Greece and the Birth of Science

The new "Greek" approach to thinking about nature was perhaps the greatest breakthrough ever made in human thought. So far as we can tell, it began about 600 B.C., in Ionia, the southern coast of Asian Turkey, where there were a number of prosperous Greek city-states. Sadly, much of the record is lost (for example, only the first sentence of what is believed to be the first book on science - by Anaximander of Miletus - has survived). Scholars piece the history together from fragments reported by others, frequently centuries after the original writings. From these fragments, though, it is clear that Anaximander, his colleague Thales, and others were raising for the first time broad questions about what unifying themes could explain the behavior of nature.

Astronomy provides only an example of how this new mode of thought sprang forth, but a good one. We can appreciate the advance by comparing with Maya astronomy, which actually came a thousand years after the peak of Greek power and influence, but was independent of them and is a highly developed example of astronomy as it was practiced in other societies prior to the Greeks. In general, as with the Maya, societies that generated enough wealth to invest in a high level of astronomical research were all highly centralized, with a totally dominant ruling class. Astronomy was practiced by an elite society of priests who served the rulers. Astronomy served as a very sophisticated astrology, in which events in the sky were used to forecast the future and help the rulers make critical decisions. The observations were also used to awe the populace, reinforcing the power of the ruling order (as with Stonehenge as well as El Castillo). Astronomy was the province of religion that was part of an oppressive ruling structure.   

The Greek civilization had a remarkably different organization, centered on a large number of independent city-states. They had a strong concept of individual rights for the citizens of these states (although ironically, most of the population might be slaves that they had acquired in wars among each other (or with other groups)). Religion was practiced by all of the citizens, any one of whom could go to a temple and make an offering to the appropriate deity. Although there were exceptions, many of the city-states operated on the principle that rulers served the people and did not necessarily rule for life, but could be removed. Thus, the Greek lifestyle ran strongly counter to the oppressive, dominant government/religions that had ruled other wealthy societies. 

The combination of efficient farming, the contributions of slaves in doing menial work, the government and religion that responded to the needs of the people, and an efficient social structure that allowed generation of substantial wealth, all worked together to produce a new phenomenon. The Greeks were able to put substantial resources into science, mathematics, philosophy, and literature. Along with these interests came the need to educate, and a teacher class grew up. The most outstanding of these teachers became famous and attracted many pupils to large schools. They thought deeply about nature, mathematics, and philosophy. They left a heritage of important writings on these subjects. Euclid developed virtually the entire subject of geometry and also contributed to optics. Aristotle was a great observer of nature and left many volumes describing the results. Archemides contributed to physics and mathematics. Eudoxus developed a form of calculus. Hippochratus left writings on the practice of medicine, as well as the famous oath that guides all doctors: "Do no harm."

When the city-state structure was threatened, it was forcibly restored. For example, Athens collected contributions from a network of other states to help support its powerful navy in protecting them. Under Pericles, about 430 B.C., these payments grew quickly and the navy was used more to enforce payment than to protect. 

An Athenian empire quickly came into existence. The wealth taken from other city-states allowed the great flowering of architecture that we celebrate as one of the greatest accomplishments of the ancient world, as epitomized by the Acropolis. (G. Rieke)

Sparta and its allies successfully restored the independence of the city-states in the Peloponesian Wars. Athens' imperial ambitions were so immense that it weakened its ability to fight Sparta by invading Sicily in the middle of these wars, where it was disastrously defeated by the navy and army of Syracuse. When the Spartan alliance was finally victorious, they fortunately violated Greek tradition and did not destroy Athens. Instead, they let it survive as a center of learning and intellectual influence, and science and philosophy continued to flourish. However, by about 100 - 200 B.C., power had become highly centralized in the "Hellenic States." Creative Greek science died out in parallel with this trend.

The Greek astronomers had access to a long tradition of accurate observations by the Babylonians. Babylonian astronomy was remarkably similar in many ways to that of the Maya (but was carried out two millennia earlier) Very detailed observations over centuries, combined with sophisticated mathematics, allowed the Babylonian astronomers to determine accurately the periods of the motions of the planets, and to predict specific events such as when Venus would be farthest from the sun . However, they had made no effort to probe further, into underlying causes.

Greek astronomy was strongly influenced by the followers of Pythagoras, who felt that everything could be understood in terms of special numbers - they even invented a hidden Earth to raise the number of planets to the desired count. The Pythagoreans originated the idea that the planets moved on circular orbits and at constant speed.