Summary

That man ever managed to develop a 'scientific' attitude to the natural world is one of the true wonders of human thought. And answering the question of where and how this attitude began can help us better understand the world we live in and the science that governs it. Eureka! shows that science began with the Greeks. Disciplines as diverse as Medicine, Biology, Engineering, Mathematics and Cosmology all have their roots in the Ancient Greeks. Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Archimedes and Hippocrates were amongst its stars, master architects all of modern science as well as the ancient. What lay behind this colossal eruption of scientific activity? Free from intellectual and religious dogma, the Greeks rejected explanation in terms of myths and capricious gods and, in distinguishing between the natural and supernatural, they effectively discovered nature. Theories began to be tested, leading to a rapid increase in their sophistication with new and better ones being developed. Furthermore, the Greeks came to be conscious of the distinction between science and technology. Andrew Gregory unravels the genesis of science in this fascinating exploration of the origins of Western civilisation, and our desire for a rational, legitimating system of the world.