The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science

Provides a broad framework for engaging with ideas relevant to ancient Greek and Roman science, medicine and technology.

Liba Taub (Edited by)

9781107092488, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 January 2020

356 pages, 1 b/w illus. 1 table
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.3 cm, 0.62 kg

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes in Greek and Roman science, medicine, mathematics and technology. A distinguished team of specialists engage with topics including the role of observation and experiment, Presocratic natural philosophy, ancient creationism, and the special style of ancient Greek mathematical texts, while several chapters confront key questions in the philosophy of science such as the relationship between evidence and explanation. The volume will spark renewed discussion about the character of 'ancient' versus 'modern' science, and will broaden readers' understanding of the rich traditions of ancient Greco-Roman natural philosophy, science, medicine and mathematics.

Introduction Liba Taub
1. Presocratic natural philosophy Patricia Curd
2. Reason, experience and art: the Gorgias and On Ancient Medicine James Allen
3. Towards a science of life: the cosmological method, teleology and living things Klaus Corcilius
4. Aristotle on the matter for birth, life and the elements David Ebrey
5. From craft to nature: the emergence of natural teleology Thomas Johansen
6. Creationism in antiquity David Sedley
7. What's a plant? Laurence M. V. Totelin
8. Meteorology Monte Ransome Johnson
9. Ancient Greek mathematics Nathan Sidoli
10. Astronomy in its contexts Liba Taub
11. Ancient Greek mechanics and the mechanical hypothesis Sylvia Berryman
12. Measuring musical beauty: instruments, reason and perception in ancient harmonics Massimo Raffa
13. Ancient Greek historiography of science Leonid Zhmud.

Subject Areas: Philosophy: logic [HPL], Western philosophy: Medieval & Renaissance, c 500 to c 1600 [HPCB], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Philosophy [HP]