The place of Archimedes in world history

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11937005
AutoresReviel Netz (0009-0009-6236-9464, Stanford University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen47
Número3-4
Páginas301-330
Fecha de publicación2022-10-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInterdisciplinary Science Reviews (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-0188 • E-ISSN: 1743-2790
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03080188.2022.2109100
OpenAlexW4312908285
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas8

Did science, as we know it, have to be? The article explores a possible response in the negative, organized around a specific contingency: that of Greek mathematics or, even more specifically, that of the mathematics of the generation of Archimedes. The argument is that (1) Greek mathematics, seen against a cross-cultural comparison, is an anomaly, (2) the scientific revolution, as it in fact unfolded, was directly shaped by the anomaly of Greek mathematics, and (3) it is not clear that, absent Greek mathematics, an equivalent scientific revolution would have taken place. The argument is developed in some detail concerning the history of ancient Greek science, but more is said on the inevitably philosophical questions of counterfactuals in history and on the specific question of the contingency of science

Ancient Greek · Argument (complex analysis · Contingency · Counterfactual conditional · Counterfactual thinking · Epistemology · History of mathematics · History of science · Mathematics education · Scientific revolution · Chemistry · Classics · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · History and Theory of Mathematics · Mathematics · Philosophy