المصدر: موسوعة تتبع تاريخ العلم في منتدى : العلوم العامة والبرامج العلمية The Teaching Company - History of Science - Antiquity to 1700 (36 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture) Course No. 1200 Taught by Lawrence M. Principe Johns Hopkins University Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, Indiana University at Bloomington; Ph.D., History of Science, Johns Hopkins University MP3 Bit Rate: 64 kbps For well over 2,000 years, much of our fundamental "desire to know" has focused on the area we now call science. In fact, our commitment to science and technology has been so profound that these now stand as probably the most powerful of all influences on human culture. To truly understand our Western heritage, our contemporary society, and ourselves as individuals, we need to know what science is and how it developed. - Who, in fact, were the scientists of the past? - What was the true motivation for their work? - Is science characterized by lone geniuses, or is it tied to culture and the needs of a particular society? - Does science really operate in a linear progression, from discovery to discovery? - What does history reveal about the nature of religion and science? In this course, an award-winning professor leads you on an exploration of these issues as he traces this complex evolution of thought and discovery from ancient times to the Scientific Revolution. You will see how many scientific discoveries originated from ideas that might be considered ridiculous or humorous from today's perspective of "cutting-edge technology," as science's earliest thinkers worked under the limitations imposed by the knowledge and culture of their times. But you'll also see that many of these early principles are still relevant and embraced today. You'll learn about: The Babylonian base-60 math system, still in use today for telling time (60 minutes in an hour), measuring angles, and performing astronomical computations (60 minutes in a degree). The thinking of Plato and Aristotle, which served as the foundation for all scientific inquiry until the Scientific Revolution. You'll learn about Plato's concept of the Forms, how he was influenced by mathematics, and his geometry-based account of the creation of the world in the Timaeus, as well as Aristotle's theory of matter and the four causes of all things. The Hellenistic-era achievements of Hipparchus, Archimedes, Eudoxus, and Ptolemy in such fields as mathematics, mechanics, and astronomy. The contributions of the Romans, including hydraulics, road and building construction, their marvelously engineered aqueducts, the Julian calendar, and even the first "standardized" school curriculum. The role of Christianity and Islam in staving off complete disaster for scientific learning. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the two monotheistic world religions provided the stability to preserve at least part of the natural philosophy of the classical period, including translations of important texts and the creation of vital centers of scientific thought. The development of the medieval university method of Scholasticism, which based the study of any subject on oral disputation and written commentary and made a vital contribution to the development of the scientific method of inquiry. Controversies surrounding heliocentrism. You will encounter a fascinating, in-depth discussion of the facts behind the publication of Nicholas Copernicus's De revolutionibus, which proposed that the earth circles the sun, and of the church's subsequent condemnation of Galileo for supporting Copernicus's views. Seventeenth-century theories of nature, including the revival of ancient atomism by Pierre Gassendi; the "Mechanical Philosophy" of Rene Descartes and Robert Boyle, which proposed that the world is a giant machine functioning like clockwork; and the "Vitalism" of Jan Baptista Van Helmont, who saw the world operating under the direction of active, living forces. The rise of scientific societies in Italy, London, and Paris, creating a public focus for the fostering of scientific collaboration. Course Lecture Titles 1. Beginning the Journey 2. Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks 3. The Presocratics 4. Plato and the Pythagoreans 5. Plato's Cosmos 6. Aristotle's View of the Natural World 7. Aristotelian Cosmology and Physics 8. Hellenistic Natural Philosophy 9. Greek Astronomy from Eudoxus to Ptolemy 10. The Roman Contributions 11. Roman Versions of Greek Science and Education 12. The End of the Classical World 13. Early Christianity and Science 14. The Rise of Islam and Islamic Science 15. Islamic Astronomy, Mathematics, and Optics 16. Alchemy, Medicine, and Late Islamic Culture 17. The Latin West Reawakens 18. Natural Philosophy at School and University 19. Aristotle and Medieval Scholasticism 20. The Science of Creation 21. Science in the Orders 22. Medieval Latin Alchemy and Astrology 23. Medieval Physics and Earth Sciences 24. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance 25. Renaissance Natural Magic 26. Copernicus and Calendrical Reform 27. Renaissance Technology 28. Tycho, Kepler, and Galileo 29. The New Physics 30. Voyages of Discovery and Natural History 31. Mechanical Philosophy and Revised Atomism 32. Mechanism and Vitalism 33. Seventeenth-Century Chemistry 34. The Force of Isaac Newton 35. The Rise of Scientific Societies 36. How Science Develops
