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Scientists of Ancient Greece
Discusses the life and work of the seven Greek thinkers considered to be the first true scientists of the western world
128 pages, Library Binding
First published October 1, 1998
About the author
Don Nardo
576 books25 followersDon Nardo (born February 22, 1947) is an American historian, composer, and writer. With close to four hundred and fifty published books, he is one of the most prolific authors in the United States, and one of the country's foremost writers of historical works for children and teens.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 13, 2011
Ch 1 A Brief History: Greek scientists removed the gods and other supernatural elements from scientific study. No clear distinction between science and philosophy. Thales of Miletus emerged as the first great Greek philosopher. He attempted to describe how the universe works without resorting to supernatural causes. He was the first person to refer to the cosmos as ordered, rational, and comprehensible.
Thales's best known pupil was Anaximander. He called nature's basic underlying substance was the Infinite. All things broke off from it. That includes the stars, planets, and sun. Life came from water and adapted on land.
Then Anaxagoras of Miletus maintained that all elements or seeds are present in all things. "In everything there is a little bit of everything else."
Pythagoras and his followers saw numbers as the underlying principle of nature.
Philolaus was a Pythagorean who may have been the first to call the earth a planet and not the center of the universe.
Hippocrates is the father of medicine. Illness resulted from an imbalance of four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.
Ch 2. Democritus built on the ideas of his mentor Leucippus and called atoms the invisible seeds that all matter is made of. Democritus had a long, rich and productive life with many accomplishments. The loss of his works is one of the great tragedies of written history.
He grew up in Thrace and went to Athens where "no one knew me."
As atoms collided, some of them stuck together to form matter. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.
He lived to be one hundred. Was known as the "laughing philosopher." He was famous for his calm demeanor.
Ch 3 Plato was not a true scientist. He combined in too many mystical ideas. The Golden Age of Athens was waning when he was a boy. This decline may have affected him. He expressed moral revulsion at the leaders of his time.
Plato claimed that this world was not real. The real world was one of ideals and forms. We only see shadows of that reality. This has been a hugely destructive idea. His book the Timaeus passed ignorant ideas to future generations. Many of his ides were also incorporated into Christianity.
Ch 4 Aristotle was the greatest collector and systematizer of knowledge produced in the ancient world. He rejected Plato's theory of forms. Forms are in the creatures themselves, not in some invisible world.
Ch 5 Theophrastus was the father of botany. He was the first to classify plants, like Aristotle did with animals. His name meant "divine of speech" because of his eloquence. Replaced Aristotle as the head of the Lyceum.
He wrote Characters, one of the first humorous sketches of character types of his time. He also Superstition mocking the superstitions of his day. It took 2,000 years for botanists to surpass him.
Ch 6 Archimedes was one of the greatest inventors and engineers of all time. He invented the water screw to draw water.
He demonstrated the principles of density. A pound of silver takes almost twice as much space as a pound of gold. Archimedes's principle is that every substance has a certain density.
"Give me a place to stand on and I can move the world." He used his knowledge to battle the Romans. The general Marcellus had great respect for him.
On his tomb was his favorite geometrical theorem: the ratio of the volume of a cylinder to that of a sphere.
Ch 7 Ptolemy was the greatest geographer of ancient times. His big mistake was placing the earth at the center of the universe. Lasted until Copernicus in the 1500s. One of the problems was the belief that orbits had to be circles, the symbol of perfection.
Ch 8 Galen collected, analyzed, and used the work of the best doctors of the past. He and his followers separated medical theory from religion. Disease is not a divine punishment but rather a natural phenomenon governed by natural laws. His harsh criticisms of his fellow doctors caused many hard feelings. Galen criticized superstition and the belief that god would accomplish the impossible. He attacked the followers of Moses for believing that God could make anything possible.
He praised the idea of adding to past knowledge and not living in the past. Learn from the past and then make changes. What happened to this idea for the next thousand or more years? Was it Christianity that set Europe into the dark ages?
Thales's best known pupil was Anaximander. He called nature's basic underlying substance was the Infinite. All things broke off from it. That includes the stars, planets, and sun. Life came from water and adapted on land.
Then Anaxagoras of Miletus maintained that all elements or seeds are present in all things. "In everything there is a little bit of everything else."
Pythagoras and his followers saw numbers as the underlying principle of nature.
Philolaus was a Pythagorean who may have been the first to call the earth a planet and not the center of the universe.
Hippocrates is the father of medicine. Illness resulted from an imbalance of four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.
Ch 2. Democritus built on the ideas of his mentor Leucippus and called atoms the invisible seeds that all matter is made of. Democritus had a long, rich and productive life with many accomplishments. The loss of his works is one of the great tragedies of written history.
He grew up in Thrace and went to Athens where "no one knew me."
As atoms collided, some of them stuck together to form matter. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.
He lived to be one hundred. Was known as the "laughing philosopher." He was famous for his calm demeanor.
Ch 3 Plato was not a true scientist. He combined in too many mystical ideas. The Golden Age of Athens was waning when he was a boy. This decline may have affected him. He expressed moral revulsion at the leaders of his time.
Plato claimed that this world was not real. The real world was one of ideals and forms. We only see shadows of that reality. This has been a hugely destructive idea. His book the Timaeus passed ignorant ideas to future generations. Many of his ides were also incorporated into Christianity.
Ch 4 Aristotle was the greatest collector and systematizer of knowledge produced in the ancient world. He rejected Plato's theory of forms. Forms are in the creatures themselves, not in some invisible world.
Ch 5 Theophrastus was the father of botany. He was the first to classify plants, like Aristotle did with animals. His name meant "divine of speech" because of his eloquence. Replaced Aristotle as the head of the Lyceum.
He wrote Characters, one of the first humorous sketches of character types of his time. He also Superstition mocking the superstitions of his day. It took 2,000 years for botanists to surpass him.
Ch 6 Archimedes was one of the greatest inventors and engineers of all time. He invented the water screw to draw water.
He demonstrated the principles of density. A pound of silver takes almost twice as much space as a pound of gold. Archimedes's principle is that every substance has a certain density.
"Give me a place to stand on and I can move the world." He used his knowledge to battle the Romans. The general Marcellus had great respect for him.
On his tomb was his favorite geometrical theorem: the ratio of the volume of a cylinder to that of a sphere.
Ch 7 Ptolemy was the greatest geographer of ancient times. His big mistake was placing the earth at the center of the universe. Lasted until Copernicus in the 1500s. One of the problems was the belief that orbits had to be circles, the symbol of perfection.
Ch 8 Galen collected, analyzed, and used the work of the best doctors of the past. He and his followers separated medical theory from religion. Disease is not a divine punishment but rather a natural phenomenon governed by natural laws. His harsh criticisms of his fellow doctors caused many hard feelings. Galen criticized superstition and the belief that god would accomplish the impossible. He attacked the followers of Moses for believing that God could make anything possible.
He praised the idea of adding to past knowledge and not living in the past. Learn from the past and then make changes. What happened to this idea for the next thousand or more years? Was it Christianity that set Europe into the dark ages?
March 27, 2021
Written well with a lot of research behind it. Was a little dry, but very informative
Want to Read
May 28, 2012Discusses the ideas of seven great thinkers in ancient Greece for kids.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews