Science and the Greeks

[Darren Dirt]

Science and the Greeks

http://www.culturecult.com/art_notes.htm#science

But in Wolpert’s words, “being objective is crucial in science when it comes to judging whether subjective views are correct or not. One has to be prepared to change one’s views in the face of evidence, objective information.” One may have all sorts of hunches: but only science will lead to a correct explanation of scurvy, or of El Ni?o, or of nuclear fusion inside the sun. For his part Cromer agrees with Jacques Monod that objectivity is “the most powerful idea ever to have emerged” in human consciousness.



If objectivity is so unusual, historically speaking, and humanity is largely irrational and driven by egocentric feelings, emotions, and moods, how did science ever develop in the first place? “With difficulty”, writes Cromer dryly, going on to emphasize that it wasn’t the “natural unfolding” of some human potential, but “the peculiar invention of a particular culture in a particular time.”

...

Asked why it was that science arose only once, and in Greece, where it was confined to a tiny ?lite, and then persisted only in the West, Einstein replied:



The development of Western science has been based on two great achievements, the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility of finding out causal relationships by systematic experiment (at the Renaissance). In my opinion one need not be astonished that the Chinese sages did not make these steps. The astonishing thing is that these discoveries were made at all.

Interesting statements made in this section (part of a lengthy essay, hence the # anchor); a quick skim of the contents was a bit too much for me, I guess I was blinded with... umm, never mind.

[Mr. Analog]

I think science is something that naturally comes to man and that societal things like bias and ignorance were the real "learned" skills. Even just watching a small child figure out a puzzle you'll notice that they will try a variety of different things, each with an expected result to solve the puzzle.



One thing man is good at and that is making tools for himself, science is a tool.

[Darren Dirt]

I think we get confused what "science" is versus "the natural desire to explore our world". The article I linked to talks about "science" as opposed to just "natural" curiosity; in fact the "science" the article discusses is quite "un-natural".

[Mr. Analog]

Science, n: The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.



Me see hot, me wonder what hot feel like, me touch hot, hot burns, me learn.



The basis of science is the innate desire to learn, and science in one form or another "happened" everywhere around the globe, not just Greece.