Science before Socrates : Parmenides, Anaxagoras, and the new astronomy / Daniel W. Graham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Graham, Daniel W.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Astronomy, Ancient--Greece.

Astronomy, Ancient.

Astronomy, Greek.

Parmenides.

Anaxagoras.

Science--Greece--History--To 1500.

Science.

History.

Greece.

Physical Description:

xiii, 287 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2013]

Summary:

In Science before Socrates, Daniel Graham argues against the prevalent belief that the Presocratic philosophers did not produce any empirical science and that the first major Greek science, astronomy, did not develop until at least the time of Plato. Instead, Graham proposes that the advances made by Presocratic philosophers in the study of astronomy deserve to be considered as scientific contributions. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Looking for Science 7

1.1 Unfounded Speculation 10

1.2 Footnotes to Thales 16

1.3 Footnotes to Pythagoras 18

1.4 Science Without Knowledge 19

1.5 History of Science Without History 24

1.6 History of Science Without Science 25

1.7 Old-Time History of Science 28

2 Azure Pastures: An Early Ionian Model 41

2.1 Hesiod's Mythical Cosmography 41

2.2 Ionian Theories 45

2.3 The Meteorological Model 78

3 Borrowed Light: The Insights of Parmenides 85

3.1 Fifth-Century Advances 85

3.2 Three Insights: Heliophotism, Planetary Unification, Sphericity 87

3.3 The Power of a Model 97

3.4 Conjectures 100

3.5 Conceptual Advances 104

Conclusion 107

4 Empire of the Sun: Implications of Heliophotism, and a New Model 109

4.1 Antiphraxis and Other Theoretical Implications 111

4.2 A New Physics 122

4.3 Anaxagoras' New Cosmology and Astronomy 122

4.4 The Lithic Model 134

5 Darkened Suns and Falling Stars: Heaven-Sent Proofs 137

5.1 Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 140

5.2 Eclipses 143

5.3 The Meteor 159

5.4 The Comet 165

5.5 The Nile Floods 170

Conclusion: Theory and Evidence 174

6 Lunar Revolutions: The Triumph of the New Astronomy 177

6.1 A Community Effort 178

6.2 Anaxagoras' Theory 182

6.3 Other Theories of the Fifth Century 186

6.4 Characteristics of the Lithic Model 201

6.5 The Doxography 204

6.6 Plato's Heavenly Sphere 216

6.7 Aristotle's Paradigm 218

6.8 A Scientific Consensus 222

7 The Geometry of the Heavens 227

7.1 The Story of Early Greek Astronomy 228

7.2 Scientific Progress 237

7.3 Historical and Philosophical Significance 241.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9780199959785

0199959781

OCLC:

818464278