THE HISTORY AND

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

WEEK 8
 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE

• People have been asking questions about what they have seen around them for thousands of
years. The answers they have come up with have changed a lot. So has science itself.
• Science is dynamic, building upon the ideas and discoveries which one generation passes on to
the next, as well as making huge leaps forward when completely new discoveries are made.
 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE

• What hasn’t changed is the curiosity, imagination and intelligence of those doing science.
• We might know more today, but people who thought deeply about their world 3,000 years ago
were just as smart as we are.
• OR, WERE THEY?
 Are we smarter than our ancestors?

• «We are not really smarter than our ancestors, we just happen to live in a different environment,
and we have grown to be adapted to this environment as they grew to be adapted to their
environment. Each one, me and my great-great grandfather, are equally adapted, smart, to
survive in our own environment.» Roberto Saracco
 Did ancient people have science?
• For most of human history, science has been used alongside magic, religion and technology to try
to understand and control the world.

• Science might be something as simple as observing the sun rise each morning, or as complicated
as identifying a new chemical element.

• Magic could be looking at the stars to foretell the future, or maybe what we would call a
superstition, like keeping out of the path of a black cat.

• Religion might lead you to sacrifice an animal to appease the gods, or to pray for world peace.

• Technology might involve knowing how to light a fire or build a new computer.
 It all started out of immediate needs…

• In the beginning, technology (which is about ‘doing’) was more important than science (which is about
‘knowing’).

• You didn’t need to know why some berries are poisonous, or some plants edible, to learn how to avoid the
one and grow the other.

• But human beings are not only able to learn things about the world around them; they are also curious, and
that curiosity lies at the heart of science.
 Some 3.3 million years ago…

• The oldest known age is the Stone Age, which is divided into 3 periods: Paleolithic , Mesolithic
and Neolithic.
• The Paleolithic period was a period of time when tools and equipment were not yet used, people
tried to protect themselves with natural sharp stones.
• With the Mesolithic period (2 million -10,000 BC) they started to use the tools they developed.
• The most important aspect of this age, in which human beings did not yet produce, lived off what
they found in nature, and continued their lives by hunting and gathering, was the ability to make
fire in a controlled manner.
 Some 3.3 million years ago…

• In the Neolithic period (10.000- 3000 BC) people settled down and agriculture emerged as a result.
• The products of this period include
• the cultivation of wheat,
• sharpened stone axes,
• saws,
• bone needles,
• pulleys,
• pottery,
• and the use of plough and beasts of burden.
 Some 3.3 million years ago…

• From 5.500 BC onwards, a good phase was reached in which exchanges were made, the first copper tools
appeared, and thus the first commercial activities were carried out.

• Another achievement of this period was the introduction of the wheel in the 3.500s and the development of
hieroglyphics, from the 3.000s on.
 SCIENCE IN EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
• The first civilizations emerged in large river valleys such as Tigris and Euphrates, Nile and Indus.

• These civilizations had favorable social and economic conditions for the birth of science.

• They had a highly developed agricultural and commercial life and a priestly administration that
regulated this life. Continuous agriculture on the fertile soils left by the river transports in the
valleys led to settlement and urbanization.
 SCIENCE IN EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
• The technical achievements of these civilizations included
• cultivating the soil,

• domesticating animals,

• utilizing animal power,

• opening irrigation canals,

• making wheeled carts,

• ships and

• baked ceramic ware.

 SCIENCE IN EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
• The produce was enough to feed the rulers and the clergy, who together with the producers
formed the upper stratum of society, and with the surplus, artisans such as potters and
blacksmiths could also feed themselves.

• However, production work based on manual and arm labor was left to slaves, who considered it a
drudgery, and so progress soon turned into stagnation, and the desire to seek and create
something better disappeared.
SUMERIANS
 SUMERIANS
• Among the first civilizations, we see
that the Sumerian civilization
reached a brilliant level in
Mesopotamia around 3,000 BC.
• In addition to animal husbandry
and agriculture, the Sumerians
were also very advanced in
technology. They knew that they
could transform certain minerals
into copper in fire, that they could
give copper various forms, and
that they could obtain more
durable and fusible bronze from an
alloy of copper and tin.
 SUMERIANS

• The exchange of the necessities produced was also regulated. Rulers and clergy organized the collection and
distribution of the produce in temples and marked the amounts exchanged on baked earthen tablets so that
they would not forget them.

• Gradually, this kind of record-keeping developed into a spatial number system with 60 bases (the base 60
system) and a picture-sign writing system that later evolved into ideograms.

• In the course of this development, a vast literature on mathematics, astronomy, medicine, history,
mythology and religion was built up.
 SUMERIANS

• Before 2,500 BC, the Sumerians were using the multiplication table. They were calculating area
and volume, using 3.125 as the Pi value to find the area of a circle and the volume of a cylinder.

• Even after the Sumerian state ceased to exist around 2,000 BC, their language and script
remained effective as tools for scientific study and religious ceremonies (like medieval Latin).
BABYLONIANS
• The ancient scientists who
lived in Babylon
made important discoveries
in mathematics, physics and
astronomy.
• We know more about the
people of Babylon than we
do about other ancient
civilizations, for a simple
reason: they wrote on clay
tablets.
 BABYLONIANS

• The Babylonians, who replaced the Sumerians, established temple schools during the
Hammurabi dynasty to train clergy-administrators.

• The Babylonians made great progress especially in mathematics and astronomy. In addition to
arithmetic operations, they also reached some basic geometric concepts.

• They applied the system developed by the Sumerians for whole numbers to fractions. They
developed tables to solve problems involving square roots, cube roots and second-and-third-
degree equations.
 BABYLONIANS
• Among the sciences, astronomy and astrology occupied a conspicuous
place in Babylonian society.
• The zodiac was a Babylonian invention of great antiquity; and
eclipses of the sun and moon could be foretold.
• Observatories were attached to the temples, and reports were regularly
sent by astronomers to the king.
• The stars had been numbered and named at an early date, and we
possess tables of lunar longitudes and observations of the phases of
Venus.
BABYLONIANS
• The reason why astronomy is the first science is obvious: the
objects and phenomena subject to study in this field are simple
and regular and show periodic movements that are suitable for
continuous observation.
• The Babylonians, who developed a calendar for seasonal tasks
such as tillage, sowing and harvesting based on information
obtained through long and continuous observations, achieved an
astonishing precision and accuracy in time measurement.
• For example, they could calculate the length of the year with a
small margin of error of only 4,5 minutes, and they were able to
predict the lunar eclipses that occurred every 18 years.
 BABYLONIANS

• The Babylonians had an advanced number system, in some ways more advanced than our
present systems. It was a positional system with a base of 60 rather than the system with
base 10 in widespread use today.
• The Babylonians divided the day into 24 hours, each hour into 60 minutes, each minute
into 60 seconds. This form of counting has survived for 4000 years.
 EGYPTIANS
• The Egyptians settled along the river
Nile as early as 3,500 BC.
• No civilization before or since was so
dependent on a single natural feature.
The Egyptians relied on the Nile for
their very existence, for every year as
the mighty river flooded it brought rich
silt to replenish the land around its
banks, and so prepare it for the next
year’s crops.
 EGYPTIANS: Astronomy

• Egyptian astronomy was similar to the Babylonians’, but Egyptian concern with the afterlife meant that they
were more practical in their stargazing.

• The calendar was very important, not only to tell them when it was the best time to plant, or when to expect
the Nile to flood, but also to plan religious festivals.

• Their ‘natural’ year was 360 days – that is, twelve months made up of three weeks lasting ten days each –
and they added an extra five days at the end of the year to keep the seasons from slipping.
 EGYPTIANS: Astronomy

• The Egyptians thought that the universe was shaped like a rectangular box, with their world at
the base of the box, and the Nile flowing exactly through the center of that world.

• The beginning of their year coincided with the flooding of the Nile, and they eventually linked it
with the nightly rising of the brightest star in the night sky, which we call Sirius.
 EGYPTIANS: Medicine
• Science and knowledge were monopolized by the upper class, mostly the clergy.
• Egypt did not reach the level of Mesopotamia in any field of science except medicine.
• Medical problems in ancient Egypt arose directly from environmental conditions.
• Living and working on the banks of the Nile brings with it the threat of malaria and parasitic
infections that lead to the destruction of the liver and internal organs.
• Wild animals living in the Nile (crocodiles, for example) also pose a threat.
 EGYPTIANS: Medicine

• A lifetime of farming and building activities puts stress on the spine and joints, and traumatic
injuries from construction and war can cause significant body damage.
• Exposure to sand and dust during quarrying also affects dental health.
• The meals of the well-to-do are rich in sugar, which threatens dental health. Depictions of fat
people on tomb walls, as well as many mummies of the upper class, are evidence of overweight.
 EGYPTIANS: Medicine
• In the near east, ancient Egyptian physicians were renowned for their healing skills.
• Medical papyri (Edwin Smith3 and Ebers4 papyri) show that knowledge of anatomy, wounds
and treatment methods were empirical.
• The practice of medicine was systematic.
• First, the patient would undergo a careful examination; then a diagnosis would be made, a course
of treatment adopted and finally the treatment would be administered.
• Treatment involved the application of medicines, bandaging and immobilization of the injured
organ, and continuous and intermittent care.
 EGYPTIANS: Mathematics

• Papyrus texts show that the ancient Egyptians could perform four simple mathematical
operations using fractions, calculate the value of cubes and pyramids, they could calculate
quadrilaterals, triangles, circles and even spheres. They understood simple algebra and geometry.
• They used the decimal system in mathematics and every number from 10 to 1 million was
formed in hieroglyphic signs.
• In Egypt, mathematics had no theoretical character beyond practical problem solving and being
empirical.
 CONCLUSIONS
• In ancient civilizations, science did not address questions of a theoretical nature beyond the stage
of collecting facts and seeking answers to practical interests and needs.
• The turn towards theory awaits the Greek period.
• It remained at the level of empirical and technical knowledge in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
• There was no theoretical speculation on the structure and functioning of nature.
 CONCLUSIONS

• The feeling of wonder and amazement in the face of the universe, the effort to examine nature
and understand the universe will wait for later stages.

• As a result, their impact on the later period is not conceptual but technical.

• For example, the Babylonians had an advanced ability to solve complex algebraic and geometric
problems before 1800 BC.
 CONCLUSIONS

• However, they always solved their problems using concrete examples and numerical values.
There were no concepts of "variables" (expressed in symbols) and "generality".

• The emergence of such abstract concepts is a development specific to greek thought.

 CONCLUSIONS
• The situation in astronomy is no different.
• It is true that long and continuous observations of the movements of celestial bodies have yielded
a mass of reliable and regular information.
• However, there is no indication that a theoretical generalization was reached to explain the
results of observations.
• The Babylonians' interest in the sky remained at the astrological level.
 CONCLUSIONS
• That is why his astronomical works are not very important for modern astronomy. There is no
intellectual aspect to their work.

• Science in the true sense begins at the point where the need to understand the universe arises to
explain our observations.

• In Mesopotamia and Egypt, astronomy was used to make calendars and make predictions.
 CONCLUSIONS
• Mathematics was limited to solving practical problems such as land surveying and business
calculations.
• Medicine was the business of curing diseases and warding off evil spirits.
• Modern sciences such as chemistry and metallurgy were the craft of artisans.
• One of the reasons why the two civilizations did not reach the expected level was the lack of a
relationship and interaction between craftsmen and clergy.
• Where the hand and the head are not united, the result cannot be saved from being sterile and
lifeless.
 REFERENCES
• Bynum, W. (2012). A Little History of Science. Yale University Press: USA
• Rosenberg, A. (2003). Philosophy of Science. Routledge Taylor &Francis Group: NY
• Topdemir, H. G. & Unat, Y. (2020). Bilim Tarihi ve Felsefesi. Pegem Akademi: Ankara

• Yıldırım, C. (2012). Bilim Felsefesi. Remzi Kitabevi