A History of Science (Vol. 1-5). Edward Huntington Williams

       Henry Smith Williams, Edward Huntington Williams

      A History of Science

      (Vol. 1-5)

      Complete Edition

      e-artnow, 2021

       Contact: [email protected]

      EAN 4064066387884

      Table of Contents

       Volume 1

       Volume 2

       Volume 3

       Volume 4

       Volume 5

      Volume 1

       Table of Contents

      Table of Contents

       BOOK I

       I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

       II. EGYPTIAN SCIENCE

       III. SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

       IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALPHABET

       V. THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCIENCE

       VI. THE EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY

       VII. GREEK SCIENCE IN THE EARLY ATTIC PERIOD

       VIII. POST-SOCRATIC SCIENCE AT ATHENS—PLATO, ARISTOTLE, AND THEOPHRASTUS

       IX. GREEK SCIENCE OF THE ALEXANDRIAN OR HELLENISTIC PERIOD

       X. SCIENCE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD

       XI. A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE AT CLASSICAL SCIENCE

       APPENDIX REFERENCE LIST, NOTES, AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

       CHAPTER I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

       CHAPTER II. EGYPTIAN SCIENCE

       CHAPTER III. SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

       CHAPTER IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALPHABET

       CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCIENCE

       CHAPTER VI. THE EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN ITALY

       CHAPTER VII. GREEK SCIENCE IN THE EARLY ATTIC PERIOD

       CHAPTER VIII. POST-SOCRATIC SCIENCE AT ATHENS

       CHAPTER IX. GREEK SCIENCE OF THE ALEXANDRIAN OR HELLENISTIC PERIOD

       CHAPTER X. SCIENCE OF THE ROMAN PERIOD

       CHAPTER XI. A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE AT CLASSICAL SCIENCE

      BOOK I

       Table of Contents

      Should the story that is about to be unfolded be found to lack interest, the writers must stand convicted of unpardonable lack of art. Nothing but dulness in the telling could mar the story, for in itself it is the record of the growth of those ideas that have made our race and its civilization what they are; of ideas instinct with human interest, vital with meaning for our race; fundamental in their influence on human development; part and parcel of the mechanism of human thought on the one hand, and of practical civilization on the other. Such a phrase as "fundamental principles" may seem at first thought a hard saying, but the idea it implies is less repellent than the phrase itself, for the fundamental principles in question are so closely linked with the present interests of every one of us that they lie within the grasp of every average man and woman—nay, of every well-developed boy and girl. These principles are not merely the stepping-stones to culture, the prerequisites of knowledge—they are, in themselves, an essential part of the knowledge of every cultivated person.

      It is our task, not merely to show what these principles are, but to point out how they have been discovered by our predecessors. We shall trace the growth of these ideas from their first vague beginnings. We shall see how vagueness of thought gave way to precision; how a general truth, once grasped and formulated, was found to be a stepping-stone to other truths. We shall see that there are no isolated facts, no isolated principles, in nature; that each part of our story is linked by indissoluble bands with that which goes before, and with that which comes after. For the most part the discovery of this principle or that in a given sequence is no accident. Galileo and Keppler must precede Newton. Cuvier and Lyall must come before Darwin;—Which, after all, is no more than saying that in our Temple of Science, as in any other piece of architecture, the foundation must precede the superstructure.

      We shall best understand our story of the growth of science if we think of each new principle as a stepping-stone which must fit into its own particular niche; and if we reflect that the entire structure of modern civilization would be different from what it is, and less perfect than it is, had not that particular stepping-stone been found and shaped and placed in position. Taken as a whole, our stepping-stones lead us up and up towards the alluring heights of an acropolis of knowledge, on which stands the Temple of Modern Science. The story of the building of this wonderful structure is in itself fascinating and beautiful.

      I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

       Table of Contents

      To speak of a prehistoric science may seem like a contradiction