Thoughts on a Classical Scientific Revolution

[Faeelin]

Came across this, and remembered the discussion a while back on classical science. Here are some comments from Gavin Weare on SHWI, in 2002.

There are technological problems. I think the printing press is
probably necessary, and perhaps sufficient. Reliance on copying
inhibits the transmission of very technical information. I've
discussed this on SHWI before, and there may be ways around it - but
on reflection I'm just not convinced that any possible alternative
compensates well enough. I'm less certain about the effects of a
less advanced technology on observation and measurement, but it is a
problem.

I think it didn't help that Athens and Alexandria were separate
centers. There's relatively little philosophy in Alexandria; Athens
isn't an important center for mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, and
medicine. A decent printing-driven flow of ideas between the two
centers *might* be enough to overcome this.

There are some specific events that were not helpful. Ptolemy VIII
Euergetes II Physcon's expulsion of Alexandrian intellectuals is a
biggie. That senators were banned from visiting Alexandria in the
Early Empire was probably also not a good thing.

Basically, I think you could do a lot with:

a) a Stoic overall framework of natural law

b) Epicurean atomism

c) Stoic and Epicurean empiricism - esp. the Epicurean
doctrine of the importance of tests (but losing the Epicurean idea
that it's OK if there're multiple separate explanations of physical
phenomena).

d) Alexandrian science (here used as a blanket term for the
various branches of study that we would collectively recognize as
natural science)

e) Alexandrian interest in observation, including controlled
experiments (of marginal importance in OTL, but in this TL
systematized due to developments under the heading of [c]).

Basically, I want (d) and (e) to be seen as vital to the project
of (c), with (d) as the working hypothesis to explain the operations
of (a), to identify which is the overall goal. Plenty of people seem
to think that (a) is the problem - it really isn't IMO. But putting
together (d)/(e) with (c) - that's tricky. After that, one has to
wrestle with the technological shortcomings - this may require a
double POD. I'd rather do the entire thing before 150, because it's
supposed to be "Greek" - but it may be necessary to extend it into the
Roman period if there's not enough time to get everything done before
that.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=g:...le.com&rnum=33



Thoughts?