Spring 2022

F7F8F9 (15:30-18:30)
Room MXIC 旺宏懷樸

前近代科學史
Introduction to the History
of Pre-Modern Science
11020GEC 150402
Instructor: Alexei Volkov ( 琅元 )
E-mail: [email protected]
Office: Education Hall 201
Ancient Greece
 Pythagoras
(b. 580/572 - d. 500/490)
Philolaus (c. 470–c. 385 BC):

Pythagoras believed that by means of

number and proportion the universe
becomes organized and knowable to
us: « All things which are known have
numbers ».
 1 2 diagonal = (1²+1²) = 2

Statement:
the side of a square and its diagonal are incommensurable.
The discovery of incommensurable magnitudes marked
the end of the Pythagorean « research program »
(« everything is number ») which, from this moment on,
had to be radically modified.

« People who have never heard of the

theory of incommensurables hardly
deserve to be called human. » (Plato)
 Thales (624-547)

Anaximander (ca. 610 - 546/545 BC)

Pythagoras (b. 580/572 - d. 500/490)

...
? ?
Philolaus (c. 470–c. 385 BC)

Archytas of Taras/Tarentum
(428-347 BC)
Neo-Pythagoreans:
Nichomachus of Gerasa (ca. AD 100);
Theon of Smyrna (early 2nd c. AD);
Iamblichus (ca. AD 300)
Pythagoreans: geometrical points as units having
positions.

« Everything is number » => geometrical objects (in

particular, lines) as collections of points. Yet what can be
said about the continuity of lines? Can we imagine lines
as made of a very large (or maybe infinite) number of
points?

The same question about time: time is a continuous

process or a collection of (a large or infinite number) of
separate moments?
The age of puzzles and paradoxes

Zeno of Elea
(ca. 490 BC? – ca. 430 BC?)
Velia was the Roman name of an ancient city of
Elea (/ˈɛliə/; Ancient Greek: Ἐλέα) in Magna Graecia on
the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The city was known for being the home of the

philosopher Zeno of Elea, as well as the Eleatic school.
The age of puzzles and paradoxes

Zeno(n) of Elea

Zeno designed paradoxes to question the concept of

discontinuous nature of time and space:

1. (“Achilles and Tortoise” paradox)

“ In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the

slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point
whence the pursued started, so that the slower must
always hold a lead.”

—Aristotle, Physics VI:9, 239b15

Achilles, one of the heros of the Troyan War, was supposedly the
quickest runner in the world, while tortoise…
You know.
A T

100 m 2m
A T

2m 4 cm
A T

4 cm …
 The same situation will be repeated again and again.

A T

… …

At no moment Achilles can « jump » over two (or more)

points in one elementary moment of time. So he always will
be behind the tortoise.
Another paradox: The stadium

The Stadium: Consider two rows of people, each composed of

an equal number of people of equal size. They pass each other
as they travel with equal velocity in opposite directions. In one
instant of time they can cover no more than one unit of space.

In one instant of time there is a relative displacement for two

elementary units of space for the red and the blue rows.
Mathematics of that time:
All (geometrical) problems were classified according to the
method of their solution:
plane problems; solid problems; linear problems.
Plane problems: one has to use only straight lines (= an unmarked
straightedge) and circles (= a compass);
Definition: “The straightedge
is infinitely long, but it has no
markings on it and has only
one edge, unlike ordinary
rulers. It can only be used to
draw a line segment between
two points or to extend an
existing line.” (Wikipedia)

Compass
Solid problems: to be solved with the use of conic sections (ellipse,
hyperbola, parabola);

Linear problems: to be solved with the use of other curves.

Example: to bisect an angle is a plane problem, because to solve it one
needs only a compass and a straight-edge (ruler without marks)

C
CAN =  NAB

A E B
Three construction problems (to be solved with a
compass and a straightedge = ruler without marks):

1. The quadrature (squaring) of the circle: constructing a square

equal in area to a given circle.
(This problem was very popular towards the end of the 5th century.)

2. The duplication of a cube (or doubling the cube): determining

the edge needed to construct a cube that is twice the volume of a
given cube.
3. The trisection of an angle: to divide an arbitrary angle into
three equal parts.
The quadrature of the circle: to construct a square equal in
area to a given circle using only a compass and a
straightedge.

Mathematically: if the diameter D is given, this problem is

equivalent to the construction of the side a of a square such
that
pD2
= a2 that is, a = (Dp)/2
4
 Only in 1882 the German
mathematician Ferdinand von
Lindemann rigorously proved that this
problem cannot be solved:

using only a compass and a

straightedge one can never construct
a square equal in area to a given
Ferdinand von circle.
Lindemann
(1852 – 1939) (Lindemann, F. "Über die Zahl
π", Mathematische Annalen 20 (1882):
pp. 213–225.)
The duplication of a cube (or doubling the cube): to
find the side of a cube which is twice the volume of a
given cube.

According to legend, the citizens of Athens consulted the

oracle of Apollo at Delos in 430 BC, in order to learn how
to defeat a plague which was ravaging their lands. The
oracle responded that to stop the plague, they must double
the size of their altar. The Athenians dutifully doubled each
side of the altar, and the plague increased. The correct
interpretation was that they must double the volume of
their altar, not merely its side length; this proved to be a
most difficult problem indeed. It is due to this legend that
the problem is often known as the "Delian problem".
 a b
Mathematically: if the side a of a cube is given, this problem is
equivalent to the construction of the side b of a cube such that

b3 = 2·a3, that is, b = a·3 2

• Plato: “if Apollo has told you , through an oracle,
to build a new altar, it cannot be because he
requires a bigger altar. He asked this to reproach
the Greeks for their neglect of mathematics and
their disdain for geometry. In your haste to resolve
this problem, you have been quick to abandon
reason and have contented yourself with clumsy
empirical solution. In doing this, are you not
forever losing that which is best in geometry?”
Carl F. Gauss in 1828 The first page of P. L. Wantzel (1814 -1848)
Wantzel’s paper of 1837

Carl F. Gauss (1777 – 1855) had stated that the problems of

doubling a cube and trisecting an angle could not be solved
with ruler and compass but he gave no proofs.
In his 1837 paper the French mathematician Pierre Laurent
Wantzel (1814 -1848) was the first to prove these results.
Trisection of an angle
(a linear problem, since in the
solution one uses a special curve)

ABCD is a square, BED is

1/4 of a circle with centre A.

A radius of the circle turns uni-

formily about A from the posi-
tion AD to the position AB;
line A'B' remaining always
parallel to AB moves uniformily and
in the same time from the position DC to the position AB.
At any time during the motion the moving line and the moving radius
determine by their intersection a point as F or K. The locus of these
points is the quadratrix.
 DAB : EAB =
(arc DEB) : (arc EB) =
AD : FL

Let EAB be the given angle, and

let FL be divided at J in the
given ratio (say, FJ = 2JL). N
J
Draw HJ through J parallel to AB.
Find its intersection K
M
with the quadratrix. Join AK and
produce it to meet the circle in N. L
NAB : EAB = KM : FL = JL : FL = (= 1:3 in our case).

The discovery of this curve is credited to Hippias of Elis (443?-399? BC)

 Thales (624-547)

Anaximander (ca. 610 - 546/545 BC)

Pythagoras (b. 580/572 - d. 500/490)

...
? ?
Philolaus (c. 470–c. 385 BC)

Archytas of Taras/Tarentum
(428-347 BC)
Neo-Pythagoreans:
Nichomachus of Gerasa (ca. AD 100);
Theon of Smyrna (early 2nd c. AD);
Iamblichus (ca. AD 300)
 Archytas of Taras (428-347)

Socrates Egyptian astronomy

(469-399)
Plato (429 - 347 BC)
Created the Academy.
« Let no man ignorant of geometry enter! »

Theaetetus Aristotle Eudoxus

(ca. 417-369 BC) (384-322 BC) (ca. 400-347 BC)
Plato

Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825): The Death of Socrates (1787 ).

The Death of Socrates (ca. 1762) by Jacques-Philip-Joseph de Saint-Quentin

Plato
 Socrates Plato

School of Pythagoras Euclid (or Archimedes?) Ptolemy?

Athens, by
Raphael
(Vatican)
 Plato

(429/423 –
348/347 BC)
- born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BC;
- was instructed in grammar, music, philosophy, and gymnastics;
- went to Italy, Sicily, Egypt and Cyrene (i.e., modern Lybia);
- returned to Athens at age of forty and established his school
called Academia;
- was a student and a follower of Socrates.
The temple of Aphaia (Greek Ἀφαία),
Aegina island (modern view)
Academy of Plato
September 2019
Academy of Plato (mosaic from Pompei, thus prior to AD 79)
 The Five Mathematical
Studies of Plato’s Academy
Arithmetic

Plane Geometry

Solid Geometry

Astronomy

Harmonics (mathematical theory of music)

(Compare with the Curriculum in the Society of Pythagoras)
 the idea (ideal form) of squirrel

squirrels
 Plato’s philosophy
world of ideas (ideal forms)

(world of Being)

world of physical objects

(material reflections/projections
of the ideal forms)
(world of Becoming)
you are here
The Realm of Pure Forms
(Being)

mental reflection

The World of Physical Objects Human Soul

(Becoming)
senses

Learning = remembering/recollecting
 Form/Idea of Good

Forms/Ideas of Objects
Being

Mathematical Objects

Physical Objects

Becoming
Reflections of Physical Objects
(e.g., in water)
Soul
The Republic, bk 6
 « ... the many things (that) ... can be seen... are not
objects of rational thought; whereas the Forms are
objects of thought, but invisible. »
Mathematics, for Plato, is a key step in the process of
driving us from senses (i.e., the world of Becoming) to
the eternal world of Being.
« Mathematics draws the soul from the
world of change to reality.
It naturally awakens the power of
thought... to draw us towards reality. »
 Now we can understand better the statement:
« Let no man ignorant of geometry enter! »

Plato considered geometric knowledge and geometric

demonstration as the paradigm for all knowledge,
including moral knowledge and metaphysics.
The best of the Guardians will go up and contemplate the Good.

After 30 the Guardians should study

dialectic in order to encounter and grasp the
Forms themselves, and arrive at the unhypothetical
First Principles, the ultimate basis for all knowledge
and understanding.

Guardians should study mathematics

Guardians (geometry) between 20 and 30.
They must accept certain hypotheses.

MASSES
It is dangerous to the masses
to engage in philosophy
 Socrates ? Pythagoras
Egyptian priests
(mathematics, (469-399)
theology, astronomy, Archytas of Taras (428-347)
for 13 years) Egyptian astronomy
Plato (429 - 347 BC)
Created the Academy (open in 387 BC).
« Let no man ignorant of geometry enter! »

Theaetetus Aristotle Eudoxus

(ca. 417-369 BC) (384-322 BC) (ca. 400-347 BC)
Aristotle
384 – 322 BC
Aristotle

- born in Stageira (/stə’dʒaɪ.rə/), Chalkidiki peninsula (Chalcidice),

in 384 BC;
Aristotle

at the age of eighteen, he went to Athens to continue his education at

Plato's Academy, and stayed there for about 20 years;
- left Athens in 348 or 347 BC;
- traveled and did research on botany and zoology;
- became the personal tutor of Alexander the Great in 343 BC;
- returned to Athens in 335 BC and established his own school
known as the Lyceum;
- from 335 to 323 stayed in Athens and produced his main works.

Aristotle studied and made contributions to anatomy, astronomy,

embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology.
In philosophy, he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government,
metaphysics, politics, economics, psychology, rhetoric and theology.
He also studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry.
Aristotle's School, a painting by Gustav Adolph Spangenberg
(1828-1891)
Aristotle
explaining to
Alexander the
Great the
effects of
celestial bodies
on plants
(picture from
the treatise
Secretum
Secretorum,
copy of the 14th
century)
 Aristotle
Main point: rejection of Plato’s idea of the “World of Being”.

Example: Beauty is not an ideal form; it is something that all beautiful

things share. If someone destroys all beautiful things in the world, the
beauty will disappear. That is, forms exist only in the individual
objects.
Aristotle’s Problem concerning mathematics:
If one rejects Platonic Forms, then what reason is there to believe in
mathematical objects? What is their nature?
Answer:
Mathematical objects exist in perceptible objects; they do not exist
separately from them.
 Object Abstraction Form (= abstract form
of the given object)
Abstraction: the mathematicians, when operating with objects,
ignore certain physical aspects of their subject-matter.
Natural numbers

Natural numbers are obtained via abstraction from collection of

physical objects.

Ignoring the differences

Number 3
Plato Aristotle
Aristotle:

In every systematic inquiry (methodos) where there are first

principles, or causes, or elements, knowledge and science
result from acquiring knowledge of these; …

The naturally proper direction of our road is from things better

known and clearer to us, to things that are clearer and better
known by nature; for the things known to us are not the same as
the things known unconditionally (haplôs).

Hence it is necessary for us to progress, following this

procedure, from the things that are less clear by nature, but
clearer to us, towards things that are clearer and better known
by nature. (Phys. 184a10–21)
How one can study the material objects if they are not projections of
ideal forms?
One should reach the most general principles of things.
How one can know the most general principles?
There are two possibilities:

- The principles are inborn, or

- they are acquired.
Aristotle: « it is absurd to admit that they are inborn, for that would
be to admit that we fail to notice our most accurate knowledge. »

« Plato says that they are inborn but the knowledge is recollection.
If they were so, why should eminent men hold contradictory views
about the same thing? »
Aristotle’s Program:
We assume the properties of the simplest objects: points, straight lines…
The rest must be proved on the basis of some basic principles.
Aristotle: In demonstrative sciences some principles are peculiar
to each science, and other common to all.
Example of peculiar principles (in geometry):
“there is only one straight line connecting two points”.
Example of common principles for all sciences (using the notion of
measure):
« if equals be subtracted from equals, the remainders are equal »
“Science investigates the essential attributes of the things peculiar
to the science: arithmetic investigates the attributes peculiar to
the units, and geometry those peculiar to points and lines. […]
The proofs are given by means of the common principles and of
what had already been demonstrated.
 Demonstration (example):
Two chords, if they are not the
A D diameters of a circle, do not bisect
E each other.
B We have to prove that AB and CD
C
O do not bisect each other.
Assume that they do bisect each other.

That is, AE = EB, CE = ED

Draw OE; it will be perpendicular to (= will form right angles with)
both AB and CD [a well-known theorem at that time].
Therefore, OEB and OED are right angles;
therefore, OEB and OED are equal.
OEB is a part of OED; the whole is greater than a part of it;
therefore, OEB and OED are not equal.
 Aristotle:
« it is impossible for two contradictory propositions to be true (or it
is impossible for a thing to have contradictory attributes at the same
time and in the same respect), therefore our assumption is false ».

We used two axioms from two different sciences:

1. « It is impossible for two contradictory propositions to be true. »

2. « The whole is greater than a part of it. »

(1) is an axiom for all propositions (all things), and is an axiom in the
science of demonstrations;
(2) is an axiom in universal mathematics and is true of all quantities,
and of quantities only.
We assume the properties of the simplest objects: points, straight lines…

The rest must be proved.

When we prove some statement about mathematical objects, we

have to use basic statements (axioms) from two different sciences:

(1) axioms of the science of demonstrations related to general

laws of reasoning (logic); on the basis of these axioms we will
build a science about correct methods of reasoning which can be
applied to a number of disciplines (not only mathematics);
(2) axioms of mathematics, stating the basic properties of
mathematical objects; on the basis of these axioms we can
construct true statements about mathematical objects, using the
correct methods of reasoning.
Aristotle is credited with the creation of the formal logic.

Sentence vs. Proposition.

Sentence = a saying, a phrase; something which has some meaning.

Proposition: a sentence which can be either true or false.

Example: a prayer is a sentence, but is neither true or

false.

Simple proposition: a statement as to the presence of something

(Predicate 謂語 ) in a Subject 主語 , or its absence.

Example: « The Rabbit is White ». The (simple) proposition states

the presence of the Whiteness in the Rabbit.
A proposition is universal if it affirms or denies some predicate to
all instances of the subject.

Examples: All students are good. All professors are bad.

A proposition is particular if it affirms or denies some predicate to

some instances of the subject.

Examples: Some students are bad. Some professors are good.

There are four general types of propositions:

universal affirmative

particular negative
 Medieval symbolic
Universal Affirmative: A notation for
Propositions.

Universal Negative: E

Particular Affirmative: I

Particular Negative: O

AFFIRMO = « I affirm » (Latin)

NEGO = « I deny »
Examples:

A: All rabbits are white I: Some rabbits are white.

E: No rabbit is white. O: Some rabbits are not white.

Two propositions are contradictories when if either is true

the other must be false, and if either is false, the other must
be true.
Examples: A and O; E and I.
Two propositions are contraries if, while both may be false,
they both cannot be true.

Example: A and E.
 Classical Square of Opposition
contraries
A E
All rabbits are white No rabbit is white

Implies Implies

contradictories
I O
Some rabbits are white Some rabbits are not white
 A E I O

1. A is True T F T F

2. E is True F T F T

3. I is True U F T U

4. O is True F U U T

5. A is False F U U T

6. E is False U F T U

7. I is False F T F T

8. O is F T F T F (U = undetermined)
 Syllogisms

Syllogism is an argument with two premises and a conclusion. It

includes three terms, each term occurs twice (but not in the same
proposition). Each term must be used in the same sense in each
occurrence.
Major premiss
Example:
All mammals are animals.P
S All professors are mammals. Middle term
Minor premiss
All professors are animals.
Subject (minor) term Predicate (major) term
There are four possibilities to arrange the middle term in the
premisses:

Major premiss M-P P-M M-P P-M

Minor premiss S-M S-M M-S M-S

Conclusion S-P S-P S-P S-P

Figures: 1 2 3 4

Our example was in 1st figure.

 Example of a syllogism in second figure:

All animals are mammals.

All professors are mammals. Middle (M)

All professors are animals.

Minor (S) Major (P)

This syllogism is not valid.

(Why it is not? It is certainly not true that the first premise is

false; however, this is not the reason. The reason is: even two
premises are true, one can imagine a situation in which
professors and animals are two different species, yet both are
mammals, like cats and dogs. Then the premisses are true and
the conclusion is false.)
Definition:

A syllogism is valid if every time when

both premisses are true, then the
conclusion is also true.
Example: a syllogism in third figure.

All mammals are animals.

All mammals are professors.

All professors are animals.

Is it a valid or invalid syllogism?

Answer: the syllogism is not valid. There can be some professors

who are not animals (for example, robots)!

professors mammals animals

Example: a syllogism in second figure.

All mammals are animals.

All professors are animals.

All professors are mammals.

Is it a valid or invalid syllogism?

Answer: the syllogism is not valid.

animals
mammals professors
Example: a syllogism in first figure.

Some shy people dont dance.

All students are shy.

Some students dont dance.

Is it a valid or invalid syllogism?

Answer: the syllogism is not valid (it is an invalid syllogism).

People who
dont dance Shy students
people
Example: a syllogism in first figure.

All shy people dont dance.

Some students are shy.

Some students dont dance.

Is it a valid or invalid syllogism?
Answer: the syllogism is valid.

students Shy
people People who
dont dance
 For each of two premisses and for the conclusion
there are four possibilities: A, E, I, O. That is, for 2
premises we can have the combinations AA, AE, AI,
AO, EA, ... etc., etc.
Altogether we have 43 = 64 possibilities for each
figure; since we have four figures, we have 4 · 64 =
256 possibilities.

Only 24 of them are valid.

 Aristotle’s Program for Mathematics:

-- demosntrations must start with self-evident truths which are

themselves not demonstrable. They must be clearly true and
better known than anything that is proved from them;

-- syllogisms should be discussed before demonstration. The

demonstration is a sort of syllogism.

Truths Syllogistic « machine » True conclusions

Quiz 2. Choose correct statements:

A. In the 5th century BC, the Babylonians used a special

sign for zero to write down the sexagesimal number 12 00
34;
B. In the 15th century BC, the Babylonians did not use a
special sign for zero to write down the sexagesimal
number 98 76 00;
C. In the 15th century BC, the Babylonians did not use a
special sign for zero to write down the sexagesimal
number 98 00 76;
D. None of the above. CORRECT