The origins of science

This book belongs to a series of books that collect the homework quizzes of my lectures given at the National Taipei University, the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and Chung-Yuan Christian University of Taiwan. The history of science contains a broad range of knowledge and a wealth of lessons, stories, and anecdotes. However, unlike the college General Physics and General Astronomy, this field lacks comprehensive and updated textbooks and test banks. This series of books aim to cover quizzes in history, philosophy, general astronomy, general physics, general chemistry, and other fields of sciences. The contents refer to several online tests such as the Fun Trivia Quizzes. The solutions will not be released in the first edition. Students should try to read the abundant online information to solve the questions. I hope that these quizzes can benefit the teaching and learning of history and science.

Aestimatio: Critical Reviews in the History of Science

Aestimatio : Critical Reviews in the History of Science, 2015

This paper was given as a public lecture to open the 2005 Conference of Greek Studies. It presents a case for locating the origins of science with the ancient Greeks. Although this was once a common view, it has come under fire in the latter part of the twentieth century. The main case is presented briefly, along with some new considerations in favour of the Greeks as the originators of science. There is then a discussion of some of the strategies that might be employed to counter some of the objections that have been raised, either relating to some of the weaknesses of Greek science or to some of the methodological issues involved in approaching ancient Greek science

In this paper an anthropological perspective on the emergence of science is developed. The cultural dimension of knowledge conceptions is theorized by looking at metatheories of learning. Central to this essay is a radical reformulation of the Zilsel thesis in terms of the yoking of two different theories of learning -the one of the artisans with the one of the intellectuals. The cultural roots of science are Christian because the indigenous European knowledge conception is loaded with assumptions specific to Christianity.

Annals of Science, 2013

Centaurus; international magazine of the history of science and medicine, 2015

The history of science can be better understood against the background of a history of knowledge comprising not only theoretical but also intuitive and practical knowledge. This widening of scope necessitates a more concise definition of the concept of knowledge, relating its cognitive to its material and social dimensions. The history of knowledge comprises the history of institutions in which knowledge is produced and transmitted. This is an essential but hitherto neglected aspect of cultural evolution. Taking this aspect into account one is led to the concept of extended evolution, which integrates the perspectives of niche construction and complex regulative networks. The paper illustrates this concept using four examples: the emergence of language, the Neolithic revolution, the invention of writing and the origin of mechanics.

Metascience, 2010

This study will analyze the origin and development of scientific thought in Antiquity, especially in the Greek World, which will largely arise thanks to the doctrines of the so-known as Pre-socratic philosophers, whose reflections and postulates will lay the foundations for a new form of thought that, unlike the one that existed up to that point, was freed from any magical-religious influence with the aim of providing a rational explanation to the different phenomena of nature and of the Universe. Firstly, we will show the opinion of various authors on the naming of the term "Pre-socratic" in relation to these early philosophers and whether or not they are right to use them, and then make a brief presentation of the origins of Philosophy. Below will be the characteristics and conceptions of the most representative Pre-socratic philosophers, who will exert a strong influence on the genesis of scientific thought, with special emphasis on Xenophanes and their criticism of divinity and Greek religious tradition, which was largely configured from the conceptions of Homer and Hesiod. In relation to the above points, the particular case of the Hippocratic medicine and its characteristics and development will be dealt with in order to determine whether or not it was a genuine scientific discipline.