Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece

George Sarton

tet 2012 · Courier Corporation

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"There are few scholars or scientists today who write as beautifully or as interestingly as [Sarton] . . . [his] book is magnificent." — Ashley Montagu, Saturday Review
Although science did not begin in ancient Greece (millennia of work in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and other regions preceded Greek efforts) it is nevertheless true that methodic, rational investigation of the natural universe originated largely with early Hellenic thinkers. Thus, the major part of this book is of necessity devoted to Greece. Drawing wherever possible on original sources, Dr. Sarton, one of the world's foremost historians of science, paints a vivid and illuminating picture of mathematics, astronomy, physics, biology, medicine, and other sciences as they emerged from the mists of prehistory and ultimately flourished within the context of Greek society. The book is divided into three parts. Part One begins with the earliest evidence of prehistoric mathematics, astronomy, and other science. Dr. Sarton then describes the achievements of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the dawn of Greek culture and the remarkable flowering of Ionian science in the sixth century B.C. Thales of Miletos, Anaximandrox, and Xenophanes are among the important figures discussed. An entire chapter focuses on the influential doctrines of Pythagoras.Part Two opens with the glory of Athens in the fifth century B.C. and its magnificent achievements in poetry and the arts, philosophy, and science. Described in lucid detail are groundbreaking contributions of Heracleitos, Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Zenon of Elea, Parmenides, Democritos, and many others. Also included in this section are perceptive discussions of geographers and historians of the fifth century (Herodotos, Thucydides, and others) and Greek medicine of the fifth century (chiefly Hippocratic).
Part Three focuses on the extraordinary Greek thinkers of the fourth century B.C.: Plato and the Academy, Aristotle, Xenophon and many others, including such important schools of thought as the cynics, stoics, skeptics, and epicureans. Major attention is given to mathematics, astronomy and physics, natural sciences and medicine, Aristotelian humanities, and historiography and other topics.
"Of great value to the general historian and an exciting, arresting story for the lay reader. — The Yale Review

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George Sarton is generally considered the founder of the history of science as a scholarly discipline. He studied chemistry, celestial mechanics, and mathematics at the University of Ghent, where he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics (1911). In 1912, while still a resident of his native Belgium, he founded Isis, a "review dedicated to the history of science." Sarton immigrated to the United States in 1915, assuming a research position in the Widener Library at Harvard University in 1916. He remained at Harvard for the rest of his life, becoming a lecturer in 1920 and founding the History of Science Society in 1924. In 1940 Sarton was appointed professor of the history of science. Sarton also established the new discipline by example, writing more than 300 books, articles, and essays on ancient and medieval science; on early historians of the exact sciences, such as Jean Etienne Montucla (1725--99); and on the development of physics in the twentieth century. He nurtured his encyclopedic approach to the history of science, which he coupled to a broad vision of its potential contribution to what he called the "New Humanism," by editing Isis for almost four decades and compiling nearly 80 critical bibliographies. In published lectures and guides to the history of science, such as his Study of the History of Science (1936) and Guide to the History of Science (1952), as well as the editorial work for Isis, Sarton defined this emerging discipline while actively promoting teaching and research.