Plato and Aristotle: Crash Course History of Science #3
Crash Course is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at http://www.patreon.com/crashcourse Last week, we met the Presocratics: despite having by any reasonable standard invented...
==========
Pop quiz: are you a Platonist or an Aristotelian? An idealist or an empiricist? Do you think up neat rules to describe the universe and then try to fit data into your theory? Or do you observe the world and draw conclusions from what you see? Do you trust math, or your senses? Before you decide, let’s take a trip to urban Athens circa 399 BCE… [Intro Music] Last week, we met the Presocratics: despite having by any reasonable standard invented science in Europe, these thinkers are lumped together today as simply “not Socrates.” So who was this smarty pants? Socrates didn’t have a single, clearly formulated natural philosophy. He didn’t even study nature! He studied politics and morality and prided himself on not claiming to know things. ...
==========
Pop quiz: are you a Platonist or an Aristotelian? An idealist or an empiricist? Do you think up neat rules to describe the universe and then try to fit data into your theory? Or do you observe the world and draw conclusions from what you see? Do you trust math, or your senses? Before you decide, let’s take a trip to urban Athens circa 399 BCE… [Intro Music] Last week, we met the Presocratics: despite having by any reasonable standard invented science in Europe, these thinkers are lumped together today as simply “not Socrates.” So who was this smarty pants? Socrates didn’t have a single, clearly formulated natural philosophy. He didn’t even study nature! He studied politics and morality and prided himself on not claiming to know things. ...
