Overview

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#CC9900" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="070005a0dwnjzk.png"> <div> <A HREF="lesson5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="(Some) Physical Properties of Matter by "><U><B>home</B></U></A><B>     | </B><B> </B><B> </B><B>  </B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>(Some) Physical Properties of Matter by Carl Martikean</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Overview</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reading"><U><B>Reading</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Field Trip"><U><B>Field Trip</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exercise"><U><B>Exercise</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In More Depth"><U><B>In More Depth</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Related Links"><U><B>Related Links</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Overview</div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="155" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="149"><div> <A HREF="lesson5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="(Some) Physical Properties of Matter by "><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="149"><div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reading"><U><B>Reading</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="149"><div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Field Trip"><U><B>Field Trip</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="149"><div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exercise"><U><B>Exercise</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="149"><div> <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In More Depth"><U><B>In More Depth</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="149"><div> <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Related Links"><U><B>Related Links</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> For more than a millenium, Greek thought dominated the Mediterranean world.  Greek science, philosophy, literature and medicine became the driving force for western civilization.  The years between 550 and 320 B.C.E. are known as the Hellenistic Era.  The Greeks took the knowledge of the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Syrians, Persians,Indians and perhaps even the Chinese and organized it into a natural philosophy.  This was a great leap in the development of man's thinking.  The Greeks were reflecting on the world around them.  They were asking "why" in addition to the past's "how."  The result is that today we are still discussing many of the questions they first posed.</div> <bR> <div> The Hellenistic Era began with Alexander the Great.  It was Alexander who created the mechanisims for the transfer of knowledge.  With Alexander's conquest, Greek culture was the preeminent cultural influence in Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, southern Italy, and Sicily.  In 200 B.C.E. the Romans conquered the area and Greece became a minor Roman province.  However, the Romans realized the important influence that the Greeks were and both imitated  and absorbed Greek culture.  This was eventualy passed on to the Christian world.  Only the rise of Islam around 650 C.E. was able to supplant the cultural influence that was Greek.  Well almost, many of the Greek texts were translated into Arabic and so became the basis of Islamic philosophy and science.  It was these translations that lead to the revival of learning in Europe.</div> <bR> <div>  Why the Greeks?  Why not the Egyptians, Syrians, Persians or other Near Eastern culture?   Well mush of the written material on Greek science is readily available.  Some is in the original but a good deal is in Arabic or Latin translations.  In fact, there is so much Latin and Arabic discussion and commentary that we know the contents of Greek documents that no longer exist.  A primary reason is that Greek never became a dead language, like Sumarian.  There have always been groups of peoples who could read and speak Greek.</div> <bR> <div> What were ther reasons that the Greeks were so successful?  To begin, they had an alphabet.  The Greek alphabet was most likely adopted from the Phoenicians and, with little variation, lasted until the final standardization by the Athenian chief magistrate Euclides in 403 B.C.E.  The beauty of this alphabet was its simplicity.  The Greek alpahbet is a phonetic system that was easily mastered so that almost any Greek could rapidly learn to read and write.  Compare this alphabet with two dozen characters to the thousands of Egyptian hieroglyph or the thousands of Chinese ideograms.  This took literacr to the general populace and away from the temple schools and the nobles.  Further,  Greek society was organized around separate city states.  There was no central government that controlled all aspects of all Greek life. </div> <bR> <div> So it was that Greek philosophy and science was largely esoteric.  The Greeks saw great value in organizing and giving reason to life around them, but their science lacked practiclaity.  They were not really interested in applying their knowledge to the problems of the farmer, shipwright or glassmaker.  They had little use for mathematics in daily life.  The exceptions to the rule were medicine and warefare.  </div> <bR> <div> Primary among the Greek philosophers was Aristotle.  Such wasAristotle's intellctual synthesis thathe included a complete system of logic, metaphysics, physics, biology, psychology, politics, and ethics.  Once rediscovered by Thomas Aquinas, Aristotilean concepts were melded into Church canon.  </div> <bR> <div> Aristotle's basic idea of the composition of matter came from Empedocles.  So it is in <I>Meterologica</I>, the Aristotle expalins the composition of matter.   All chemical and physical behavior was the result of the interaction with four different properties: hot, cold, moist, dry.  Non opposite combinations of these properties were asscoiated with the four elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire.  (Note that these roughly can be associated with the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, plasma.)  All terrestrial matter was composed of combinations of these four elements.  The heavens were made of a finer fifth element, a quintessence.  </div> <bR> <div> Aristotle was not an atomist.  Very few Greek natural philosophers were.  Atomic theory did not explain natural phenomena like freezing or boiling.  Additionally, atomic theory was viewed as atheistic.  Since atoms moved randomly they exhibited no divine purpose or divine order.  This simply did not match the Greek way of thought; they sought a rational unified explanation of the entire universe.</div> <bR> <div>  <BLOCKQUOTE> The Greek idea of atomism may have had its origins in India. Indian atomism predated Democritos. Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, is traditionally thought to have been an atomist. The story goes, that on his deathbed , in 483 B.C.E., he is said to have reminded his disciples that death was merely the disaggregation of atoms.</BLOCKQUOTE>  </div> <bR> <div> For a more complete story of Hellenistic science and its contributions see:</div> <div> <I>From Caveman to Chemist</I>  by Hugh W. Saltzberg</div> <bR> <div> <B>Overview</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reading"><U>Reading</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Field Trip"><U>Field Trip</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exercise"><U>Exercise</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In More Depth"><U>In More Depth</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Related Links"><U>Related Links</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>