most directly influenced by the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Before this, the geographical horizon of the Greeks was not yet very different from those ideas about the ecumene that were set out in the books of Herodotus. True, in the 4th century. BC. travel to distant lands and descriptions of foreign lands are becoming more frequent compared to the previous century. Xenophon's famous "Aia-basis" contains a lot of interesting data on the geography and ethnography of Asia Minor and Armenia. Ctesias of Cnidus, who was a physician at the Persian court for 17 years (415 - 399), wrote a number of historical and geographical works, of which, in addition to the description of Persia, the description of India, which contained a lot of fabulous information, was especially popular in antiquity and the Middle Ages about the nature and inhabitants of this country. Later (about 330 BC) a certain Pytheas from Massilia undertook a journey along the western shores of Europe; passing Gibraltar and opening the Breton salient, he eventually reached the semi-mythical land of Fule, which some researchers identify with present-day Iceland, others with Norway. Excerpts from the work of Pytheas are given in the works of Polybius and Strabo.

And yet, when Alexander the Great began his campaigns, both he and his generals had only a very faint idea of the countries that they were to conquer. Alexander's army was accompanied by "land surveyors" or, more precisely, "pedometers", who, based on counting steps, established the distances traveled, compiled a description of the routes and plotted the corresponding territories on the map. When Alexander was returning from India, part of the army was sent by sea, and the fleet commander Nearchus received orders to explore the coastline of the Indian Ocean. Having left the mouth of the Indus, Nearchus safely reached Mesopotamia and wrote a report on this voyage, which was later used by the historiographers of the campaigns of Alexandra Arriai and Strabo. The data accumulated during Alexander's campaigns allowed Aristotle's student Dicaearchus from Messana to draw a map of all the then known areas of the ecumene.

The idea of the sphericity of the Earth, which was finally established in Greece in the era of Plato and Aristotle, posed new fundamental tasks for Greek geography. The most important of them was the task of establishing the size of the globe. And so Dicaearchus made the first attempt to solve this problem by measuring the position of the zenith at different latitudes (in the region of Lysimachia near the Dardanelles and near Aswan in Egypt), and the value of the earth’s circumference he obtained turned out to be equal to 300,000 stadia (i.e. about 50,000 km instead of the true value of 40,000 km). Dicaearchus determined the width of the oikoumene (from north to south) to be 40,000 stadia, and the length (from west to east) to be 60,000.

Another representative of the Peripatetic school, Strato, was also interested in geography. He hypothesized that the Black Sea was once a lake, and then, having connected with the Mediterranean Sea, began to give its surplus to the Aegean Sea (the presence of a current in the Dardanelles was a well-known fact, discussed, in particular, by Aristotle; let us also remember the history of the construction of bridges across this strait for the army of Xerxes). The Mediterranean Sea, according to Strato, was also previously a lake; when it broke through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar (then called the Pillars of Hercules), its level dropped, exposing the coast and leaving shells and salt deposits. This hypothesis was then vigorously discussed by Eratosthenes, Hipparchus and Strabo. The highest achievements of Alexandrian geography are associated with the name of Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who for a long time (234-196 BC) stood at the head of the Alexandrian library. Eratosthenes was an unusually versatile person, who left behind works on mathematics, astronomy, history (chronology), philology, ethics, etc.; however, his geographical works were perhaps the most significant.

Eratosthenes's great work "Geography", which consisted of three books, has not survived, but its content, as well as Hipparchus's polemical remarks to it, are quite fully expounded by Strabo. In the first book of this work, Eratosthenes gives an outline of the history of geography, starting from ancient times. At the same time, he speaks critically about the geographical information given by the “infallible” Homer; talks about the first geographical maps of Anaximander and Hecataeus; defends the description of Pytheas's journey, which was repeatedly ridiculed by his contemporaries. In the second book, Eratosthenes provides evidence of the sphericity of the Earth, mentions his method of measuring the size of the globe and develops thoughts about the ecumene, which he considered an island surrounded on all sides by the ocean.

On this basis, he first suggested the possibility of reaching India by sailing from Europe to the west. The third book was a detailed commentary on the map compiled by Eratosthenes.

The method used by Eratosthenes to determine the circumference of the Earth was described in detail by him in a special essay; The method consisted of measuring the length of the shadow cast by the gnomon in Alexandria at the very moment when the Sun was directly overhead in Siei (Assouan), located approximately on the same meridian. The angle between the vertical and the direction to the Sun turned out (in Alexandria) to be equal to 1/50 of a full circle. Considering the distance between Alexandria and Syene to be 5,000 stadia (slightly less than 800 km), Eratosthenes obtained an approximate value of 250,000 stadia for the circumference of the globe. More accurate calculations gave a value of 252,000 stadia, or 39,690 km, which is only 310 km from the true value. This result of Erasstophenes remained unsurpassed until the 17th century.

Astronomy

Famous astronomer of the 2nd century. BC. Hipparchus wrote an essay in which he sharply criticized Eratosthenes' Geography. Criticism mainly focused on methods for localizing geographic objects. Hipparchus considered it unacceptable to attach serious importance to the testimony of travelers or sailors about the remoteness and orientation of these objects; he recognized only methods based on accurate objective data, to which he included the height of stars above the horizon, the length of the shadow cast by the gnomon, differences in the timing of lunar eclipses, etc. Having introduced the grid of meridians and parallels as a basis for constructing geographical maps, Hipparchus was the founder of mathematical cartography.

Using the example of geography, we see that even this science, which was previously purely descriptive, underwent a process of mathematization in the Alexandrian era. This process was even more characteristic of the development of astronomy, mechanics, and optics. Therefore, we have the right to assert that it was during this era that mathematics first became called upon to become the queen of sciences. Therefore, before moving on to other sciences, it is advisable to consider the remarkable achievements of Hellenistic mathematics.

Conclusion

Studying the development of sciences during the period of antiquity, it is clear that practically the same people took an active part in almost all sciences and made many discoveries and inventions - Aristotle, Democritus, Heron, Euclid, Heraclitus and many others. This suggests the interconnection of virtually all sciences existing in the ancient stage, when many sciences were not yet isolated and represented branches from each other. The basis of everything was Philosophy; all the sciences of antiquity turned to it, proceeded from it, and relied on it. Philosophical thought was the fundamental principle.

Bibliography

1.Asmus V.F. Ancient philosophy. - M.: Higher School, 1999.

2.Mamardashvili M.K. Lectures on ancient philosophy. - M.: Agraf, 1997.

.Rozhansky I.D. Development of natural science in antiquity. Early Greek science of nature - M.: Nauka, 1979.

.Shchitov.B.B., Vronsky S.A. Astronomy is a science. - Publisher: Institute of Culture DonNTU, 2011.

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“Specifics of ancient science”

Introduction

Term antiquity(from lat. Antiquus - ancient) used to refer to everything associated with Greco-Roman antiquity, from Homeric Greece to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, arose during the Renaissance. At the same time, the concepts of “ancient history”, “ancient culture”, “ancient art”, “ancient city”, etc. appeared. The concept of “ancient Greek science” was probably first substantiated by P. Tannery at the end of the 19th century, and the concept of “ancient science” by S. Ya. Lurie in the 30s of the 20th century.

Science owes its appearance to man’s desire to increase the productivity of his labor and, ultimately, . Gradually, since prehistoric times, knowledge about natural phenomena and their relationships has accumulated.

One of the first sciences was , the results of which were actively used by priests and clergy. The ancient applied sciences included - the science of accurately measuring areas, volumes and distances - and. The geometry included .

In Ancient Greece by the 6th century. BC e. The earliest theoretical scientific systems emerged that sought to explain reality by a set of basic principles. In particular, a system has emerged that has become widespread throughout Europe. , and philosophers created the first structure of matter, subsequently developed. For a long time, science was not completely separated from, but was its . However, already ancient philosophers identified within philosophy and: systems of ideas about the origin and structure of the world, respectively.

One of the brightest representatives of ancient Greek philosophy is. Having conducted a huge number of observations and compiled a very detailed description of his ideas about physics and biology, he nevertheless did not conduct experiments.

Before the era of scientific revolutions, it was believed that artificial experimental conditions created by man could not produce results that would adequately describe the phenomena occurring in nature.

The concept of ancient science

Among scientific scientists, there are two extreme points of view in the very concept of science, which are in radical contradiction with each other.

The first point of view says that science in the proper sense of the word was born in Europe only in the 16th-17th centuries, during a period usually called the great scientific revolution. Its emergence is associated with the activities of such scientists as Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Newton. It is to this time that the birth of the scientific method itself, which is characterized by a specific relationship between theory and experiment, should be attributed. At the same time, the role of mathematization of the natural sciences was realized - a process that continues to our time and has now captured a number of areas of knowledge that relate to man and human society. Ancient thinkers, strictly speaking, did not yet know experiment and, therefore, did not possess a truly scientific method: their conclusions were largely the product of groundless speculation that could not be subjected to real verification. An exception can be made, perhaps, only for one mathematics, which, due to its specifics, is purely speculative in nature and therefore does not need experimentation. As for scientific natural science, it actually did not exist in ancient times; there were only weak rudiments of later scientific disciplines, representing immature generalizations of random observations and practical data. The global concepts of the ancients about the origin and structure of the world cannot in any way be recognized by science: at best, they should be attributed to what later received the name of natural philosophy (a term that has a clearly odious connotation in the eyes of representatives of exact natural science).

Turning to the initial period of the development of science, we will see that various situations took place there. Thus, Babylonian astronomy should be classified as an applied discipline, since it set itself purely practical goals. When conducting their observations, Babylonian stargazers were least of all interested in the structure of the universe, the true (and not just apparent) movement of the planets, and the causes of such phenomena as solar and lunar eclipses. These questions, apparently, did not arise before them at all. Their task was to pre-calculate the onset of phenomena that, according to the views of that time, had a beneficial or, conversely, detrimental effect on the fate of people and even entire kingdoms. Therefore, despite the presence of a huge number of observations and the very complex mathematical methods with which these materials were processed, Babylonian astronomy cannot be considered a science in the proper sense of the word.

Signs and specifics of ancient science

There are four main features of ancient science. These signs are also signs of its difference from the non-science of previous history:

1. Science as a type of activity for acquiring new knowledge. To carry out such activities, certain conditions are necessary: a special category of people, means for its implementation and sufficiently developed methods of recording knowledge;

2. The intrinsic value of science, its theoretical nature, the desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself;

3. The rational nature of science, which is primarily expressed in the evidence of its provisions and the presence of special methods for acquiring and testing knowledge;

4. Systematicity (consistency) of scientific knowledge, both in the subject field and in phases: from hypothesis to grounded theory.

Turning to ancient science during the period of its highest achievements, one can find in it a feature that fundamentally distinguishes it from the science of modern times. Despite the brilliant successes of ancient science of the era of Euclid and Archimedes, it was missing the most important ingredient, without which we now cannot imagine such sciences as physics, chemistry, and partly biology. This ingredient is an experimental method in the form in which it was created by the creators of modern science - Galileo, Boyle, Newton, Huygens. Ancient science understood the importance of experimental knowledge, as evidenced by Aristotle, and before him Democritus. Ancient scientists were able to observe the surrounding nature well. They reached a high level in the technique of measuring lengths and angles, as we can judge from the procedures they developed, for example, to determine the size of the globe (Eratosthenes), to measure the visible disk of the Sun (Archimedes) or to determine the distance from the Earth to the Moon (Hipparchus, Posidonius, Ptolemy). But an experiment as an artificial reproduction of natural phenomena, in which side and insignificant effects are eliminated and which aims to confirm or refute one or another theoretical assumption - antiquity has never known such an experiment. Meanwhile, it is precisely this kind of experiment that underlies physics and chemistry - sciences that have acquired a leading role in the natural sciences of modern times. This explains why a wide area of physicochemical phenomena remained in antiquity at the mercy of purely qualitative speculation, never waiting for the advent of an adequate scientific method.

In ancient times, there was no such interaction between science and practice. The ancient economy, based on the use of manual labor by slaves, did not need the development of technology. For this reason, Greco-Roman science, with a few exceptions (which include, in particular, the engineering work of Archimedes), did not have practical outlets. On the other hand, the technical achievements of the ancient world - in the field of architecture, shipbuilding, military equipment - were not in any way! connections with the development of science. The absence of such interaction was ultimately detrimental to ancient science.

Specifics of ancient science using the example of mathematics

- Ionian period(600-450 BC):

As a result of independent development, as well as on the basis of a certain stock of knowledge borrowed from the Babylonians and Egyptians, mathematics turned into a special scientific discipline based on the deductive method. According to ancient legend, it was Thales who initiated this process. However, the true credit for the creation of Mathematics as a science apparently belongs to Anaxagoras and Hippocrates of Chios. Democritus, observing the playing of musical instruments, found that the pitch of the sounding string varies depending on its length. Based on this, he determined that the intervals of the musical scale can be expressed as ratios of the simplest integers. Based on the anatomical structure of space, he derived formulas for determining the volume of a cone and a pyramid. The mathematical thought of this period was characterized, along with the accumulation of elementary information on geometry, by the presence of the rudiments of the theory of duality, elements of stereometry, the formation of a general theory of divisibility and the doctrine of quantities and measurements;

- Athenian period(450 – 300 BC):

Specific Greek mathematical disciplines developed, the most significant of which were geometry and algebra. The goal of the geometrization of mathematics, in essence, was to find solutions to purely algebraic problems (linear and quadratic equations) using visual geometric images. It was determined by the desire to find a way out of the difficult situation in which mathematics found itself as a result of the discovery of irrational quantities. The statement was refuted that the ratios of any mathematical quantities can be expressed through the ratios of integers, i.e. through rational quantities. Influenced by the writings of Plato and his students, Theodore of Cyrene and Theaetetus worked on the problem of incommensurability of segments, while Eudoxus of Cnidus formulated a general theory of relations that could also be applied to irrational quantities;

- Hellenistic period(300 – 150 BC):

During the Hellenistic era, ancient mathematics reached its highest level of development. For many centuries, the Museyion of Alexandria remained the main center of mathematical research. Around 325 BC, Euclid wrote the work “Elements” (13 books). Being a follower of Plato, he practically did not consider the applied aspects of mathematics. Heron of Alexandria paid special attention to them. Only the creation of a new mathematics of variable quantities by scientists in Western Europe in the 17th century turned out to be more important than the contribution that Archimedes made to the development of mathematical problems. He approached the analysis of infinitesimal quantities. Along with the widespread use of mathematics for applied purposes and its application to solve problems in the field of physics and mechanics, a tendency has again emerged to attribute special, supernatural qualities to numbers.

- Final period(150 – 60 BC):

The independent achievements of Roman mathematics include only the creation of a system of roughly approximate calculations and the writing of several treatises on geodesy. The most significant contribution to the development of ancient mathematics at the final stage was made by Diophantus. Apparently using the data of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematicians, he continued to develop methods of algebraic calculus. Along with the strengthening of religious and mystical interest in numbers, the development of a genuine number theory also continued. This was done, in particular, by Nicomachus of Geras. In general, in the conditions of an acute crisis of the slave-owning mode of production and the transition to a feudal formation, regression was observed in mathematics.

Conclusion

Studying the specifics of science during the period of antiquity, I came to the conclusion that ancient scientific views had a significant humanitarian component both in form and content. Scientific works took the form of literary works and bore the imprint of mythology, romanticism, and dreams. In the ancient world, speculative constructions, guesses, and ideas arose that were developed at a later time. Such ideas include, for example, the hypothesis of the heliocentric structure of the world, atomism. A tradition of scientific schools arose, the first of which were Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum.

During the period of antiquity, science emerged as a separate sphere of spiritual culture. A special group of people appears who specialize in obtaining new knowledge; knowledge becomes systemic, theoretical and rational. Natural sciences existed in the form of natural philosophy, inseparable from philosophy. Scientists of the ancient world were encyclopedists, bearers of both humanitarian and natural science knowledge. The experimental base of the natural sciences was extremely limited. In methodological terms, an important achievement of antiquity is the creation of the deductive method of research, enshrined in its most complete form in Aristotle’s Logic, and the axiomatic method of presenting scientific theories, first used in Euclid’s Elements. Aristotle's formal logic, enriched with new rules, is now called traditional. On its basis, mathematical logic arose. Mathematics is formed as an interdisciplinary science, used in solving both scientific and applied problems.

List of used literature

1. « » (

2. Ancient science ( , publishing house: academic project, 2008);

5. " History of philosophy. Tutorial. Statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation" (Author : Sizov V.S., 2008).

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1. Potassium-40 and potassium-39, which differ in atomic mass, are
isotopes
molecules
isomers
simple substances

2. The physical meaning of the concept of the absoluteness of space and time is that
if matter disappeared from the Universe, then space and time would disappear along with it
if matter disappeared from the Universe, then space and time would remain

3. The main postulates of A. Einstein’s special theory of relativity are the principle of ……… and the constancy of the speed of light
relativity

4. A characteristic feature of ancient science is
mechanism
contemplation
evolutionism
humanism

5. Level 2 consumers are
plants: grasses, shrubs, trees, algae, plankton
carnivores, incl. hydrobionts
worms, fungi, bacteria, incl. hydrobionts
herbivores, incl. hydrobionts

6. A method of reasoning in which a general conclusion is built on the basis of particular premises is
deduction
induction
observation
modeling

7. In the second half of the 20th century, the idea of self-organization of matter appeared in the scientific worldview. Find definitions that correspond to the concept of “self-organization”:
transition to a state with a higher entropy value
the desire to destroy spontaneously arisen orderliness
interconnected processes of transformation of chaos into order and order into chaos
spontaneous transition from less complex to more complex and ordered forms of organization of matter and back

8. Basic concepts of the synthetic theory of evolution
variability, heredity, struggle for existence, natural selection
mutation process, population waves, isolation, natural selection

9. The correct sequence of the hierarchy of levels of living matter (from highest to lowest)
1) biosphere
2) biocenosis
3) population
4) cell

10. The main function of producers in the biosphere
transformation of simple organic substances into complex ones, incl. squirrels
conversion of solar energy into chemical energy in the process of photosynthesis, transformation of inorganic substances into simple organic ones
decomposition of dead organic matter into simple organic and inorganic substances available for subsequent involvement in the biogeochemical cycles of chemical elements in the biosphere

11. Having studied the history of 80 countries of peoples over 2500 years, A.L. Chizhevsky showed that social excitability (revolutions, wars, etc.) during the years of maximum solar activity
does not depend on solar activity
increases
falls
does not change

12. The doctrine of the structure, organization, methods and means of scientific activity is
teleology
paradigm
concept
methodology

13. The “goal” of living systems is
homeostasis - maintaining a stable but nonequilibrium state, reducing fluctuations
continuous complication of the organizational structure and increasing diversity of elements
the need for cooperation (coevolution) in the presence of multiple goals, sometimes contradicting each other

14. The geological era in which the ancestors of humans and apes (hominids) appeared is
archaea
Mesozoic
Cenozoic
Proterozoic

15. The Cenozoic era includes the following periods
Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous
Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian
tertiary, quaternary

The emergence of science proper occurs in Ancient Greece in the 6th century. BC. It is in the knowledge accumulated by the Greeks that those characteristics are manifested that allow us to speak of Greek knowledge of nature as a science. First of all, these characteristics include activities aimed at obtaining new knowledge, the presence of special people and organizations for this, as well as the availability of appropriate materials and technologies for obtaining this knowledge. The goal of Greek science is to comprehend truth out of pure interest in truth itself. This science systematic and rational. It is in Greece that such forms of cognitive activity arise as systematic proof, rational justification, logical deduction, idealization and others, from which science later developed. But the decisive rejection of practical activity also had a downside - the rejection of experiment as a method of knowledge, which closed the way for the development of experimental natural science, which is a characteristic feature of modern science.

The development of Greek science was expressed, first of all, in the development of philosophy as a doctrine of nature.

In early ancient Greek natural philosophy, the idea of certain initial principles underlying the universe was dominant. Such principles, from which the entire surrounding world is supposedly created, included either the so-called four “elements” (water, air, fire, earth), or some kind of mythical primordial substance. A similar primordial substance, invented by the ancient Greek natural philosopher Anaximander and called by him “apeiron,” was originally an indefinite nebulous mass in constant circular rotation, from which, in the end, all the diversity of the world supposedly originated.

But already during this period, such ideas about the world were replaced by the harmonious at that time atomistic doctrine of nature. An outstanding representative of the new natural philosophy ideology of atomism was Democritus The basic principles of his atomistic teaching can be reduced to the following provisions:

The entire Universe consists of the smallest material particles - atoms and unfilled space - emptiness. The presence of the latter is a prerequisite for the movement of atoms in space.
Atoms are indestructible, eternal, and therefore the entire Universe consisting of them exists forever.
Atoms are the smallest, unchanging, impenetrable and absolutely indivisible particles - the “building blocks of the universe.”
Atoms are in constant motion, changing their position in space.
Atoms differ in shape and size. They are so small that they are inaccessible to human sensory perception.
All objects of the material world are formed from atoms of various shapes and different orders of their combinations.

The ideas of atomism were developed in the teachings of Epicurus, who attempted to find some internal sources of life in atoms. He expressed the idea that a change in the direction of their movement could be due to reasons contained within the atoms themselves. This was a step forward compared to Democritus, in whose teaching the atom is impenetrable and has no movement or life within itself.

Pythagoras, and later Plato, founded a mathematical model of the world, which assumed that the world is an ordered cosmos. The orderliness of the Cosmos is a consequence of the existence of a certain all-pervading intelligence that endowed nature with purpose and purpose. Due to the kinship of the world and human minds, the latter has access to a “great plan”; for this it is necessary to develop the appropriate abilities (mind, intuition, experience, memory, etc.). The speculative perception of the world reveals behind the visible world a certain timeless order, the essence of which is expressed in the quantitative relations of reality.

One of the greatest scientists and philosophers of antiquity, whose activity coincided with the Athenian period of development of ancient Greek natural philosophy, was Aristotle(384-322 BC).

In the history of science, Aristotle is known primarily as the author of cosmological doctrine, which had a huge influence on the worldview of many subsequent centuries. Aristotle's cosmology - geocentric view: The Earth, shaped like a ball (due to the round shadow on the lunar disk during an eclipse), remains motionless in the center of the Universe.

Aristotle divided the world into two areas, qualitatively different from each other: the region of the Earth and the region of the Sky. The Earth region is based on four elements: earth, water, air and fire. The sky region is based on the fifth element - ether, from which the celestial bodies are composed. The most perfect of them are the fixed stars. They consist of pure ether and are so far from the Earth that they are inaccessible to any influence of the four earthly elements.

Aristotle's cosmology included idea of the spatial finitude of the universe. In this finite extent of space there are solid crystal-transparent spheres on which the stars and planets are motionless. Their apparent movement is explained by the rotation of these spheres. The “Prime Mover of the Universe,” which is the source of all movement, comes into contact with the outermost sphere. It is immaterial, for it is God (mind on a global scale).

In his famous treatise “Organon”, Aristotle developed the foundations of the evidential method, developed the ideas of formal logic, thereby placing science on a solid foundation of logically based thinking using a conceptual-categorical apparatus. It was Aristotle who systematized the scientific knowledge accumulated by this time. The ideas of deduction (syllogism) formed the real basis of ancient scientific knowledge, which was based on the so-called. natural philosophical method, in which a priori, not related to experience and observations, purely speculative schemes were invented to explain natural phenomena.

Its last period, from about 330 to 30, turned out to be very fruitful for ancient Greek science. BC, - ended with the rise of Ancient Rome. One of the largest mathematicians of this period was Euclid, lived in the 3rd century. BC. in Alexandria. In his work “Principia” he systematized all the mathematical achievements of that time. The method of axioms created by Euclid allowed him to build the edifice of geometry that bears his name to this day.

This period in ancient Greek science was also characterized by considerable achievements in the field of mechanics. A first-class scientist - mathematician and mechanic - was Archimedes. He solved a number of problems on calculating surface areas and volumes, determined the value of the number “pi” (the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter). Archimedes introduced the concept of the center of gravity and developed methods for determining it for various bodies, and gave a mathematical derivation of the laws of leverage. Archimedes laid the foundation for hydrostatics, which was widely used in testing products made of precious metals and determining the carrying capacity of ships.

Received wide popularity Archimedes' law, concerning the buoyancy of bodies. According to this law, any body immersed in a liquid is acted upon by a supporting force equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by the body, directed upward and applied to the center of gravity of the displaced volume. If the weight of a body is less than the supporting force, the body floats to the surface, and the degree of immersion of a body floating on the surface is determined by the ratio of the specific gravities of this body and the liquid. If the weight of a body is greater than the supporting force, then it sinks. In the case when the body weight is equal to the supporting force. This body floats inside the liquid (like a fish or a submarine).

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“Specifics of ancient science”

Introduction

The term antiquity (from the Latin Antiquus - ancient) used to denote everything associated with Greco-Roman antiquity, from Homeric Greece to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, arose during the Renaissance. At the same time, the concepts of “ancient history”, “ancient culture”, “ancient art”, “ancient city”, etc. appeared. The concept of “ancient Greek science” was probably first substantiated by P. Tannery at the end of the 19th century, and the concept of “ancient science” by S. Ya. Lurie in the 30s of the 20th century.

Science owes its appearance to man’s desire to increase the productivity of his labor and, ultimately, his standard of living. . Gradually, since prehistoric times, knowledge about natural phenomena and their relationships has accumulated.

One of the first sciences was astronomy , the results of which were actively used by priests and clergy. The ancient applied sciences included geometry - the science of accurately measuring areas, volumes and distances - and mechanics. Geometry also included geography .

In Ancient Greece by the 6th century. BC e. The earliest theoretical scientific systems emerged that sought to explain reality by a set of basic principles. In particular, a system of primary elements, widely spread throughout Europe, appeared , and the philosophers Leucippus and Democritus created the first atomic theory of the structure of matter, later developed by Epicurus. For a long time, science was not completely separated from philosophy, but was an integral part of it. . However, already ancient philosophers distinguished cosmogony and physics as part of philosophy: systems of ideas about the origin and structure of the world, respectively.

One of the brightest representatives of ancient Greek philosophy is Aristotle. Having conducted a huge number of observations and compiled a very detailed description of his ideas about physics and biology, he nevertheless did not conduct experiments.

The concept of ancient science

Among scientific scientists, there are two extreme points of view in the very concept of science, which are in radical contradiction with each other.

Turning to the initial period of the development of science, we will see that various situations took place there. Thus, Babylonian astronomy should be classified as an applied discipline, since it set itself purely practical goals. When conducting their observations, Babylonian stargazers were least of all interested in the structure of the universe, the true (and not just apparent) movement of the planets, and the causes of such phenomena as solar and lunar eclipses. These questions, apparently, did not arise before them at all. Their task was to pre-calculate the onset of phenomena that, according to the views of that time, had a beneficial or, conversely, detrimental effect on the fate of people and even entire kingdoms. Therefore, despite the presence of a huge number of observations and the very complex mathematical methods with which these materials were processed, Babylonian astronomy cannot be considered a science in the proper sense of the word.

Signs and withspecifics of ancient science

There are four main features of ancient science. These signs are also signs of its difference from the non-science of previous history:

2. The intrinsic value of science, its theoretical nature, the desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself;

3. The rational nature of science, which is primarily expressed in the evidence of its provisions and the presence of special methods for acquiring and testing knowledge;

4. Systematicity (consistency) of scientific knowledge, both in the subject field and in phases: from hypothesis to grounded theory.

Specifics of ancient science using an examplemathematicians

- Ionian period(600-450 BC):

- Athenian period(450 - 300 BC):

- Hellenistic period(300 - 150 BC):

- Final period(150 - 60 BC):

Conclusion

List of used literature

1.« History of philosophy. Book 1. The Ancient World. Antiquity » (Gryadovoy, publishing house: Unity-Dana, 2009);

2. Ancient science (http://antic.portal-1.ru/index.html);

3. “Ancient World: educational and methodological manual for the course “Russia in World History”” (

4. “Concepts of modern natural science” (publishing house: Academic Project, 2008);

5. “History of philosophy. Tutorial. Statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation" (Author : Sizov V.S., 2008).

Signs and specifics of ancient science. Test - Distinctive features of ancient science from the moment of its inception, its theoretical nature, the desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself

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