ENGLISH

The Mechanical Hypothesis in Ancient Greek Natural Philosophy

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2009
ISBN
0521763762, 9780521763769
LCC
B185 .B47 2009
Open Library ID
OL23862900M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (1838242 bytes)
Edition
1
Pages
296\298
Topic
History
Time added
2011-04-18 11:31:18

Description

It has long been thought that the ancient Greeks did not take mechanics seriously as part of the workings of nature, and that therefore their natural philosophy was both primitive and marginal. In this book Sylvia Berryman challenges that assumption, arguing that the idea that the world works 'like a machine' can be found in ancient Greek thought, predating the early modern philosophy with which it is most closely associated. Her discussion ranges over topics including balancing and equilibrium, lifting water, sphere-making and models of the heavens, and ancient Greek pneumatic theory, with detailed analysis of thinkers such as Aristotle, Archimedes, and Hero of Alexandria. Her book shows scholars of ancient Greek philosophy why it is necessary to pay attention to mechanics, and shows historians of science why the differences between ancient and modern reactions to mechanics are not as great as was generally thought.

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