Alexandria and Her Schools: Four Lectures Delivered at the Philosophical Institution, EdinburghKingsley, Charles
Philosophy
Alexandria and Her Schools: Four Lectures Delivered at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh
Kingsley, Charles
Alexandrian school
I am, from what I have seen of scientific men, that there is an intimate
connection between the health of the moral faculties and the health of
the inductive ones; and that the proud, self-conceited, and passionate
man will see nothing: perhaps because nothing will be shown him.
But we must leave Archimedes for a man not perhaps so well known, but to
whom we owe as much as to the great Syracusan—Hipparchus the astronomer.
To his case much which I have just said applies. In him astronomic
science seemed to awaken suddenly to a true inductive method, and after
him to fall into its old slumber for 300 years. In the meantime
Timocharis, Aristyllus, and Conon had each added their mites to the
discoveries of Eratosthenes: but to Hipparchus we owe that theory of the
heavens, commonly called the Ptolemaic system, which, starting from the
assumption that the earth was the centre of the universe, attempted to
explain the motions of the heavenly bodies by a complex system of
supposed eccentrics and epicycles. This has of course now vanished
before modern discoveries. But its value as a scientific attempt lies in
this: that the method being a correct one, correct results were obtained,
though starting from a false assumption; and Hipparchus and his
successors were enabled by it to calculate and predict the changes of the
heavens, in spite of their clumsy instruments, with almost as much
accuracy as we do now.
For the purpose of working out this theory he required a science of
trigonometry, plane and spherical: and this he accordingly seems to have
invented. To him also we owe the discovery of that vast gradual change
in the position of the fixed stars, in fact, of the whole celestial
system, now known by the name of the precession of the equinoxes; the
first great catalogue of fixed stars, to the number of 1080; attempts to
ascertain whether the length of years and days were constant; with which,
with his characteristic love of truth, he seems to have been hardly
satisfied. He too invented the planisphere, or mode of representing the
starry heavens upon a plane, and is the father of true geography, having
formed the happy notion of mapping out the earth, as well as the heavens,
by degrees of latitude and longitude.
Strange it is, and somewhat sad, that we should know nothing of this
great man, should be hardly able to distinguish him from others of the
same name, but through the works of a commentator, who wrote and observed
in Alexandria 300 years after, during the age of the Antonines. I mean,
of course, the famous Ptolemy, whose name so long bore the honour of that
system which really belonged to Hipparchus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account