2 options
The beginnings of western science : the European scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context, prehistory to A.D. 1450 / David C. Lindberg.
LIBRA Q124.95 .L55 2007
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Lindberg, David C.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Science, Ancient--History.
- Science, Ancient.
- Science, Medieval--History.
- Science, Medieval.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xvi, 488 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
- Edition:
- Second edition.
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2007.
- Summary:
- When it was first published in 1992, The Beginnings of Western Science was lauded as the first successful attempt ever to present a unified account of both ancient and medieval science in a single volume. The book was, and remains, a landmark in the history of science, shaping the way students and scholars understand these critically formative periods of scientific development. It reemerges here in a second edition that includes revisions on nearly every page, as well as several sections that have been completely rewritten. For example, the section on Islamic science has been thoroughly retooled to reveal the magnitude and sophistication of medieval Muslim scientific achievement. And the book now reflects a sharper awareness of the importance of Mesopotamian science for the development of Greek astronomy. In all, the second edition of The Beginnings of Western Science captures the current state of our understanding of more than two millennia of science and promises to continue to inspire both students and general readers with its remarkable story of the ancient and medieval scientific achievements that laid the foundation for the incredible scientific developments of our time.
- Contents:
- 1 Science Before the Greeks 1
- What Is Science? 1
- Prehistoric Attitudes toward Nature 3
- The Beginnings of Science in Egypt and Mesopotamia 12
- 2 The Greeks and the Cosmos 21
- The World of Homer and Hesiod 21
- The First Greek Philosophers 25
- The Milesians and the Question of Underlying Reality 27
- The Question of Change 32
- The Problem of Knowledge 33
- Plato's World of Forms 34
- Plato's Cosmology 38
- The Achievement of Early Greek Philosophy 43
- 3 Aristotle's Philosophy of Nature 45
- Life and Works 45
- Metaphysics and Epistemology 46
- Nature and Change 49
- Cosmology 52
- Motion, Terrestrial and Celestial 56
- Aristotle as a Biologist 60
- Aristotle's Achievement 65
- 4 Hellenistic Natural Philosophy 67
- Schools and Education 67
- The Lyceum after Aristotle 73
- Epicureans and Stoics 76
- 5 The Mathematical Sciences in Antiquity 82
- The Application of Mathematics to Nature 82
- Greek Mathematics 83
- Early Greek Astronomy 86
- Cosmological Developments 95
- Hellenistic Planetary Astronomy 98
- The Science of Optics 105
- The Science of Weights 109
- 6 Greek and Roman Medicine 111
- Early Greek Medicine 111
- Hippocratic Medicine 113
- Hellenistic Anatomy and Physiology 119
- Hellenistic Medical Sects 122
- Galen and the Culmination of Hellenistic Medicine 124
- 7 Roman and Early Medieval Science 132
- Greeks and Romans 132
- Popularizers and Encyclopedists 136
- Translations 146
- The Role of Christianity 148
- Roman and Early Medieval Education 150
- Two Early Medieval Natural Philosophers 157
- Learning and Science in the Greek East 158
- 8 Islamic Science 163
- Eastward Diffusion of Greek Science 163
- The Birth, Expansion, and Hellenization of Islam 166
- Translation of Greek Science into Arabic 169
- Islamic Reception and Appropriation of Greek Science 173
- The Islamic Scientific Achievement 176
- The Fate of Islamic Science 189
- 9 The Revival of Learning in the West 193
- The Middle Ages 193
- Carolingian Reforms 194
- The Schools of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries 203
- Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth-Century Schools 209
- The Translation Movement 215
- The Rise of Universities 218
- 10 The Recovery and Assimilation of Greek and Islamic Science 225
- The New Learning 225
- Aristotle in the University Curriculum 226
- Points of Conflict 228
- Resolution: Science as Handmaiden 233
- Radical Aristotelianism and the Condemnations of 1270 and 1277 243
- The Relations of Philosophy and Theology After 1277 249
- 11 The Medieval Cosmos 254
- The Structure of the Cosmos 254
- Mathematical Astronomy 261
- Astrology 270
- The Surface of the Earth 277
- 12 The Physics of the Sublunar Region 286
- Matter, Form, and Substance 286
- Combination and Mixture 288
- Alchemy 290
- Change and Motion 295
- The Nature of Motion 297
- Mathematical Description of Motion 299
- The Dynamics of Local Motion 306
- Quantification of Dynamics 309
- The Science of Optics 313
- 13 Medieval Medicine and Natural History 321
- The Medical Tradition of the Early Middle Ages 321
- The Transformation of Western Medicine 329
- Medical Practitioners 330
- Medicine in the Universities 333
- Disease, Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Therapy 335
- Anatomy and Surgery 343
- Development of the Hospital 348
- Natural History 351
- 14 The Legacy of Ancient and Medieval Science 357
- The Continuity Question 357
- Candidates for Revolutionary Status 359
- The Scientific Revolution 364.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [413]-461) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780226482057
- 0226482057
- OCLC:
- 156874785
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.