What are the main contents of The Origins of Western Science?

The Origins of Western Science Description:In The Origins of Western Science, author David Lindberg vividly recounts in plain language all the important themes and events in the history of Western science in antiquity and the Middle Ages, covering a wide range of fields, including mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, optics, natural history, and medicine, with more than a hundred historical images that are especially valuable and rare. The authors offer fresh and original insights into many long-standing historical debates, with particular emphasis on the cultural and social context of science and the influence of philosophy and religion on scientific theory and practice.

Because this book was originally a textbook, it looks very different from reading other books of its kind. Subtitled "The European Scientific Tradition in the Context of Religion, Philosophy, and the Social Establishment, 600 B.C. to 1450 A.D.," the book is not too difficult, and the language is fluent enough to allow the reader to follow along easily as Lindberg tells the reader what he knows, and then gives the reader a few nudges at the right time. The author often points out some of the points of view that differ from his cleanly, so that the reader understands what important differences of opinion there have been about the issue he is discussing, and lets the reader think about it and make his or her own choices. For example, speaking of Thales of Miletus, Lindberg writes: "...... describes Thales, the earliest Miletus philosopher, as a geometer, astronomer, and engineer. Legend has it that he successfully predicted a solar eclipse in 585 B.C. However, the source of this legend is unreliable, and the heights reached by Greek astronomy in Thales's time would have made such a prediction impossible. ......"

Throughout the book, the author repeatedly points out to his readers that, when studying the history of science, "we must examine ...... all assertions with a healthy skepticism." For example, with regard to Pythagoras, a great man of whom the history of science must speak, Lindberg argues that we must be careful with all the rumors and evaluations that have been made. After quoting an Aristotelian remark about Pythagoras, David Lindberg writes: "This is a puzzling passage, and our uncertainty also arises from the fact that Aristotle may not have fully understood the doctrine of the Pythagoreans or not have done it full justice. Did the Pythagoreans fully believe that material things are constructed from numbers? Or did they simply want to claim that material things have a fundamental property of number by which insight into the nature of things can be gained? We will never know the definitive answer. A sensible understanding of the Pythagorean view is that there is a sense in which numbers come first and all other things are their products; in this sense, numbers are the fundamental reality from which material things derive their existence, or at least their properties. If one is more cautious, one can at least also assert that the Pythagoreans regarded number as a fundamental aspect of the real, and mathematics as an essential tool for the inquiry into this real." This exploratory discussion clearly helps us to understand science and the history of science properly. Discussions like this one abound in this book, and it can be said that it is one of the book's features and one of its great strengths.

In addition, the book is accompanied by 116 photographs and drawings, which make people look at it as if they were experiencing the scene, which is both intuitive and vivid, and also gives people ample room for imagination. The most commendable thing is that the photographs in the Chinese translation of this book are very clear, which is very different from the black and blurry photographs in many Chinese translated books.

Opening The Origins of Western Science, I believe that all those who are interested in science will be very interested in this book, from which they will benefit a lot, and experts in the history of science will find this book an indispensable and excellent teaching material.