Eureka: The Birth of Science

Andrew Gregory9781840462890, 1-84046-289-2

That man ever managed to develop a ‘scientific’ attitude to the natural world is one of the true wonders of human thought. And answering the question of where and how this attitude began can help us better understand the world we live in and the science that governs it. Eureka! shows that science began with the Greeks. Disciplines as diverse as medicine, biology, engineering, mathematics and cosmology all have their roots in ancient Greece. Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Archimedes and Hippocrates were amongst its stars – master architects all of modern, as well as ancient, science. But what lay behind this colossal eruption of scientific activity?Free from intellectual and religious dogma, the Greeks rejected explanation in terms of myths and capricious gods, and, in distinguishing between the natural and the supernatural, they were the first to discover nature. New theories began to be developed and tested, leading to a rapid increase in the sophistication of knowledge, and ultimately to an awareness of the distinction between science and technology. Andrew Gregory unravels the genesis of science in this fascinating exploration of the origins of Western civilisation and our desire for a rational, legitimating system of the universe.