User:CharlesGillingham/Drafts/Lead for History of Science

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Science is a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world, produced by a global community of researchers. The history of mathematics, history of technology, and history of philosophy are distinct areas of research and are covered in other articles.

For most historians, the use of technology or the study of nature in any culture is a form of science.^[1] Some have argued there is a body of techniques (called the scientific method) that distinguishes the scientifc from the pre-scientific. Elements of this method are usually considered include rationality, naturalism, empiricism, observation, experiment, and skepticism. These methods have been used, separately or together, in many different civilizations and many different times.^[2] Others argue science must be defined differently, in terms of the existence of lasting institutions or social roles for science.^[3] A few deny that science can be defined at all.^[4]

[edit] The Birth of Science

There is no single time and place, no civilization or historical period that all historians agree is the "birth of science." Each of these moments have been considered, by one historian or another, as the "true" birth of science.

• Many historians of science begin their study in paleolithic times^[5] and emphasize the foundation laid by Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese and Indian astronomers and craftsman.^[6]
• The Greeks of the Hellenistic world developed logic, geometry, rational argument and a preference for explanations without supernatural beings (i.e, naturalism) and fundamental discoveries were made by the philosophers of Alexandria and by thinkers like Archimedes of Sicily.^[7]
• In Medieval Islam, the empirical experiment was developed by Ibn al-Haytham and a renewed program of mathematical astronomy was initiated al-Batani, who emphasized the importance of skepticism.^[8]
• In 13th century Europe, the first lasting independent institutions of "natural philosophy" were founded by Scholastics like Anselm and Roger Bacon, who encouraged the use of both observation and skepticism.^[9]
• At the beginning of 17th century Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes, inspired by the work of Vesalius, Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, argued persuasively that only these "scientific" methods could remove superstition and lead ultimately to the truth about nature.^[10] In that century, science became fully established and practiced so widely that this period is often called the "Scientific Revolution."^[11]
• Finally, in the 19th century, the term "scientist" was coined (by William Whewell) and science became professionalized.^[12]

[edit] Early cultures

Main article: History of science in early cultures

See also: Alchemy

In prehistoric times, advice and knowledge was passed from generation to generation in an oral tradition. The development of writing enabled knowledge to be stored and communicated across generations with much greater fidelity. Combined with the development of agriculture, which allowed for a surplus of food, it became possible for early civilizations to develop, because more time could be devoted to tasks other than survival.

[edit] Notes