Editing History of science (section)

===Natural philosophy===
[[File:Plato's Academy mosaic from Pompeii.jpg|thumb|[[Plato's Academy]]. 1st century [[mosaic]] from [[Pompeii]]]]
[[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] produced the first systematic discussions of natural philosophy, which did much to shape later investigations of nature. Their development of [[deductive reasoning]] was of particular importance and usefulness to later scientific inquiry. Plato founded the [[Platonic Academy]] in 387 BCE, whose motto was "Let none unversed in geometry enter here," and also turned out many notable philosophers. Plato's student Aristotle introduced [[empiricism]] and the notion that universal truths can be arrived at via observation and induction, thereby laying the foundations of the scientific method.<ref>{{cite book |first=De Lacy |last=O'Leary |author-link=De Lacy O'Leary |year=1949 |title=How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs |url=https://archive.org/details/howgreeksciencep0000olea |url-access=registration |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul  |isbn=978-0-7100-1903-5}}</ref> Aristotle also produced [[Aristotle's biology|many biological writings]] that were empirical in nature, focusing on biological causation and the diversity of life. He made countless observations of nature, especially the habits and attributes of plants and animals on [[Lesbos]], classified more than 540 animal species, and dissected at least 50.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Armand Marie Leroi |last=Leroi |first=Armand Marie |title=The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science |title-link=Aristotle's Lagoon |publisher=Bloomsbury |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-4088-3622-4 |page=7–}}</ref> Aristotle's writings profoundly influenced subsequent [[Science in the medieval Islamic world|Islamic]] and [[European science in the Middle Ages|European]] scholarship, though they were eventually superseded in the [[Scientific Revolution]].<ref>{{cite SEP|url-id=aristotle-influence|title=Aristotle's Influence|date=2018|edition=Spring 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Barnes |first1=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Barnes |title=Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction |date=1982 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=86 |isbn=978-0-19-285408-7}}</ref>

Aristotle also contributed to theories of the elements and the cosmos. He believed that the [[Astronomical object|celestial bodies]] (such as the planets and the Sun) had something called an [[unmoved mover]] that put the celestial bodies in motion. Aristotle tried to explain everything through mathematics and physics, but sometimes explained things such as the motion of celestial bodies through a higher power such as God. Aristotle did not have the technological advancements that would have explained the motion of celestial bodies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aristotle |title="De Caelo" [On the Heavens] |publisher=The Internet Classics Archive |date=7 January 2009 |location=Translated by J. L. Stocks |pages=279 a17-30}}</ref> In addition, Aristotle had many views on the elements. He believed that everything was derived of the elements earth, water, air, fire, and lastly the [[Aether (classical element)|Aether]]. The Aether was a celestial element, and therefore made up the matter of the celestial bodies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frede |first=Dorothea |date=1976 |title=On the Elements: Aristotle's Early Cosmology |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2008.0115 |journal=Journal of the History of Philosophy |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=227–229 |doi=10.1353/hph.2008.0115 |s2cid=144547689 |via=Project MUSE}}</ref> The elements of earth, water, air and fire were derived of a combination of two of the characteristics of hot, wet, cold, and dry, and all had their inevitable place and motion. The motion of these elements begins with earth being the closest to "the Earth," then water, air, fire, and finally Aether. In addition to the makeup of all things, Aristotle came up with theories as to why things did not return to their natural motion. He understood that water sits above earth, air above water, and fire above air in their natural state. He explained that although all elements must return to their natural state, the human body and other living things have a constraint on the elements – thus not allowing the elements making one who they are to return to their natural state.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Monte |date=2004 |title=Review of The Order of Nature in Aristotle's Physics: Place and the Elements, Helen S. Lang |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/432288 |journal=Isis |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=687–688 |doi=10.1086/432288 |jstor=10.1086/432288 |issn=0021-1753 |access-date=4 December 2022 |archive-date=4 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204052419/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/432288 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The important legacy of this period included substantial advances in factual knowledge, especially in [[anatomy]], [[zoology]], [[botany]], [[mineralogy]], [[geography]], [[mathematics]] and [[astronomy]]; an awareness of the importance of certain scientific problems, especially those related to the problem of change and its causes; and a recognition of the methodological importance of applying mathematics to natural phenomena and of undertaking empirical research.<ref>[[G.E.R. Lloyd]], ''Early Greek Science: Thales to Aristotle'', (New York: W.W. Norton, 1970), pp. 144–146.</ref><ref name="NYT-20240406" /> In the [[Hellenistic age]] scholars frequently employed the principles developed in earlier Greek thought: the application of mathematics and deliberate empirical research, in their scientific investigations.<ref>[[G. E. R. Lloyd|Lloyd, G. E. R.]]  ''Greek Science after Aristotle''. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1973.  {{ISBN|0-393-00780-4}}, p. 177.</ref> Thus, clear unbroken lines of influence lead from ancient [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[Hellenistic philosophy|Hellenistic philosophers]], to medieval [[Early Islamic philosophy|Muslim philosophers]] and [[Islamic science|scientists]], to the European [[Renaissance]] and [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], to the secular [[science]]s of the modern day.
Neither reason nor inquiry began with the Ancient Greeks, but the [[Socratic method]] did, along with the idea of [[Substantial form|Forms]], give great advances in geometry, [[logic]], and the natural sciences. According to [[Benjamin Farrington]], former professor of [[Classics]] at [[Swansea University]]:
:"Men were weighing for thousands of years before [[Archimedes]] worked out the laws of equilibrium; they must have had practical and intuitional knowledge of the principals involved. What Archimedes did was to sort out the theoretical implications of this practical knowledge and present the resulting body of knowledge as a logically coherent system."

and again:

:"With astonishment we find ourselves on the threshold of modern science. Nor should it be supposed that by some trick of translation the extracts have been given an air of modernity. Far from it. The vocabulary of these writings and their style are the source from which our own vocabulary and style have been derived."<ref>''Greek Science'', many editions, such as the paperback by Penguin Books. Copyrights in 1944, 1949, 1953, 1961, 1963. The first quote above comes from Part 1, Chapter 1; the second, from Part 2, Chapter 4.</ref>