How to Use the Popular Science Library; History of Science; General IndexServiss, Garrett Putman
History
How to Use the Popular Science Library; History of Science; General Index
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Popular science library; Science -- History
Science had been hampered by the confusion raised by the discussions
relating to forms. Aristotle realized that proper progress in logic,
physics, and ethics, the leading sciences of his time, could not be
made unless the essential nature of science were kept in view. He saw
that knowledge of the forms of correct thinking can be understood
only by keeping in view the object of thought and this requires
definite ideas of the general relations of knowledge and its objects.
The study of general relationships led to the study of particular or
special relations. The connection of general with particular ideas
was unfolded, and Aristotle saw that conceiving, understanding, and
proving result from the deduction of particular from universal, or
general, ideas. Therefore science consists in deriving or deducing
facts acquired through perception from their general grounds or
phenomena. The logical form of the syllogism naturally suggested itself
to Aristotle when engaged with these thoughts and the invention of the
syllogism was one of the most brilliant contributions to knowledge made
by the Greeks.
The logical results of the invention of syllogistic forms suggested
a solution of the problem of true reality which Aristotle showed was
the essence that unfolds in phenomena themselves. This led to fruitful
scientific results. Plato and his contemporaries unified mathematics,
formulated the definitions logically, and demonstrated correct methods
of criticism and proof. A point was shown to be the boundary of a
line; while a line is the boundary of a surface, and a surface the
boundary of a solid. This concrete definition of scientific elements
progressed through the use of analytic methods, by proceeding from the
known to the unknown, and led to the discovery of tests for scientific
assumptions and of synthetic proof. None of the earlier philosophers
possessed anything like the progressive tools Aristotle placed in the
hands of scientists. Their use quickly led to a general review of
knowledge and a great increase in the number of sciences.
The textbook on geometry compiled by Euclid, still used in many
schools, gives us a good picture of the state of scientific methods
in his time. Euclid, like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and others, was
a great systematizer. He collected the geometrical proofs of his
mathematical predecessors, selected those which were logically correct
and simple, and raised on a few axioms, or first principles, a great
geometrical system.
Archimedes published textbooks on spherical and cylindrical geometry.
He proved that the surface of a sphere is equal to four times a great
circle. He showed the properties of spherical segments and methods for
calculating surface areas and other parts of spherical forms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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