----- Original Message ----- From: "Damon Agretto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2004 11:12 AM Subject: Re: America the Theocracy
> > Your point is mostly valid, but I think even you > > give the Greeks a bit too > > much credit. Physica has horrid methodology, for > > example. I think it has > > to do with the concept that a gentleman doesn't > > dirty his hands by doing; a > > gentleman thinks. Doing is for slaves. > > Dan, I don't know if you recall the conversation we > had on this some time ago (2 years? Maybe more?), but > I have always been an opponent of Greek learning wrt > science. I kinda do, but I admit that, at my age, I tend to get a bit fuzzy about who had what point in a debate with a number of participants. I hope you will forgive an old man's fading memory. >During that thread, I commented that the > destruction of the Library of Alexandria was probably > a better thing to happen than to allow the whacky > methodologies of the Greeks to influence scientific > methodology more than it did. I'm not a big Classics > supporter (even though I'm a self-admitted neo-stoic) > and am critical of the idea of the Rennaisance being > neccessarily better than the Middle Ages (technically > it wasy, if you follow the line of continual progress; > but the popular perception is that it was light years > ahead of the MA, which I don't think is supportable). Ah, so your reference to methodology was to their advances in developement things like using universal principals (e.g. geometry) instead of doing everything on an ad hoc basis, advancing math, developing formal logic, etc. I have no problem with that. > So to say that these elements or organizations > hindered scientific development ignores the tremendous > intellectual contributions they ALSO made. I think > this development is far more complex that it would > seem on the surface. I have no argument with your analysis, now that you have clarified it. My one addition is that we can see science developing from the merging of classical methodological logic with the craft of the middle ages. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
