The reading I chose is the introduction to Chapter 1 of the book Beginnings of Western Science. It concerns the term “science” and, therefore, the debate over whether or not science existed before 1450 A.D. The controversy according to the author, David Lindberg, arises out of the many different definitions for “science.” He said, “. . .we have no choice but to accept a diverse set of meanings as legitimate and do our best to determine from the context of usage what the term ‘science’ means on a specific occasion” (Lindberg 2). Lindberg asks rhetorically if there was anything from the time prior to 1450 A.D. that could be considered science. He then states: I have in mind languages for describing nature, methods for exploring or investigating it (including the performance of experiments), factual and theoretical claims (stated mathematically wherever possible)
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as “continues to be stated with considerable regularity and dogmatic fervor” (Lindberg 1)? I find it incredulous that there is even a debate about the existence of science in antiquity, unless, of course, one agrees with Plato. Plato’s argument, as recounted in Beginnings of Western Science, states, “(in his theory of reminiscence) that sense experience may actually stir the memory and remind the soul of forms that it knew in a prior existence, thus stimulating a process of recollection that will lead to actual knowledge of the forms” ( 37). If this is the case, we do not need science since we can recall from a past existence any knowledge we would obtain through experience and experimentation. However, Plato’s theory does make partial rational sense. It is virtually indisputable that there existed a first man. That first man must have hunted, fished, or cultivated food crops in order to survive. Did that first man learn how to do these things by empirical investigation or did he already possess this
as “continues to be stated with considerable regularity and dogmatic fervor” (Lindberg 1)? I find it incredulous that there is even a debate about the existence of science in antiquity, unless, of course, one agrees with Plato. Plato’s argument, as recounted in Beginnings of Western Science, states, “(in his theory of reminiscence) that sense experience may actually stir the memory and remind the soul of forms that it knew in a prior existence, thus stimulating a process of recollection that will lead to actual knowledge of the forms” ( 37). If this is the case, we do not need science since we can recall from a past existence any knowledge we would obtain through experience and experimentation. However, Plato’s theory does make partial rational sense. It is virtually indisputable that there existed a first man. That first man must have hunted, fished, or cultivated food crops in order to survive. Did that first man learn how to do these things by empirical investigation or did he already possess this