ORGENES DE LA CIENCIA Los esfuerzos para sistematizar el conocimiento se remontan a los tiempos prehistricos, como atestiguan los dibujos

que los pueblos del paleoltico pintaban en las paredes de las cuevas, los datos numricos grabados en hueso o piedra o los objetos fabricados por las civilizaciones del neoltico. Los testimonios escritos ms antiguos de investigaciones protocientficas proceden de las culturas mesopotmicas, y corresponden a listas de observaciones astronmicas, sustancias qumicas o sntomas de enfermedades adems de numerosas tablas matemticas inscritas en caracteres cuneiformes sobre tablillas de arcilla. Otras tablillas que datan aproximadamente del 2000 a. C. demuestran que los babilonios conocan el teorema de Pitgoras, resolvan ecuaciones cuadrticas y haban desarrollado un sistema sexagesimal de medidas (basado en el nmero 60) del que se derivan las unidades modernas para tiempos y ngulos. En el valle del Nilo se han descubierto papiros de un periodo cronolgico prximo al de las culturas mesopotmicas que contienen informacin sobre el tratamiento de heridas y enfermedades, la distribucin de pan y cerveza, y la forma de hallar el volumen de una parte de una pirmide. Algunas de las unidades de longitud actuales proceden del sistema de medidas egipcio y el calendario que empleamos es el resultado indirecto de observaciones astronmicas prehelnicas. ORGENES DE LA TEORA CIENTFICA El conocimiento cientfico en Egipto y Mesopotamia era sobre todo de naturaleza prctica, sin excesiva sistematizacin. Uno de los primeros sabios griegos que investig las causas fundamentales de los fenmenos naturales fue, en el siglo VI a. C., el filsofo Tales de Mileto que introdujo el concepto de que la Tierra era un disco plano que flotaba en el elemento universal, el agua. El matemtico y filsofo Pitgoras, de poca posterior, estableci una escuela de pensamiento en la que las matemticas se convirtieron en disciplina fundamental en toda investigacin cientfica. Los eruditos pitagricos postulaban una Tierra esfrica que se mova en una rbita circular alrededor de un fuego central. En Atenas, en el siglo IV a. C., la filosofa natural jnica y la ciencia matemtica pitagrica llegaron a una sntesis en la lgica de Platn y Aristteles. En la Academia de Platn se subrayaba el razonamiento deductivo y la representacin matemtica; en el Liceo de Aristteles primaban el razonamiento inductivo y la descripcin cualitativa. La interaccin entre estos dos enfoques de la ciencia ha llevado a la mayora de los avances posteriores. Durante la llamada poca helenstica, que sigui a la muerte de Alejandro Magno, el matemtico, astrnomo y gegrafo Eratstenes realiz una medida asombrosamente precisa de las dimensiones de la Tierra. El astrnomo Aristarco de Samos propuso un sistema planetario heliocntrico (con centro en el Sol), aunque este concepto no hall aceptacin en la poca antigua. El matemtico e inventor Arqumedes sent las bases de la mecnica y la hidrosttica (una rama de la mecnica de fluidos); el filsofo y cientfico Teofrasto fund la botnica; el astrnomo Hiparco de Nicea desarroll la trigonometra, y los anatomistas y mdicos Herfilo y Erasstrato basaron la anatoma y la fisiologa en la diseccin. Tras la destruccin de Cartago y Corinto por los romanos en el ao 146 a. C., la investigacin cientfica perdi impulso hasta que se produjo una breve recuperacin en el siglo II d. C. bajo el emperador y filsofo romano Marco Aurelio. El sistema de Tolomeo una teora geocntrica (con centro en la Tierra) del Universo propuesta por el astrnomo Claudio

Tolomeo y las obras mdicas del filsofo y mdico Galeno se convirtieron en tratados cientficos de referencia para las civilizaciones posteriores. Un siglo despus surgi la nueva ciencia experimental de la alquimia a partir de la metalurgia. Sin embargo, hacia el ao 300, la alquimia fue adquiriendo un tinte de secretismo y simbolismo que redujo los avances que sus experimentos podran haber proporcionado a la ciencia. LA TECNOLOGA EN LA ANTIGEDAD Y EN LA EDAD MEDIA La tecnologa ha sido un proceso acumulativo clave en la experiencia humana. Es posible que esto se comprenda mejor en un contexto histrico que traza la evolucin de los primeros seres humanos, desde un periodo de herramientas muy simples a las redes complejas a gran escala que influyen en la mayor parte de la vida humana contempornea. Con el fin de mantener la sencillez del siguiente resumen, se tratan con mayor detalle los desarrollos del mundo industrializado, pero tambin se incluyen algunos desarrollos de otras culturas.
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La tecnologa primitiva Los artefactos humanos ms antiguos que se conocen son las hachas manuales de piedra encontradas en frica, en el este de Asia y en Europa. Datan, aproximadamente, del 250.000 a.C., y sirven para definir el comienzo de la edad de piedra. Los primeros fabricantes de herramientas fueron grupos nmadas de cazadores que usaban las caras afiladas de la piedra para cortar su comida y fabricar ropa y tiendas. Alrededor del 100.000 a.C., las cuevas de los ancestros homnidos de los hombres modernos contenan hachas ovaladas, rascadores, cuchillos y otros instrumentos de piedra que indicaban que el hacha de mano original se haba cnvertido en una herramienta para fabricar otras herramientas. Muchos miembros del reino animal utilizan herramientas, pero esta capacidad para crear herramientas que, a su vez, sirvan para fabricar otras distingue a la especie humana del resto de los seres vivos. El siguiente gran paso de la tecnologa fue el control del fuego. Golpeando piedras contra piritas para producir chispas es posible encender fuego y liberarse de la necesidad de mantener los fuegos obtenidos de fuentes naturales. Adems de los beneficios obvios de la luz y el calor, el fuego tambin se us para cocer cacharros de arcilla, fabricando recipientes resistentes que podan utilizarse para cocinar cereales y para la infusin y la fermentacin. La tecnologa primitiva no estaba centrada solamente en las herramientas prcticas. Se pulverizaron minerales de color para obtener pigmentos, que se aplicaban al cuerpo humano, a utensilios de arcilla, a cestas, ropa y otros objetos. En su bsqueda de pigmentos, las gentes de la antigedad descubrieron el mineral verde llamado malaquita y el mineral azul denominado azurita. Cuando se golpeaban estas menas, ricas en cobre, no se convertan en polvo, sino que se doblaban; se podan pulir, pero no partir. Por estas cualidades, el cobre en trozos pequeos se introdujo muy pronto en la joyera. Estos pueblos tambin aprendieron que, si este material era forjado repetidamente y puesto al fuego, no se parta ni se agrietaba. Este proceso de eliminacin de tensiones del metal, llamado recocido, fue introducido por las civilizaciones de la edad de piedra, sobre todo cuando hacia el ao 3000 a.C. se descubri tambin que la aleacin de estao y cobre

produca bronce. El bronce no es slo ms maleable que el cobre, sino que tambin proporciona una mejor arista, una cualidad necesaria para objetos como hoces y espadas. Aunque haba depsitos de cobre en Siria y Turqua, en las cabeceras de los ros Tigris y ufrates, los mayores depsitos de cobre del mundo antiguo se encontraron en la isla de Creta. Con el desarrollo de barcos capaces de navegar para llegar a este recurso extremadamente valioso, Knsos (en Creta) se convirti en un rico centro minero durante la edad del bronce.

Desarrollo de la agricultura Cuando lleg la edad del bronce, las distintas sociedades distribuidas por cada continente haban conseguido ya varios avances tecnolgicos. Se desarrollaron arpones con pas, el arco y las flechas, las lmparas de aceite animal y las agujas de hueso para fabricar recipientes y ropa. Tambin se embarcaron en una revolucin cultural mayor, el cambio de la caza y la recoleccin nmada a la prctica sedentaria de la agricultura. Las primeras comunidades agrcolas surgieron al final de la glaciacin ms reciente (hacia el ao 10.000 a.C.). Sus huellas pueden encontrarse en reas muy lejanas entre s, desde el sureste de Asia hasta Mxico. Las ms famosas se dieron en Mesopotamia (el Irak actual) en los valles de las riberas frtiles y templadas del Tigris y el ufrates. El suelo de estas frtiles laderas se trabajaba con facilidad para plantar, y contaba con un gran nmero de rboles para obtener lea. Hacia el ao 5000 a.C., las comunidades agrcolas se establecieron en muchas partes del mundo, incluidas las reas conocidas hoy como Siria, Turqua, Lbano, Israel, Jordania, Grecia, y las islas de Creta y Chipre. Las sociedades agrcolas construyeron en estos lugares edificaciones de piedra, usaron la hoz para cosechar los cereales, desarrollaron un arado primitivo y mejoraron sus tcnicas en el trabajo con metales. Tambin comenz el comercio de piedras. Hacia el 4000 a.C., la agricultura se extendi desde estos centros hacia el Oeste al ro Danubio en Europa central, hacia el Sur a las costas del Mediterrneo de frica (incluido el ro Nilo), y hacia el Este hasta el valle del Indo. El desarrollo de la cuenca del Nilo aport otros avances tecnolgicos. En ese valle, el ro se inunda al comienzo de la primavera. Tuvo que desarrollarse un sistema de irrigacin y canales para regar los cultivos durante las estaciones de cosecha, cuando la lluvia es insuficiente. La propiedad de la tierra tena que determinarse cada ao mediante un sistema de medicin, ya que los marcadores de la propiedad se perdan con frecuencia con las inundaciones. Los valles del Tigris y el ufrates presentaban otros problemas tecnolgicos. Las inundaciones se producan despus de la estacin de cosecha, por lo que era necesario aprender la tcnica de construir diques y barreras para las inundaciones.

Otros descubrimientos primitivos Para ayudar al transporte eficiente de minerales para la creciente industria del cobre se construyeron carros de dos ruedas (la rueda ms antigua databa aproximadamente del ao 3500 a.C. en Mesopotamia). Sin embargo, los medios de transporte ms utilizados fueron los barcos de juncos y las balsas de madera, que surgieron primero en Mesopotamia y Egipto. Un resultado importante del mercado de la cermica, los metales y las materias primas fue la

creacin de una marca o sello, que se usaba para identificar a los creadores o propietarios particulares. La tecnologa tambin comenz a manifestar otro de sus efectos, una alteracin mayor del entorno por la introduccin de nuevas prcticas: por ejemplo, la demanda de lea condujo a la deforestacin, y el pastoreo excesivo de ovejas y de ganado vacuno provoc que crecieran menos rboles nuevos en las tierras pobres de la regin. As, la doma de animales, la agricultura de monocultivo, la deforestacin y las inundaciones peridicas llevaron a la aparicin gradual de reas desrticas.

El desarrollo de las ciudades Despus del ao 4000 a.C. apareci una de las creaciones ms complejas de la humanidad: la ciudad. Desde este punto de vista, la tecnologa no puede describirse slo en trminos de herramientas simples, avances agrcolas y procesos tcnicos como la metalurgia, ya que la ciudad es en s misma un sistema tecnolgico. ste es un hecho evidente en los primeros smbolos escritos que se usaron para representar una ciudad: un crculo con redes de lneas que indicaban los primeros sistemas de transporte y comunicaciones. La aparicin de la ciudad hizo posible un excedente de alimentos y una abundancia de riqueza material que posibilit la construccin de templos, tumbas y amurallamientos. La acumulacin de metales preciosos, la construccin de murallas defensivas, y el control de los ejrcitos y los sacerdotes aseguraron la ascendencia del rey, al que puede denominarse el primer tecnlogo urbano. Los zigurats de Mesopotamia y las pirmides de Egipto o Mxico simbolizan el poder organizativo y la magnitud tecnolgica de los primeros asentamientos urbanos. La construccin de estas edificaciones y monumentos enormes, el crecimiento del mercado de los productos de metal y el desarrollo de los recursos acuferos tambin llev a una normalizacin de los sistemas de medida. En Mesopotamia, el codo se convirti en el patrn de longitud. El tiempo se meda en Egipto con un calendario que divida el ciclo anual de estaciones en meses y das. El crecimiento de las ciudades tambin estimul una necesidad mayor de escribir. Los egipcios mejoraron la tabla de arcilla, que era difcil de manejar, con la fabricacin de un material similar al papel sobre el cual escriban con jeroglficos. Este material se fabricaba utilizando la planta del papiro. Adems, la ciudad provoc una nueva divisin del trabajo: el sistema de castas. Esta estructura proporcionaba seguridad, estatus social y ocio a la clase intelectual de los escribas, mdicos, profesores, ingenieros, magos y adivinadores. Sin embargo, el ejrcito contaba con los mayores recursos.

El auge del ejrcito Las primeras ciudades fueron tambin construidas dentro de murallas para defenderse; estaban organizadas para la batalla y la conquista. Los centros urbanos de Ur, Nippur, Uruk, Tebas, Helipolis, Assur, Nnive y Babilonia fueron arsenales de armamento destructivo. El objetivo de una fuerza militar era devastar la ciudad de su enemigo. Ur, en Sumeria, no fue slo una de las primeras grandes ciudades en alzarse (hacia el 4000 a.C.), sino que tambin fue una de las primeras destruidas (aproximadamente en el 2000 a.C.). De modo similar, en el valle del Indo, la gran ciudad de Mohenjo-Daro fue fundada sobre el 2500 a.C. y destruida

hacia el 1700 a.C. por los ejrcitos de carros del norte. El mismo ejemplo se repiti en Per y en Ecuador hacia el ao 1000 a.C. y ms tarde en Mxico y Centroamrica. La tecnologa militar del mundo antiguo de desarroll en tres fases inconexas. En la primera fase, surgi la infantera con sus cascos de piel o de cobre, arcos, lanzas, escudos y espadas. A esta fase le sigui el desarrollo de los carros, que al principio fueron vehculos pesados para el uso de los comandantes. La inclusin posterior de radios en las ruedas para aligerarlas, y un bocado y una brida para el caballo, hizo del carro una mquina de guerra ligera que poda aventajar a la infantera enemiga. La tercera fase se centr en el incremento de la movilidad y la velocidad de la caballera. Los asirios, con su conocimiento del armamento de hierro y sus esplndidos jinetes, dominaron la mayora del mundo civilizado entre el 1200 y el 612 a.C. Con la introduccin del estribo en Asia, aproximadamente en el siglo II a.C., los jinetes eran capaces de obtener mejor estabilidad en la lucha con espada, e hicieron que los carros de guerra quedaran obsoletos. Las unidades de caballera de ataque rpido, que se observaron primero en Egipto y Persia, se convirtieron en las principales fuerzas militares. Con su aparicin surgi la necesidad de mejores transportes y sistemas de comunicacin. Los persas fueron los primeros en desarrollar una red de carreteras y estaciones de parada para recorrer su vasto imperio, que se extenda desde el Punjab al mar Mediterrneo.

Tecnologa griega y romana El Imperio persa de Ciro II el Grande fue derrotado y sucedido por el imperio creado por Alejandro Magno. Los griegos fueron los primeros en convertirse en una potencia, a travs de sus conocimientos en astilleros y comercio, y mediante su colonizacin de las costas del Mediterrneo. La derrota de los persas se debi en parte al poder naval griego. Los persas y los griegos tambin introdujeron una nueva casta dentro de la divisin del trabajo: la esclavitud. Durante la edad de oro griega, su civilizacin dependa de los esclavos en todo lo concerniente al trabajo manual. La mayora de los sabios estaban de acuerdo en que en las sociedades donde se practicaba la esclavitud los problemas de la productividad se resolvan mediante el incremento del nmero de trabajadores, antes que por los mtodos nuevos de produccin o nuevas fuentes energticas. Debido a esto, los conocimientos tericos y la enseanza en Grecia (y posteriormente en Roma) estuvieron muy alejados del trabajo fsico y de la fabricacin. Esto no quiere decir que los griegos no desarrollaran nuevas ideas tecnolgicas. Arqumedes, Hern de Alejandra, Ctesas y Tolomeo escribieron sobre los principios de sifones, poleas, palancas, manivelas, bombas contra incendios, ruedas dentadas, vlvulas y turbinas. Algunas contribuciones prcticas importantes de los griegos fueron el reloj de agua de Ctesas, la dioptra (un instrumento de topografa) de Hern de Alejandra y el tornillo hidrulico de Arqumedes. Del mismo modo, Tales de Mileto mejor la navegacin al introducir mtodos de triangulacin y Anaximandro dio forma al primer mapa del mundo. No obstante, los avances tecnolgicos de los griegos no fueron a la par con sus contribuciones al conocimiento terico. El Imperio romano que conquist y sucedi al de los griegos fue similar en este aspecto. Los romanos, sin embargo, fueron grandes tecnlogos en cuanto a la organizacin y la construccin. Establecieron una civilizacin urbana que disfrut del primer periodo largo de paz en la historia de la humanidad. El primer gran cambio que se produjo en este periodo fue en la ingeniera con la construccin de enormes sistemas de obras pblicas. Con el uso de cemento resistente al agua y el principio del arco, los ingenieros romanos construyeron

70.800 km de carreteras a travs de su vasto imperio. Tambin construyeron numerosos circos, baos pblicos y cientos de acueductos, alcantarillas y puentes; asimismo fueron responsables de la introduccin del molino de agua y del posterior diseo de ruedas hidrulicas con empuje superior e inferior, que se usaron para moler grano, aserrar madera y cortar mrmol. En el mbito militar, los romanos avanzaron tecnolgicamente con la mejora de armas, como la jabalina y la catapulta.

By careful thinking based upon observation, some ancient Greeks realized that it was possible to find regularities and patterns hidden in nature and that those regularities were the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. It became evident that even nature had to obey certain rules and by knowing those rules one could predict the behaviour of nature. Observation was eventually undervalued by the Greeks in favour of the deductive process, where knowledge is built by means of pure thought. This method is key in mathematics and the Greeks put such an emphasis on it that they falsely believed that deduction was the way to obtain the highest knowledge. Early Achievements

During the 26th Dynasty of Egypt (c. 685525 BCE), the ports of the Nile were opened for the first time to Greek trade. Important Greek figures such as Thales and Pythagoras visited Egypt, and brought with them new skills and knowledge. Ionia, in addition to Egyptian influence, was exposed to the culture and ideas ofMesopotamia through its neighbour, the kingdom of Lydia. According to Greek tradition, the process of replacing the notion of supernatural explanation with the concept of a universe that is governed by laws of nature begins in Ionia. Thales of Miletus, about 600 BCE first developed the idea that the world can be explained without resorting to supernatural explanations. It is high likely that the astronomical knowledge that Thales got from Egyptian and Babylonian astronomy allowed him to predict a solar eclipse which took place in May 28th 585 BCE. Anaximander, another Ionian, argued that since human infants are helpless at birth, if the first human had somehow appeared on earth as an infant, it would not have survived. Anaximander reasoned that people must, therefore, have evolved from other animals whose young are hardier. It was Empedocles who first taught an early form of evolution and survival of the fittest. He believed that originally count less tribes of mortal creatures were scattered abroad endowed with all manner of forms, a wonder to behold, but in the end, only certain forms were able to survive. The Influence of Mathematics The Greek achievements in mathematics and astronomy were one of the finest in antiquity. Mathematics developed first, aided by the influence of Egyptian mathematics; astronomy flourished later during theHellenistic age, after Alexander the Great conquered the East, aided by the influence of Babylon.

In general, ancient science used experimentation to help theoretical understanding while modern science uses theory to pursue practical results.
A powerful aspect of science is that it aims to detach itself from notions with specific use and looks for general principles with broad applications. The more general science becomes the more abstract it is and has more applications. What the Greeks derived from Egyptian mathematics were mainly rules of thumbs with specific applications. Egyptians knew, for example, that a triangle whose sides are in a 3:4:5 ratio is a right triangle. Pythagoras took this concept and stretched it to its limit by deducting a mathematical theorem that bears his name: that, in a right triangle, the square on the opposite side of the right angle (the hypotenuse) is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. This was true not only for the 3:4:5 triangle, but it was a principle applicable to any other right triangle, regardless of its dimensions. Pythagoras was the founder and leader of a sect where philosophy, religion, art and mysticism were all fused together. In ancient times, Greeks did not make a clear distinction between science and non-scientific disciplines. There is a widespread argument which states that the coexistence of philosophy, art, mysticism, and other non-scientific disciplines interacting

together with science has interfered with the development of scientific ideas. This seems to show a misconception of how the human spirit works. It is true that in the past moral and mystic bias has either delayed or led some knowledge up a blind alley and that the sharp limits of scientific knowledge were not clear. However, it is equally true that non-scientific disciplines have enhanced the imagination of the human mind, provided inspiration to approach problems that seemed impossible to solve and triggered human creativity to consider counter-intuitive possibilities (such as a spherical earth in motion) that time proved to be true. The human spirit has found plenty of motivation for scientific progress in non-scientific disciplines and it is likely that without the driving force of art, mysticism and philosophy, scientific progress would have lacked much of its impetus. The Deductive Process By discovering mathematical theorems, the Greeks came across the art of deductive reasoning. In order to build their mathematical knowledge they came to conclusions by reasoning deductively from what appeared to be self-evident. This approach proved to be powerful and its success in mathematics encouraged its application in many other disciplines. The Greeks eventually came to believe that the only acceptable way of obtaining knowledge was the use of deduction. However, this way of doing science had serious limitations when it was applied to other areas of knowledge, but from the standpoint of the Greeks it was hard to notice. In antiquity, the starting point to discover principles was always an idea in the mind of the philosopher: sometimes observations were undervalued and some other times the Greeks were not able to make a sharp distinction between empirical observations and logical arguments. Modern scientific method no longer relies on this technique; today science seeks to discover principles based on observations as a starting point. Likewise, the logical method of science today favours induction over deduction: instead of building conclusions on an assumed set of self-evident generalizations, induction starts with observations of particular facts and derives generalizations from them. Deduction did not work for some kind of knowledge. What is the distance from Athens to Chios? In this case, the answer cannot be derived from abstract principles; we have to actually measure it. The Greeks, when necessary, looked at nature to get the answers they were looking for, but they still considered that the highest type of knowledge was the one derived directly from the intellect. It is interesting to note that when observations were taken in consideration, it tended to be subordinated to the theoretical knowledge. An example of this could be one of the surviving works of Archimedes, The Method, which explains how mechanical experiments can help the understanding of geometry. In general, ancient science used experimentation to help theoretical understanding while modern science uses theory to pursue practical results. The undervaluing of empirical observation and the emphasis on pure thought as a reliable starting point for building knowledge can also be reflected in the famous account (in all probability apocryphal) of the Greek philosopher Democritus who removed his own eyes so the sight would not distract him from his speculations. There is also a story about a student of Plato who asked with irritation during a mathematics class But what is the use of all this? Plato called a slave, ordered him to give the student a coin, and said, Now you need not feel your instruction has been entirely to no purpose With these words, the student was expelled.

Aristotelian Logic Aristotle was the first philosopher who developed a systematic study of logic. His framework would become an authority in deductive reasoning for over two thousand years. Although he repeatedly admitted the importance of induction, he prioritized the use of deduction to build knowledge. It eventually turned out that his influence strengthened the over-estimation of deduction in science and of syllogisms in logic. The doctrine of syllogism is his most influential contribution to logic. He defined the syllogism as a discourse in which certain things having been stated, something else follows of necesity from their being so. A well known example is:
All men are mortal. (major premise) Socrates is a man. (minor premise) Socrates is mortal. (conclusion)

This argument cannot be logically challenged, nor can we challenge its conclusion. However, this way of doing science has, at least, two failures. In the first place, the way the major premise works. Why should we accept the major premise without question? The only way that a major premise can be accepted is to present an obvious statement, such as all men are mortal, which is considered self-evident. This means that the conclusion of this argument is not a new insight but rather, something that was already implied either directly or indirectly within the major premise. Secondly, it does not seem to be an actual need to go through all this argumentation in order to prove logically that Socrates is mortal. Another problem of this way of building knowledge is that if we want to deal with areas of knowledge beyond the ordinary everyday life, there is a great risk of choosing wrong selfevident generalizations as a starting point of reasoning. An example could be two of the axioms upon which all Greek astronomy was built: (1) The earth is resting motionless at the centre of the universe. (2) The earth is corrupt and imperfect, while the heavens are eternal, changeless, and perfect. These two axioms appear to be self-evident and they are supported by our intuitive experience. However, scientific ideas can be counter-intuitive. Today we know that intuition alone should never be the guide for knowledge and that all intuition should be sceptically tested. The errors in the way of reasoning are sometimes hard to detect and the Greeks were not able to notice anything wrong with their way of doing science. There is a very lucid example of this by Isaac Asimov:
...if brandy and water, whiskey and water, vodka and water, and rum and water are all intoxicating beverages, one may jump to the conclusion that the intoxicating factor must be the ingredient these drinks hold in common-namely, water. There is something wrong with this reasoning, but the fault in the logic is not immediately obvious; and in more subtle cases, the error may be hard indeed to discover. (Asimov, 7)

Aristotles logic system was recorded in five treatises known as the Organon, and although it does not exhaust all logic, it was a pioneering one, revered for centuries and regarded as the ultimate solution to logic and reference for science. Legacy Aristotles contribution in logic and science became an authority and remained unchallenged as late as the modern age. It took many centuries to notice the flaws of Aristotles approach to science. Platonic influence also contributed to undervalue inference and experimentat ion: Platos philosophy considered the world to be only an imperfect representation of the ideal truth sitting in the world of ideas. Another obstacle for Greek science was the notion of an ultimate truth. After the Greeks worked out all the implications of their axioms, further progress seemed impossible. Some aspects of knowledge seemed to them complete and some of their notions were turned into dogmas not open to further analysis. Today we understand that there are never enough observations that could turn a notion into ultimate. No amount of inductive testing can tell us that a generalization is completely and absolutely valid. A single observation that contradicts a theory forces the theory to be reviewed. Many important scholars have blamed Plato and Aristotle for delaying scientific progress, since their ideas were turned into dogmas and, especially during medieval times, nobody could challenge their work while keeping their reputation intact. It is highly likely that science would have reached its modern state a lot earlier if these ideas had been open to review, but this by no means questions the genius of these two talented Greeks. The mistakes of a gifted mind can appear to be legitimate and remain accepted for centuries. The errors of a fool become evident sooner rather than later. The term science comes from Latin scientia, meaning knowledge. It could be defined as a systematic attempt to discover, by means of observation and reasoning, particular facts about the world, and to establish laws connecting facts with one another and (in fortunate cases) to make it possible to predict future occurrences. There are some other definitions of science, but they all refer in one way or another to this attempt to discover facts and the ability to figure out patterns. There is a truly inspiring quote from Carl Sagan about the scientific attitude.
If we lived on a planet where nothing ever changed, there would be little to do. There would be nothing to figure out. There would be no impetus for science. And if we lived in an unpredictable world, where things changed in random or very complex ways, we would not be able to figure things out. But we live in an in-between universe, where things change, but according to patterns, rules, or as we call them, laws of nature. If I throw a stick up in the air, it always falls down. If the sun sets in the west, it always rises again the next morning in the east. And so it becomes possible to figure things out. We can do science, and with it we can improve our lives. (Carl Sagan, 59)

Early developments

In North America, the Cherokee said that eclipses were caused when the moon (male) visits his wife, the sun and the Ojibway believed the sun would be totally extinguished in an eclipse, so they used to shoot flaming arrows to keep it alight. According to the Vikings, the sun and the moon are being chased by two wolves, Skoll and Hati. When either wolf successfully catches their prey, an eclipse occurs. This is why Nordic people rushed to rescue victims by making as much noise as they could to scare off the wolves.
Skoll the wolf who shall scare the Moon Till he flies to the Wood-of-Woe: Hati the wolf, Hridvitnirs kin, Who shall pursue the sun. (The Elder Edda. Grmnisml, 39)

It is reasonable to think that after some time people realized that the sun and the moon would eventually emerge from the eclipse regardless of whether they scared off the wolves. In societies where they had record keeping on celestial events, they must have noticed after some time that eclipses do not happen at random, but rather in regular patterns that repeated themselves. Some events in nature clearly occur according to rules, but there are others that do not display a clear pattern of occurrence and they even do not seem to happen as a result of a specific cause. Earthquakes, storms and pestilences all seem to occur randomly and natural explanations do not seem to be relevant. Therefore, supernatural explanations arose to account for such events. Most of these explanations merged with myth and legends. Since primitive times we have tried to control the course of natural events. Supernatural explanations gave rise to magic, an attempt to control nature by means of rite and spell. Magic is based on mans confidence that he can dominate nature directly: he is convinced that by performing certain spells, a specific event will take place. James Frazer has suggested that there is a link between magic and science, since both believe in the cause-and-effect principle. In magic, the causes are somehow unclear and they tend to be based upon spontaneous thoughts, while in science, through careful observation and reasoning, the causes are better isolated and understood. Science is founded on the idea that experience, effort and reason are valid; magic believes that intuition and hope cannot fail nor can desire deceive. Ionian school According to Greek tradition, the process of replacing the notion of supernatural explanation with the concept of a universe that is governed by laws of nature begins in Ionia, present day Turkey, a region which was colonized by the Greeks. Thales of Miletus, about 600 BCE first developed the idea that the world can be explained without resorting to supernatural explanations. He was famous for predicting an eclipse which took place in 585 BCE. Anaximander, possibly a student of Thales, argued that since human infants are helpless at birth, if the first human had somehow appeared on earth as an infant, it would not have survived. Anaximander reasoned that people must therefore have evolved from other animals whose young are hardier.

Around the same time Pythagoras, also Ionian, is credited with the formulation of the first known mathematical formulation, the theorem named after him: that the square of the longest side of a right triangle equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Arithmetic and geometry existed already in many other parts of the world, but deductive reasoning from general premises seems to be an Ionian innovation: mathematics, in the sense of demonstrative deductive arguments, begins with Pythagoras. Aristarchus of Samos (one of the last Ionian scientists) around 300 BCE came up with a revolutionary hypothesis. By careful geometrical analysis based on the size of the earths shadow on the moon during a lunar eclipse, Aristarchus concluded that the sun must be much larger than the earth. It is possible that the idea that tiny objects ought to orbit large ones and not the other way around, he became the first known person to argue that the earth was not the centre of our planetary system, but rather that it and the rest of the planets orbit the much larger sun. Aristarchus also suspected that the stars we see in the night sky are actually nothing more than distant suns. Atomism begins around 450 BCE with Leucippus and Democritus. This point of view was very similar to that of modern science, and avoided most of the faults to which some of the Greek speculation was prone. Atomists believed that everything is composed of atoms, which are indestructible and physically indivisible. They were also strict determinists, who believed that everything happens in accordance with natural laws and rejected the notion of purpose or final cause. The final cause of an occurence is an event in the future for the sake of which the occurence takes place, in other words, the why. But when we ask why? concerning a particular event, we may mean either two things: What purpose did this event serve? or we may mean What earlier circumstances caused this event? The answer to the first question is a teleological explanation, or an explanation by the final cause; the answer to the last question is a mechanistic explanation. Experience shows that mechanistic questions leads to scientific knowledge, while teleological questions do not. The atomists asked the mechanistic question, and gave a mechanistic answer. The successors of the atomists were more interested in the teleological question, and thus led science up a blind alley until the Renaissance. In particular, Plato used the concept of final cause to explain things. In the words of Bertrand Russell:
[...]he [Plato] is hardly ever intellectually honest, because he allows himself to judge doctrines by their social consequences. Even about this, he is not honest; he pretends to follow the argument and to be judging by purely theoretical standards, when in fact he is twisting the discussion so as to lead to a virtous result. He introduced this vice in philosophy, where it has persisted ever since. (Russell, History of West., 99)

The Ionian approach was rational and based on observation and in many cases led to conclusions surprisingly similar to what our more sophisticated methods have led us to believe today. Even those Ionian speculations that were inaccurate are to be regarded as scientific hypothesis as long as they do not show undue intrusion of supernatural elements, anthropomorphic desires and moral ideas.

Key points on science

Theology consists of speculations on matters as to which definite knowledge has been unascertainable and it is based on tradition or revelation. Science appeals to human reason rather than to tradition or revelation and it is concerned with testable knowledge. We could add that in general, Philosophy is something intermediate between these two: like theology, its speculations tend to be on matters as to which definite knowledge has, so far, been unascertainable; but like science it uses human reason rather than tradition or revelation.

Scientific ideas are based upon observation and reasoning. Technological developments sometimes allow observations to be more accurate and thus, scientific ideas have to be reviewed. This is not a weakness of science, but probably its major strength: an errorcorrecting process that allows its knowledge to be modified as newer and better data becomes available. It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are based on evidence and observation, not on authority or intuition.

Every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into superstition and pseudoscience.

Science could be interpreted as faulty and unreliable because scientific knowledge has been constantly changing since its very beginning. One could argue that those who hold that view show a misconception of what the science truly is: science is not a body of knowledge, it is a way of thinking.