Science in Axiomatic Perspective Msc in Logic
antonio florio2012
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Abstract
PREFACE The axiomatic method counts two thousand and three hundred years circa. Suppes [61] has proposed the category of Euclidean-Archimedean tradition to refer to the axiomatic theories that have been developed before the inven-tion/discovery of the non-Euclidean geometries. Among these theories the first axiomatic system that we know is Euclid's Elements [16], a mathematical tractate consisting of thirteen books in which three centuries of Greek mathematical knowledge were given an order and were presented as a unified theory. 1 Euclid produced another axiomatic theory, the Optics [15]. This represents a theory of vision in Euclidean perspective rather than a tractate on physical optics. It is interesting that Archimedes's Treatise [12], probably the first book on mathematical physics, is an axiomatic theory. The axiomatic method in the Euclidean-Aristotelian tradition was transmitted during the medieval age and scholarship in history of science has established the use of...
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