DOCSLIB.ORG

Alexander Jones Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Alexander Jones Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity Institute for the Study of the Ancient World Alexander Jones Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity Institute for the Study of the Ancient World Scientific Traditions in Ancient Civilizations Proposed Core Course CORE-UA 400 Texts and Ideas for Spring 2018 Description: Systematic approaches to observing, describing, explaining, and predicting natural phenomena flourished in many parts of the ancient world, and the evidence for them is nearly as old as writing itself. Scholars, priests, and professionals pursued physical sciences such as astronomy, meteorology, and optics, as well as life sciences such as medicine, zoology, and botany both for their practical applications and out of intellectual curiosity. We will focus on scientific traditions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome, and the Far East, paying particular attention to the roles played by these traditions and their practitioners in society, and to cultural interactions that led to widespread transmissions and transformations of theories and practices. The history of science is a major component of intellectual history, and the study of scientific thought and practices in diverse periods and kinds of society is a route to contemplating in what senses science may be universal or objective and in what senses it is shaped by its human context. When the period in question is antiquity, we also confront the challenges that arise from having large gaps in our evidence; on the other hand, much of the scientific content is approachable without requiring specialized knowledge of modern science. Some of the materials we will look at are books that were influential as authorities or as objects of debate for many centuries after their composition: for example, the medical writings attributed to Hippocrates, or Ptolemy's treatises deducing the detailed structure of an Earth- centered astronomy and arguing for the validity and usefulness of astrology as a physical science. Other sources will be everyday documents recovered by archeology that sometimes have surprising resonances in the contemporary world: Babylonian tablets that reveal an organized school curriculum for mathematics, say, or a Greek inscription on stone offering cyclic weather predictions. Material objects such as time-telling instruments as well as artistic representations and images will also come into play as indications of public access to and perceptions of science. As part of the College Core Curriculum this class will exercise students' skills DRAFT in critical reading (of both primary texts and documents and contemporary scholarship) and in clear, balanced and evidence-based writing. Certain of the assigned readings in modern scholarship take contentious positions whose merits need to be weighed, but the ancient texts also cannot always be taken at face value but rather should be assessed in the light of genre, intended audience, and author's purpose. Requirements and grading: 15% attendance and participation 10% first writing assignment, 3-4 pp., on choice of set topics 15% second writing assignment, 5-6 pp., on choice of set topics 25% third writing assignment, 8-10 pp., on choice of set topics 15% midterm examination, emphasis on knowledge and understanding of readings and lectures 20% final examination, emphasis on knowledge and understanding of readings and lectures Class schedule: Week 1 1/22 Introduction: what do we mean by "ancient" and "scientific tradition"? David Pingree, "Hellenophilia versus the History of Science." Isis 83, 1992, 554-563. 1/24 Introduction: kinds of evidence, and how we learn from them Recitation theme: What makes a system of thought "scientific"? Week 2 1/29 Mesopotamia: writing, literacy, and scribal culture Eleanor Robson, "The Tablet House: A Scribal School in Old Babylonian Nippur." Revue d'Assyriologie 95, 2001, 39-67. 1/31 Mesopotamia: numeracy and mathematics Hoyrup, "Algebra and Naive Geometry. An Investigation of Some Basic Aspects of Old Babylonian Mathematical Thought I." Altorientalische Forschungen 17, 1990, 27-69. (Read pp. 34-39) Selection of Babylonian mathematical texts (c. 12 pp.) Recitation theme: The uses of mathematics in an ancient culture. Week 3 2/5 Mesopotamia: omens, the language of the gods Ulla Koch, "Sheep and Sky: Systems of Divinatory Interpretation." In Karen Radner & Eleanor Robson, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture (Oxford: OUP, 2011), 27 pp. 2/7 Mesopotamia: scholars in service of the king of Assyria Selection of omen texts (c. 12 pp.) Selection of letters and reports of Assyrian scholars (c. 15 pp.)DRAFT Recitation theme: The persistence of belief in omens. Week 4 2/12 Mesopotamia: contrasting approaches to healing Markham Geller, Ancient Babylonian Medicine: Theory and Practice (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), pp. 1-42. Selection of Babylonian medical texts and omens (c. 15 pp.) 2/14 Mesopotamia: observing and predicting astronomical phenomena Selection of Babylonian astronomical tablets (c. 25 pp.) Recitation theme: Becoming and being a specialist in ancient Mesopotamia. Week 5 2/21 Egypt: writing and medicine Selection of Egyptian medical texts (c. 40 pp.) First writing assignment due. Recitation theme: "Rationality" and "magic" in Egyptian and Babylonian medicine. Week 6 2/26 Egypt: numeracy, and time-keeping Selection of Egyptian mathematical texts (c. 30 pp.) 2/28 Egypt and Mesopotamia: contrasts and cultural interchanges Recitation theme: How and why would scientific knowledge travel in antiquity? Week 7 3/5 Greece: the Hippocratic physicians and their world Hippocratic writings: Epidemics Book 1 (33 pp.); Airs, Waters, Places (34 pp.); On the Sacred Disease (23 pp.) 3/7 Greece: philosophers on cosmology and material change Daniel Graham, Science before Socrates (Oxford: OUP, 2013), chapter 1, "Looking for Science," 34 pp. Recitation theme: The individual voice in the Hippocratic texts. Week 8 3/19 Greece: explaining and proving Daniel Graham, Science before Socrates (Oxford: OUP, 2013), chapter 3, "Borrowed Light," 25 pp. Selection of Greek mathematical texts (c. 15 pp.) 3/21 Greece: anatomical theories and medical sects Hippocratic writings: On Ancient Medicine (26 pp.) Celsus, On Medicine (excerpt, c. 20 pp.) Heinrich von Staden, Herophilus: the Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria (Cambridge: CUP, 1989), 1-31. Galen, "On the sects for beginners," trans. R. Walzer & M. Frede, 18 pp. Recitation theme: Scientific certainty and debate. Week 9 DRAFT 3/26 Midterm 3/28 Greece: varieties of astronomy Geminus, Introduction to the Phenomena, trans. James Evans & J. L. Berggren (Princeton: PUP, 2006), chapters 3-5, 8, and 17 (42 pp.) Selection of Greek astronomical texts (c. 12 pp.) Recitation theme: The "histories" of science in On Ancient Medicine and Geminus. Week 10 4/2 Greece and Rome: the rise of astrology Roger Beck, Ancient Astrology (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007), chapters 1-3 (37 pp.) 4/4 Greece and Rome: the public face of science James Evans, "Images of Time and Cosmic Connection," in Alexander Jones, ed., Time and Cosmos in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Princeton: PUP, 2016), 143- 169. Galen, On Prognosis (36 pp.) Second writing assignment due. Recitation theme: Lay people's understanding of their relation to the cosmos. Week 11 4/9 Rome: Heron and mechanics Selections from Heron, Pneumatics and Dioptra (c. 35 pp.) 4/11 Rome: Ptolemy and the astral and physical sciences Ptolemy, Ptolemy's Almagest, trans. G. J. Toomer, revised ed. (Princeton: PUP, 1998), 36-47 and 61-63. Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, trans. F. E. Robbins (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1940), 3-35 (odd pages only). Recitation theme: Technology for wonder-working. Week 12 4/16 Rome: Galen and the life sciences Vivian Nutton, Ancient Medicine, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2013), chapter 16, "Galenic Medicine," 236-253. 4/18 China: sources and challenges Ho Peng Yoke, Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science and Civilization in China, revised ed. (Mineola: Dover, 2000), 3-24. Recitation theme: Empiricism in Ptolemy and Galen. Week 13 4/23 China: mathematics Ho Peng Yoke, Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science and Civilization in China, revised ed. (Mineola: Dover, 2000), 55-81. 4/25 China: astronomy and the mandate of heaven Christopher Cullen, The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning (London: Routledge, 2017, DRAFT2-20. Recitation theme: Science and empire, Rome vs. China. Week 14 4/30 China: medicine Paul U. Unschuld & Zheng Jinsheng, "Manuscripts as Sources in the History of Chinese Medicine," in Vivienne Lo & Christopher Cullen, eds., Medieval Chinese Medicine (Milton Park: Routledge, 2014), 19-23. 5/2 Circulation of scientific knowledge in antiquity and after A. I. Sabra, "The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam: A Preliminary Statement," History of Science 25, 1987, 223-243. Week 15 5/7 last class, review of key themes third writing assignment due. DRAFT.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sacred Rhetorical Invention in the String Theory Movement
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Communication Studies Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research Communication Studies, Department of Spring 4-12-2011 Secular Salvation: Sacred Rhetorical Invention in the String Theory Movement Brent Yergensen University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/commstuddiss Part of the Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons Yergensen, Brent, "Secular Salvation: Sacred Rhetorical Invention in the String Theory Movement" (2011). Communication Studies Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research. 6. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/commstuddiss/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication Studies, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Studies Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SECULAR SALVATION: SACRED RHETORICAL INVENTION IN THE STRING THEORY MOVEMENT by Brent Yergensen A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: Communication Studies Under the Supervision of Dr. Ronald Lee Lincoln, Nebraska April, 2011 ii SECULAR SALVATION: SACRED RHETORICAL INVENTION IN THE STRING THEORY MOVEMENT Brent Yergensen, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2011 Advisor: Ronald Lee String theory is argued by its proponents to be the Theory of Everything. It achieves this status in physics because it provides unification for contradictory laws of physics, namely quantum mechanics and general relativity. While based on advanced theoretical mathematics, its public discourse is growing in prevalence and its rhetorical power is leading to a scientific revolution, even among the public.
    [Show full text]
  • The Exact Sciences and Non-Euclidean Logic
    The Exact Sciences and Non-Euclidean Logic David A. Edwards [email protected] http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~davide/ Dedicated to Reuben Hersh for his ninetieth birthday What "really" exists pervades the sciences and human thought in general. The belief that the infinite does not really exist goes back at least to Aristotle. Parmenides even questioned the reality of plurality and change. (Einstein's vision has much in common with Parmenides). Towards the end of the nineteenth century an acrimonious exchange took place between Kronecker and Cantor regarding the reality of the actual (as opposed to potential) infinite. Kronecker claimed that only the finite integers really exist and all else is merely the work of man. Cantor countered that the essence of mathematics was its freedom and that he had attained a larger vision than Kronecker had who could not see the infinite. Most mathematicians have followed Cantor and found his paradise a more beautiful and alluring universe. Hilbert accepted Kronecker’s viewpoint for his metalanguage, but tried to recapture Cantor's paradise in a formal language. Hilbert was a formal pluralist in feeling that each mathematical discipline was entitled to its own formalization. Russell was a logical monist and felt that all of mathematics should be constructed within a single formal system. He put a great deal of labor into his program and looked askance at Hilbert. He felt that Hilbert's approach had all the advantages of theft over honest toil. What he did not realize was that in intellectual affairs, as in economic affairs, great fortunes are rarely ever accumulated through honest toil.
    [Show full text]
  • The Humanist Perspective, in Social Science : the Case of Erich Fromm.
    THE HUMANIST PERSPECTIVE, IN SOCIAL SCIENCE: THE CASE OF ERICH FROMM KENNETH 0 ' BRI EN B.A. (Honours) Social Sciences, University of Leicester, England, 1968 M.A., Sociology, Simon Fraser University, 1969 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Pol itical Science, Sociology and Anthropology @ KENNETH O'BRIEN 1972 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY April 1972 APPROVAL I Name : Kenneth 0' Brien Degree : Doctor of Phi 1osophy Title of Di ertation: The Humanist Perspective in Soci a1 Science: The Case of Erich Fromm Examining Committee: Chairman: Gary Rush Ernest Becker Senior Supervisor Karl Peter Heribert Adam Jeral d Zasl ove John ~fiaar External Examiner University of Cal ifornia, Santa Cruz, Cal ifornia Date Approved: L$L3L3A97L I ABSTRACT The dissertation is an examination of Erich Fromm's contribu- tion to humanist social science and a discussion of this contribution. It is suggested that From~n'smajor contribution is not accessible to social scientists in its directly apparent form. As a serious contri- bution to social science the immediately apparent meanings, of Fromm's ideas which are rendered at first reading of his writings, are quite 'deceptive. ' This deceptive quality in Fromm's opus has tended to re- sult in a number of critical articles and books on Fromm which stress his contributions as being that of an ethical philosopher rather than as a social scientist. This type of judgement has serious implications for the present situation whereby Fronun's work is generally regarded to be on the periphery of "institutional ized social science" conceptual- izations and consequently for advancement of the more recent development toward theoretical integration of the various disciplines which come under the rubric of the social sciences (i.e., sociology, social psy- chology, pol itical science and anthropology) .
    [Show full text]
  • Lectures on the Science of Language by Max Müller
    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lectures on The Science of Language by Max Müller This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license Title: Lectures on The Science of Language Author: Max Müller Release Date: June 17, 2010 [Ebook 32856] Language: English ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE*** Lectures on The Science of Language Delivered At The Royal Institution of Great Britain In April, May, and June, 1861. By Max Müller, M. A. Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; Correspondence Member of the Imperial Institute of France. From the Second London Edition, Revised. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street. 1862 Contents Dedication . .2 Preface. .3 Lecture I. The Science Of Language One Of The Physical Sciences. .4 Lecture II. The Growth Of Language In Contradistinction To The History Of Language. 26 Lecture III. The Empirical Stage. 67 Lecture IV. The Classificatory Stage. 91 Lecture V. Genealogical Classification Of Languages. 136 Lecture VI. Comparative Grammar. 177 Lecture VII. The Constituent Elements Of Language. 208 Lecture VIII. Morphological Classification. 229 Lecture IX. The Theoretical Stage, And The Origin Of Language. 287 Appendix. 329 Index. 335 Footnotes . 387 [v] Dedication Dedicated To The Members Of The University Of Oxford, Both Resident And Non-Resident, To Whom I Am Indebted For Numerous Proofs Of Sympathy And Kindness During The Last Twelve Years, In Grateful Acknowledgment Of Their Generous Support On The 7th Of December, 1860.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a Philosophy of Approximations in the 'Exact
    Towards a Philosophy of Approximations in the ‘Exact’ Sciences Valentin N. Ostrovsky Abstract: The issue of approximations is mostly neglected in the philosophy of science, and sometimes misinterpreted. The paper demonstrates that ap- proximations are in fact in the core of some recent discussions in the philoso- phy of chemistry: on the shape of molecules, the Born-Oppenheimer ap- proximation, the role of orbitals, and the physical explanation of the Periodic Table of Elements. The ontological and epistemological significance of ap- proximations in the exact sciences is analyzed. The crucial role of approxima- tions in generating qualitative images and comprehensible models is empha- sized. A complementarity relation between numerically ‘exact’ theories and explanatory approximate approaches is claimed. Keywords: Approximations in quantum chemistry, complementarity, shape of molecules, orbitals, Born-Oppenheimer approximation, Periodic Table. 1. Introduction The issue of approximations appears, explictly or implicitly, in many discus- sions in the philosophy of chemistry. Do molecules have a shape? Can orbi- tals be observed in experiments? Is the physical explanation of the Periodic Table of Elements really an explanation? All these subjects involve an analysis of the role of approximations. For instance, Garcia-Sucre & Bunge (1981) argued, “the Born-Oppen- heimer approximation, although an artifact, does represent some important objective properties of quantum-mechanical systems, among them their ge- ometry.” How is that possible – an artifact representing some important ob- jective properties? Is it by accident? Is this situation peculiar to the Born- Oppenheimer approximation? Could it be clarified or even remedied by a change of terminology, as suggested recently by Del Re 2003 (note 11)? We write “theorem” instead of “approximation” because the latter name has misled some researchers into believing that the Born-Oppenheimer study has HYLE – International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Lectures on the Science of Language Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in April, May, and June, 1861
    Lectures on The Science of Language Delivered At The Royal Institution of Great Britain In April, May, and June, 1861. By Max Müller, M. A. Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; Correspondence Member of the Imperial Institute of France. From the Second London Edition, Revised. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street. 1862 Contents Dedication . .2 Preface. .3 Lecture I. The Science Of Language One Of The Physical Sciences. .4 Lecture II. The Growth Of Language In Contradistinction To The History Of Language. 26 Lecture III. The Empirical Stage. 67 Lecture IV. The Classificatory Stage. 91 Lecture V. Genealogical Classification Of Languages. 136 Lecture VI. Comparative Grammar. 177 Lecture VII. The Constituent Elements Of Language. 208 Lecture VIII. Morphological Classification. 229 Lecture IX. The Theoretical Stage, And The Origin Of Language. 287 Appendix. 329 Index. 335 Footnotes . 387 [v] Dedication Dedicated To The Members Of The University Of Oxford, Both Resident And Non-Resident, To Whom I Am Indebted For Numerous Proofs Of Sympathy And Kindness During The Last Twelve Years, In Grateful Acknowledgment Of Their Generous Support On The 7th Of December, 1860. [vii] Preface. My Lectures on the Science of Language are here printed as I had prepared them in manuscript for the Royal Institution. When I came to deliver them, a considerable portion of what I had written had to be omitted; and, in now placing them before the public in a more complete form, I have gladly complied with a wish expressed by many of my hearers. As they are, they only form a short abstract of several Courses delivered from time to time in Oxford, and they do not pretend to be more than an introduction to a science far too comprehensive to be treated successfully in so small a compass.
    [Show full text]
  • Otto Neugebauer's Vision for Rewriting the History of Ancient
    Anabases Traditions et réceptions de l’Antiquité 18 | 2013 Varia Otto Neugebauer’s Vision for Rewriting the History of Ancient Mathematics David E. Rowe Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/anabases/4450 DOI: 10.4000/anabases.4450 ISSN: 2256-9421 Publisher E.R.A.S.M.E. Printed version Date of publication: 1 October 2013 Number of pages: 175-196 ISSN: 1774-4296 Electronic reference David E. Rowe, « Otto Neugebauer’s Vision for Rewriting the History of Ancient Mathematics », Anabases [Online], 18 | 2013, Online since 01 November 2016, connection on 21 October 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/anabases/4450 ; DOI : 10.4000/anabases.4450 © Anabases Anabases 18 (2013), p. 175-196 Otto Neugebauer’s Vision for Rewriting the History of Ancient Mathematics DAVID E. ROWE The common belief that we gain “historical perspective” with increasing distance seems to me utterly to misrepresent the actual situation. What we gain is merely confidence in generalizations which we would never dare make if we had access to the real wealth of contemporary evidence. Otto Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity (Neugebauer, 1969, viii) OTTO NEUGEBAUER (1899-1990) was, for many, an enigmatic personality. Trained as a mathematician in Graz, Munich, and Göttingen, he had not yet completed his doctoral research when in 1924 Harald Bohr, brother of the famous physicist, invited him to Copenhagen to work together on Bohr’s new theory of almost periodic func- tions. Quite by chance, Bohr asked Neugebauer to write a review of T. Eric Peet’s recently published edition of the Rhind Papyrus (Neugebauer, 1925).
    [Show full text]
  • Histories of the Exact Sciences After the Practical Turn
    Advances in Historical Studies, 2015, 4, 68-84 Published Online April 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ahs http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ahs.2015.42008 The Shaping of Inquiry: Histories of the Exact Sciences after the Practical Turn Kristian Camilleri School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Email: [email protected] Received 17 March 2015; accepted 11 April 2015; published 7 May 2015 Copyright © 2015 by author and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract In this paper I examine three emergent trends in praxis-oriented historiography that have under- pinned historical studies of the exact sciences covering the period from 1750 to 1960. The first of these refers to what I call “tradition-centred” histories of scientific practice. This approach focuses on the formation of “cultures of practice” characterized by distinctive epistemic styles, which dis- tinguish them from other such cultures. The second involves “tool-centred” histories of practice. This approach focuses on the way in which tools and techniques of inquiry open up new fields of inquiry, and the way in which the crafting of new tools and the refashioning of existing ones shape the dynamics of scientific practice. The third approach I examine relates to “actor-centred” histo- ries, which typically take the form of biographical accounts focusing on the motivations, judg- ments and choices of individuals that shape scientific inquiry. This provide a useful analytic framework, in piecing together a broad picture of the different ways in which scientific inquiry is shaped and structured, and to see more clearly how different historiographical approaches com- plement one another in enriching our understanding of scientific practice.
    [Show full text]
  • Sciences Are Human and No Science Is Exact
    Advances in Historical Studies, 2020, 9, 113-122 https://www.scirp.org/journal/ahs ISSN Online: 2327-0446 ISSN Print: 2327-0438 All Sciences Are Human and No Science Is Exact Agamenon R. E. Oliveira Department of Structures, Polytechnic School of UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil How to cite this paper: Oliveira, A. R. E. Abstract (2020). All Sciences Are Human and No Science Is Exact. Advances in Historical The vertiginous development of science in the last decade, in several different Studies, 9, 113-122. fields such as nanoscience, neurosciences, artificial intelligence, and the prom- https://doi.org/10.4236/ahs.2020.93010 ise of the quantum computer in the near future, requires constant reflection from scientists, philosophers, and epistemologists about the profound impli- Received: May 21, 2020 Accepted: September 14, 2020 cations of this in these different fields of knowledge and for society. This pa- Published: September 17, 2020 per aims to raise some ideas that can help in this reflection and show that all scientific areas are interconnected, implying that the results obtained in the Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and technological areas depend on other sciences and even on philosophy by the Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative very nature of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the established separation Commons Attribution International of disciplines, which is made by universities, placing human sciences on one License (CC BY 4.0). side and exact sciences on the other, is questionable and insufficient to ac- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ count for the complexity in the classification of sciences.
    [Show full text]
  • The Meaning of Beauty in the Exact Sciences
    The Meaning of Beauty in the Exact Sciences Werner Heisenberg When a representative of natural science is called upon to address a meeting of the Academy of Fine Arts, he can scarcely venture to express opinions on the subject of art; because the arts are certainly remote from his own field of activity. But perhaps be may be allowed to tackle the problem of beauty. For although the epithet \beautiful" (or “fine”) is indeed employed here to characterize the arts, the realm of the beautiful stretches far beyond their territory. It assuredly encompasses other regions of mental life as well; and the beauty of nature is also reflected in the beauty of natural science. Perhaps it will be best if, without any initial attempt at a philosophical analysis of the concept of \beauty," we simply ask where we can meet the beautiful in the sphere of exact science. Here I may perhaps be allowed to begin with a personal experience. When, as a small boy, I was attending the lowest classes of the Max-Gymnasium here in Munich, I became interested in numbers. It gave me pleasure to get to know their properties, to find out, for example, whether they were prime numbers or not, and to test whether they could perhaps be represented as sums of squares, or eventually to prove that there must be infinitely many primes. Now since my father thought my knowledge of Latin to be much more important than my numerical interests, he brought home to me one day from the National Library a treatise written in Latin by the mathematician Leopold Kronecker, in which the properties of whole numbers were set in relation to the geometrical problem of dividing a circle into a number of equal parts.
    [Show full text]
  • Schedule of Lectures for “Kant and the Philosophy of Science”
    Schedule of Lectures for \Kant and the Philosophy of Science" Dr. Erik Curiel [email protected] office: Ludwigstr. 31, R126 office hours: by appointment course website: http://strangebeautiful.com/lmu/2014-winter-kant-phil-sci.html Winter, 2014{2015 Wednesdays, 14:00{16:00 C.T. Ludwigstr. 31, 021 Contents 1 Weeks 1{2: Introduction, Historical Background, Newton (Oct. 08{15)2 1.1 Week 1: Introduction (Oct. 08).............................2 1.2 Week 2: Newton (Oct. 15)................................2 2 Weeks 3{5: Kant (Oct. 22{Nov. 05)3 2.1 Week 3: Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Part 1 (Oct. 22)..............3 2.2 Week 4: Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Part 2 (Oct. 29)..............4 2.3 Week 5: Kant, Prolegemona (Nov. 05).........................5 3 Weeks 6{7: Kant's Influence in the 19th Century (Nov. 12{19)6 3.1 Week 6: Riemann and Helmholtz (Nov. 12)......................6 3.2 Week 7: Hertz and Poincar´e(Nov. 19).........................6 4 Week 8: NO SEMINAR (Nov. 26)7 5 Weeks 9{11: Kant's Influence in the Early 20th Century (Dec. 03{Dec. 17)7 5.1 Week 9: Russell (Dec. 03)................................7 5.2 Week 10: Reichenbach (Dec. 10)............................8 5.3 Week 11: Carnap (Dec. 17)...............................8 6 Week 12: NO SEMINAR (Dec. 24)9 Lectures: \Kant and the Philosophy of Science" 7 Weeks 13{16: Contemporary Neo-Kantianism (Jan. 07{28)9 7.1 Week 13: Michael Friedman (Jan. 07).........................9 7.2 Week 14: Data and Phenomena (Jan. 14)....................... 10 7.3 Week 15: The Structure of Scientific Theories (Jan.
    [Show full text]
  • OTTO E. NEUGEBAUER May 26, 1899–February 19, 1990
    NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES O T T O E . N EU G E B AUER 1899—1990 A Biographical Memoir by N . M . Sw ERDLO W Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoir COPYRIGHT 1998 NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS WASHINGTON D.C. Courtesy of Brown University Photo Laboratory OTTO E. NEUGEBAUER May 26, 1899–February 19, 1990 BY N. M. SWERDLOW TTO NEUGEBAUER WAS the most original and productive Oscholar of the history of the exact sciences, perhaps of the history of science, of our age. He began as a math- ematician, turned first to Egyptian and Babylonian math- ematics, and then took up the history of mathematical as- tronomy, to which he afterward devoted the greatest part of his attention. In a career of sixty-five years, he to a great extent created our understanding of mathematical astronomy from Babylon and Egypt, through Greco-Roman antiquity, to India, Islam, and Europe of the Middle Ages and Renais- sance. Through his colleagues, students, and many readers, his influence on the study of the history of the exact sci- ences remains profound, even definitive. Neugebauer was born in Innsbruck, Austria, his father Rudolph Neugebauer a railroad construction engineer and a collector and scholar of Oriental carpets. His family soon moved to Graz where his parents died when he was quite young. He attended the Akademisches Gymnasium, and was far more interested in mathematics, mechanics, and techni- cal drawing than in the required courses in Greek and Latin.
    [Show full text]