23Chapter 4Physics of the Ancient Greek Era
In the last two chapters we attempted to show how the roots of scientific
thinking first arose in pre-literate societies and then in Neolithic
civilizations. It is with the ancient Greek thinkers, however, that the
study of physics first became defined. The word physics itself is derived
from the Greek word, φuσισ (phusis) meaning nature. The Greeks gave
more than a name to the study of physics for it is with them that the
abstract development of physics began. They are the first to apply
deductive thinking to physics, to investigate the relation of physics to
mathematics, and to search for a universal explanation of nature’s
mysteries. Although certain Greek thinkers understood the value of the
empirical approach the Greeks had difficulties combining this aspect of
physics with the abstract deductive theoretical aspect of physics they so
highly prized. It is for this reason most likely that Greek physics did not
come to full flower. However, it served as the basis for the final
flowering of physics that finally occurred in Western Europe during and
just after the Renaissance. Like the Renaissance thinkers there is much
we can learn from the Greeks by studying both their successes and the
reasons for their failures.
Greek science did not begin in isolation in fact quite the opposite
is the case. Being a trading people the Greeks were in contact with
the intellectual influences of other cultures such as Mesopotamian
astronomy and mathematics, Hebrew philosophy and Egyptian
astronomy, medicine, chemistry and mathematics. Perhaps the most
important influence of all was the Egyptian discovery of geometry from
their practice of land measurement. Note the word geometry comes
from the Greek words for earth, geo and measure, meter. Because of
the overflow of the Nile each year, which destroyed the boundaries of