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The Beginnings of Western Science

The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and
Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450, Second Edition
DAVID C. LINDBERG
480 pages | 76 halftones, 36 line drawings, 6 maps, 1 table | 6 x 9 | 1992, 2008
Paper $25.00
ISBN: 9780226482057
Published April 2008
E-book $10.00 to $18.00
ISBN: 9780226482040
Published February 2010

When it was first published in 1992, The Beginnings of Western Science was lauded as the first successful
attempt ever to present a unified account of both ancient and medieval science in a single volume.
Chronicling the development of scientific ideas, practices, and institutions from pre-Socratic
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Table of Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
1. SCIENCE BEFORE THE GREEKS
What Is Science?
Prehistoric Attitudes toward Nature

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The Beginnings of Science in Egypt and Mesopotamia

2. THE GREEKS AND THE COSMOS
The World of Homer and Hesiod
The First Greek Philosophers
The Milesians and the Question of Underlying Reality
The Question of Change
The Problem of Knowledge
Plato's World of Forms
Plato's Cosmology
The Achievement of Early Greek Philosophy
3. ARISTOTLE'S PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE
Life and Works
Metaphysics and Epistemology
Nature and Change
Cosmology
Motion, Terrestrial and Celestial
Aristotle as a Biologist
Aristotle's Achievement
4. HELLENISTIC NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
Schools and Education
The Lyceum after Aristotle
Epicureans and Stoics
5. THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES IN ANTIQUITY
The Application of Mathematics to Nature
Greek Mathematics
Early Greek Astronomy
Cosmological Developments
Hellenistic Planetary Astronomy
The Science of Optics
The Science of Weights
6. GREEK AND ROMAN MEDICINE
Early Greek Medicine
Hippocratic Medicine
Hellenistic Anatomy and Physiology
Hellenistic Medical Sects
Galen and the Culmination of Hellenistic Medicine
7. ROMAN AND EARLY MEDIEVAL SCIENCE
Greeks and Romans
Popularizers and Encyclopedists
Translations

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The Role of Christianity

Roman and Early Medieval Education
Two Early Medieval Natural Philosophers
Learning and Science in the Greek East
8. ISLAMIC SCIENCE
The Eastward Diffusion of Greek Science
The Birth, Expansion, and Hellenization of Islam
Translation of Greek Science into Arabic
Islamic Reception and Appropriation of Greek Science
The Islamic Scientific Achievement
The Fate of Islamic Science
9. THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING IN THE WEST
The Middle Ages
Carolingian Reforms
The Schools of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Natural Philosophy in the Twelfth-Century Schools
The Translation Movement
The Rise of Universities
10. THE RECOVERY AND ASSIMILATION OF GREEK AND ISLAMIC SCIENCE
The New Learning
Aristotle in the University Curriculum
Points of Conflict
Resolution: Science as Handmaiden
Radical Aristotelianism and the Condemnations of 1270
and 1277
The Relations of Philosophy and Theology after 1277
11. THE MEDIEVAL COSMOS
The Structure of the Cosmos
Mathematical Astronomy
Astrology
The Surface of the Earth
12. The Physics of the Sublunar Region
Matter, Form, and Substance
Combination and Mixture
Alchemy
Change and Motion
The Nature of Motion
Mathematical Description of Motion
The Dynamics of Local Motion
Quantification of Dynamics
The Science of Optics

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13. MEDIEVAL MEDICINE AND NATURAL HISTORY

The Medical Tradition of the Early Middle Ages
The Transformation of Western Medicine
Medical Practitioners
Medicine in the Universities
Disease, Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Therapy
Anatomy and Surgery
Development of the Hospital
Natural History
14. THE LEGACY OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL SCIENCE
The Continuity Question
Candidates for Revolutionary Status
The Scientific Revolution
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Review Quotes
Angela Smith | H-Net Review
"The value of Lindberg's book as an introductory text for students is clear, but it will also serve as an
excellent resource for non-specialists, particularly those teaching comprehensive survey courses. . . . [The
book] offers a concise, highly accessible introduction to the essential elements of western knowledge
about the natural world that will help guide instructors in developing curricula. . . . The possibilities
presented to enrich and enliven a general history course abound.. . . . This second edition of The
Beginnings of Western Science will remain a fundamental and reliable resource for many years to come."
F. Jamil Ragep | Isis
"This is a fine book, the culmination of a century of distinguished research on premodern European
science. And it tells an important story that . . . needs to be read not only by undergraduates but by
professional historians and anyone seeking to understand the origins of modern science."
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu

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