Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greek Culture

by: Tuplin, C.J. Rihll, T.E.

Price: 198,00 EURO

1 copy in stock

Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greek Culture
Edited by C. J. Tuplin and T. E. Rihll
Lewis Wolpert
Foreword by Lewis Wolpert, Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine at University College, London
Explores the cultural roots of ancient science within ancient society
Offers new, and sometimes controversial, perspectives on a variety of basic topics within ancient science

Description
Ancient Greece was the birthplace of science, which developed in the Hellenized culture of ancient Rome. This volume locates science within ancient Greek society and culture, investigates its impact upon that society, and identifies it as a cultural phenomenon deserving no less attention than literary or artistic creativity.

Chapters by seventeen international experts examine the role and achievement of science and mathematics in Greek antiquity through discussion of the linguistic, literary, political, religious, sociological, and technological factors which influenced scientific thought and practice. Greek science was both motivated and constrained by wholly 'unscientific' cultural interests, and by ideas and biases arising from the language and the paradigms of the day. For example, it is here argued that the prediction of eclipses was not a concern of ancient astronomers until after 'non-scientific' authors such as the historian Livy, elaborating on a good story with a moral, suggested that it should be.

Familiar classical authors, such as Homer, Polybius, Cicero, and Pliny are here seen in a new light. Less-studied classical authors, such as Euclid, Hero, Galen, and Ptolemy, are also considered, and attention is drawn to areas where there is potential for new research and where editions and translations are still needed.

Table of Contents
Foreword, Lewis Wolpert
1:Introduction: Greek Science in context, T. E. Rihll
2:Words for sounds, Andrew Barker
3:Ptolemy's maps as an introduction to ancient science, J. L. Berggren
4:Seismology and vulcanology in antiquity, Harry M. Hine
5:The art of the commander and the emergence of predictive astronomy, Alan C. Bowen
6:Euctemon's parapegma, R. Hannah
7:Instruments of Alexandrian astronomy: the uses of the equinoctial rings, L. Taub
8:The Dioptra of Heron of Alexandria, J. J. Coulton
9:The machine and the city: hero of Alexandria's Belopoecia, S. Cuomo
10:Ancient atomism: promise and failure, J. R. Milton
11:Greek mathematicians: a group picture, R. Netz
12:Aristotle and mathematics, Edward Hussey
13:Euclid's Elements 9.14 and the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, C. M. Taisbak
14:Ancient medicine: Asclepius transformed, V. Nutton
15:Galen on the seat of the intellect: anatomical experiment and philosophical tradition, Teun Tieleman
16:Practice makes perfect: processing materials in classical Athens, T. E. Rihll and J. V. Tucker
17:Distilling, sublimation, and the four elements: the aims and achievements of the earliest Greek chemists, C. Anne Wilson

Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greek Culture

by: Tuplin, C.J. Rihll, T.E.

• ISBN-13: 9780198152484 / 978-0-19-815248-4
• ISBN-03: 0198152485 / 0-19-815248-5
• Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002

Price: 198,00 EURO

1 copy in stock