Paradigm Shift of the Hellenistic Period

Prompt: Many historians characterize early Greek science, from the Presocratics to Aristotle, as a golden age of physics (despite the fact that early Greek physics was not quantitative in character). For the Hellenistic period, in contrast, the discoveries of mathematicians (including mathematical astronomers and mathematical geographers) stand out more than those of the physicists. Do you agree that there was a general shift from physics to mathematics in the Hellenistic period? If so, what might have caused or contributed to it, and why is it significant?

The Aristotelian Teaching Method

"Aristotle prevailed through persuasion, not coercion." (David Lindberg, 1992, p. 68; 2007, p. 66.) 

Arriving at the first day of class most students, having not previously encountered their professor, will likely not know what the class will be like or how it is going to be taught.  I believe that there are three methods of teaching which one can expect as being the primary form of the class.  The professor may, upon entering, go right on in to lecturing his personal beliefs or that of the majority consensus without mention of opposing views.  A second possibility is a professor who does not really lecture at all.  You may find this teaching method used in many of the philosophy classes on campus.  The professor will often bring up a subject and then require the class to proceed to teach themselves with the occasional prod or redirection via designed questions.  While this method does have its benefits, it has often-times seemed like a much better approach would be method three in which the instructor presents his own and other varying viewpoints and allows the students to make up their own minds on the subject.  It is my belief that people cannot be taught like the contents of a high school history book.  “It is this way” or “This is how it happened”.  When people learn in that context they lose the capability to reason for themselves and they never acquire the ability to question the norm.

What's Science Ever Done For Us?

            The science that appears in the episodes of The Simpsons is often times a dumbed-down, simplified, or petite version of “real world” science.  The Simpsons is not a substitute for classical education, an AP Physics class or an astronomy lab, it is merely an open door to a new world of experience and perhaps even providing the push necessary towards a formal learning.  The Simpsons has, until recent years, been pushing the boundaries of the television censors.  It pretty much perfected the social commentary and political satire that saturates every adult themed cartoon. 

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Stem cells are cells that can be found within all multi-cellular organisms and which have the ability divide and turn in to an array of specialized cells.  In other words, stem cells are blank pieces waiting to be stamped with a purpose.  While all human bodies contain stem cells, in some number, the majority within the developed person lie in the bone marrow and in afterbirth and birth-organs, though it is believed that skin cells may someday be used as stem cells.  Most adult stem cells, which include those cells removed from juveniles, are of the multipotent brand.  Potency is the potential for a stem cell to differentiate into different cell types.  Multipotent cells are limited in that they may only differentiate into the cells of a closely related family (Scholer 28).  So adult stem cells derived from muscle tissue would only be able to differentiate into those cells which are closely related to the tissue from which they were derived.  However pluripotent stem cells have a much greater potential as they are able to differentiate in to any cell of the three major germ layers: those being the endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm which are the basis of development in almost all animal groups more complex than worms (Scholer 28).  The greatest source, according to most, for pluripotent stem cells are from the undeveloped fertilized human embryos.  These embryos are often obtained from in vitro fertilization clinics due to their excess or soon expiration and as such are planned to be destroyed anyway.  “The embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball of cells called the blastocyst.  The blastocyst includes three structures: the trophoblast, which is the layer of cells that surrounds the blastocoels, a hollow cavity inside the blastocyst; and the inner cell mass, which is a group of cells at one end of the blastocoels that develop into the embryo proper” (U.S. DHHS).  The inner cell mass is removed to divide in a culture dish; if successful the dish will fill and the fresh cells will be divided up to be placed in new dishes for further ‘subculturing’.  “The original [few] cells yield millions of embryonic stem cells” (U.S. DHHS). 

The Flat Earth Falacy

Who really thought that the Earth was flat?  Although Aristotle’s physics fail to make mention of what gravity exactly is or why it functions in the way it does his belief is that the Earth is the center of the universe, because that is the most natural of places for it, and that all earthly material comes towards this center from all sides necessarily implies that the earth would form in to a three dimensional rotund shape, though not necessarily a sphere (Magruder Page 7).  If the Earth is flat is taken quite literally, then there can be no up and down, or no left to right.  We must all exist in a plane; we are all elements of two dimensions, with no depth.  Is only the underside of the Earth flat?  If so, then why? Why do these unearthly objects fall from the stars? Do they not reach the other side?  And, also, can we dig through the Earth to the other side?  If up and down are absolute then could we eventually dig a well into the abyss or would there be turtles all the way down? 

The Body Electric

The following is an analysis of the book The Body Electric.

            At the beginning of the 19^th century society was still mostly split between the upper-class elite and the working class, but as machines became more and more prevalent in places of industry there became less and less of a divide between the two classes.  The white-collar worker became a reality as machines began replacing what had previously required the work of men.  So with machines now doing the work there was a great increase in production at factories.  Increases in production lead to a need for an increase in sales and marketing and from there the widespread of the white-collar job was initially formed.  These white-collar business workers no longer had to spend upwards of twelve hours a day shoveling coal, molding iron, or working in textile mills.  This left them and their families, who were now making a greater salary than their ancestors had received, with much leisure time: a concept that had not even crossed the minds of the generations before.  No longer did the patriarch arrive home after a long day and immediately seek the sanctity and comfort of the bed.  Families went out together, socialized with other families, and mostly shopped.  They had acquired all this money with which they had previously not be privy to and what better way to rid oneself of excess than to exchange it for the goods which one desires.

Ayurvedic Medicine

Ayurveda is an alternative medicine deeply rooted in the Hindu religious tradition of northern India and established over 5000 years ago.  According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, “Ayurdevic medicine continues to be practiced in India, where nearly 80 percent of the population uses it exclusively or combined with conventional (Western) medicine” (Ayurvedic Medicine: An Introduction).  While it is a tradition of medicine with a long history, it is believed that much of Ayurveda’s practices were lost, at least in the West, until the early 1980s when they were reborn through the work of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Barrett).  Ayurveda is a combination of two Sanskrit words: ayur, meaning life, and veda, meaning knowledge; so Ayurveda is the knowledge, or science, of life.  The Ayurveda is completely based on the Vedic literature and as such is very much spiritual.

The Presocratic Scientists

“Philosophy began with Thales” – Bertrand Russell
The fundamental questions persist today: What is everything made up of, or what is matter?  Why does matter move or appear to move in the way it does?  What causes it to move?  Does matter really move or is this merely a trick of the mind or senses?  These are the fundamental questions the presocratics sought to answer.  They created many of the philosophical arguments which continue to this day: Monism vs. Pluralism, Materialism vs. Idealism, Plenism vs. Atomism, Chance vs. Necessity, and Finite vs. Infinite.  (Magruder).  The presocratics are important because they laid the foundations of modern scientific thinking.  They had grown tired of the application of divinity to the functioning of the world and as such decided to begin thinking not so much in a religion as applied to science context but science as a fundamentally necessary being all in itself.

Seeing in the Dark

The following is an analysis of the book Seeing in the Dark. 

            “The foundations of modern astronomy were laid largely by amateurs” (Ferris, Seeing in the Dark, p. 33).  Most of the men whose work in astronomy is found throughout the history books saw it merely as a pastime not something that could pay the rent, including Copernicus, Kepler, and Halley.  For one to study the skies he usually needed to have a large bank account and not until the twentieth century did astronomy become a career.  Yet, “even in the twentieth century, while they were being eclipsed by the burgeoning professional class, amateurs continued to make valuable contributions to astronomical research” (Ferris, Seeing in the Dark, p. 35).  The amateurs lagged behind the wealth and technology afforded to the professionals until the 1980s when, specifically, the Dobsonian telescope, developed by an American Buddhist monk, much cheaper CCD light-sensing devices, and the Internet.  The Dobsonian allowed amateurs to view nebulae and galaxies that otherwise before would have only been accessible to the wealthy and the professionals, and at merely a few dollars cost combined with much labor, should one be so inclined.  The affordability of charge-coupled devices, which can absorb light much more feint than is possible with photographic plates, and their ability to digitally store images of the universe allowed for much more exchange of information.  Combine CCDs with the Internet, along hundreds of millions of people instantaneous access to information and images, and the age of the amateur had returned.  The Internet also enabled much more collaboration between amateurs and professionals than ever before.  Although, “the amateur approach had its limitations.  Amateurs insufficiently tutored in the scientific literature sometimes acquired accurate data but did not know how to make sense of it.  Those who sought to overcome their lack of expertise by collaborating with professionals sometimes complained that they wound up doing most of the work while their more prestigious partners got most of the credit… But many amateurs enjoyed fruitful collaborations, and all were brought close to the stars” (Ferris, Seeing in the Dark, p. 41).

White's Science v Religion

A.D. White’s War upon Galileo

            The premise behind Andrew Dickson White’s argument is that the Church conducted a Holy War against the works of Galileo and against the man himself in order to keep secure its socio-political position in the hierarchy of seventeenth century Europe and to prevent the spread of anti-papal and Reformist sentiment.  White believes that the Church stands for all that is superstitious and against logic and reason, while Galileo, and his contemporaries, represent the March of Science through the use of rational, philosophic thinking.  White believes that the Church has intentionally attacked “almost every man who has ever done anything new for his fellow-men” through the use of weapons such as “infidel” and “atheist” (White 135).  According to him, the betterment of man has been continually betrayed by the Catholic Church and that the story of Galileo’s silence is the pinnacle of this dark treachery (130).

Scientists Images

            The standard operating image of a scientist is that of an introspect.  The scientist is often times a loner.  When he does have a supporting cast they are often times just as quirky, if not more, than he.  The scientist keeps to himself, most of the time, unless his work requires him to venture outside.  He prefers to work in a laboratory with few or no distractions.  These labs, it appears, usually lack any sort of window to the outside unless applicable to the work, even further reinforcing the scientist isolationism.  In the images, the scientist is often times doing chemistry related work; perhaps even alchemy!  White lab coats seem to be the clothing of choice among our scientists, however those without lab coats are not well dressed; perhaps because they’d rather spend time with their work over extra time dressing in the morning.  In half of the images our scientists appear to have spiked or greatly disheveled hair, maybe because they haven’t had time for anything other than work or sleep in quite a long while.  Eye glasses are also a common theme throughout many of the images, and of course spectacles have long be associated with educated persons.  So from these images we can conclude that at least the common University of Oklahoma student has the following common ideas of a scientist doing science:  They keep to themselves while working, feel that their work is much more important than their looks and hygiene and sometimes sleep, and can sometimes be driven mad.  Their experiments often involve chemistry and they are almost all very learned individuals. 

Geber's Alchemy

            Jabir ibn Hayyan, or Geber as he is more commonly known in the Latin west, was, according to Henderson, the first practical alchemist (11).  It has been speculated by many scholars that Geber, if he existed, did not actually complete most of the works that have been attributed to him because there is too much disparity in the style and content of them, but that writers of the Ismaili group may have themselves created much or all of the work under the Geber pen name (Linden 80).  If the Geber of alchemical fame did indeed exist, it is believed he was born in modern-day Iran around 721 C.E. and eventually died while under house arrest in Iraq around 815 C.E. (“Abu Musa”). 

The Radioactive Boy Scout

The following is an analysis of the book The Radioactive Boy Scout

            David’s most well used source for what it meant to do science was The Golden Book of Chemistry of Experiments.  While decades outdated and full of potentially dangerous experiments it did not fail to provide David with the instruction in how to do science.  The Golden Book  also provided David with his first image of what it means to be a scientist.  The book painted a romantic picture of the Curies working day in and day out to find answers to the questions which perplexed them.  David grew up imagining the scientist as an entrepreneur of knowledge.  He wished to see himself in tomes of history next to the Curies, Otto Hahn, and Van Brahn.

Experiments on Blood, Air and the Brain

In A Treatise on the Heart Richard Lower attempts to posit explanations for the movement and color of the blood in the body and for the mechanisms for which chyle passes into the blood from the ingestion of food, as well as defining the transfusion of blood and its potential uses.  His goal is to further explain the makeup and difference between the venous and arterial blood, specifically how, and with what functions, they acquire their differing colors, how transfusion of blood can be most easily and efficiently obtained between two, living beings, and what path the chyle makes from the stomach to the blood.

The Island of Dr Moreau

            From the beginning of the novel Wells is attempting to address what the nature of humanity is.  The attempts at cannibalism that take place after the shipwreck between Prendick and the two other men reveal the baser animal instincts within the human mind.  When they have been driven to the edge they must revert back to the oldest, simplest part of their cognitive systems.  “The lot fell upon the sailor; but he was the strongest of us and would not abide by it, and attacked Helmar with his hands.  They grappled together and almost stood up.  I crawled along the boat to the, intending to help Helmar by grasping the sailor’s leg; but the sailor stumbled with the swaying of the boat, and the two fell upon the gunwale and rolled overboard together.  They sank like stones.  I remember laughing at that, and wondering why I laughed.”  Even though the sailor’s human side agreed that one of the three of them dying was the better for the whole, his animal side would not allow him to sacrifice his own life. 

Technological Innovation: Of Abundance and Want

The existence of a leisure class and the want for change are two key societal factors necessary for technological innovation. There are surely other things that factor in, such as the availability of materials, relative usefulness, and supranational interactions among many others, but the most important for the evolution of technology are the creative minds provided by a leisured class and the lesser limits that are imposed by a society open to change.

A leisure class is any group of people, within a society, who do not labor for a living: either in the fields or in the market. Therefore, farmers, merchants, and artisans do not strictly qualify as existing within the leisure class; however they may make their own contributions to technological innovation given enough free time from their daily work. While aristocrats may fall within this sect in the strictest sense of the definition, since they do not labor in the fields or the market, their main focus is often times a labor of social duty; they spend much of their time, and money, being social and fulfilling their social obligations, either to the court or to other aristocrats. The scholars are the people of leisure that we are looking for. In Medieval Europe the scholar would be found below the royalty and aristocracy and above the artisans, merchants, and farmers in the social pyramid. At times the scholar performs the duties of the merchant, the artisan, and the aristocrat, in marketing his ideas and creating them, but the majority of his time would be spent as a philosopher, mathematician, engineer, or astronomer.

Bone Wars

The following is an analysis of Bone Wars: The Excavation of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur.


Value as described by Webster is the relative worth, utility or importance of an object or ideal. The dinosaur bones of the nineteenth century had educational, social, political, religious and obviously economic value. The $22,000 that Carnegie offered the University of Wyoming for the rights to its Diplodocus bones would be around $500,000 today. So in the grand scheme of business it doesn’t really seem as though Carnegie’s offer was really all that substantial when we are able to look back and see the great effect that these bones have had on the lives of so many people most especially those in the scientific community.

Colonial Reformation and Science

How did the social and political reforms instituted by European powers influence the progress of science in Southeast Asia?

Invading European powers into Southeast Asian nations employed a consistent set of social and political reforms on the local inhabitants’ culture which were intended to make for a transition of power requiring the least amount of military force and which had, in some cases, a significant impact on the development of scientific endeavors. Reforms included were social, political, cultural, academic, economic, and geographical in nature and what is listed here should not be considered a complete list by any means, nor is it the case that any particular method described is standard or requisite for every colony within the region.

Confucian Filial Piety and Science in China

This essay will attempt to show that the Neo-Confucian ideal of the family structure and Confucian system of patriarchal domination, especially the practice of filial piety, in conjunction with the conservative approach with which Confucian practitioners take towards social change shaped the formation of scientific works and methods, and the public policies which govern them, within China prior to the European intervention into the empire.