Page 4 - Cognition and Thinking of the history of Science and Technology

Science as a demonstrative method

• The meaning of science changed during

the centuries. There is not a consensus

among historians of science about how to

define scientific knowledge in the various
pre-Modern civilisations.

• Ancient Greek science is based on the

demonstrative method, perfectly used

during the 4 BCE by Euclid in his
th
Elements.

• During the 2 century CE, Ptolemy
nd
defined the scientific method in Almagest:

• Obtain many reliable observations;
classify them; try to find a mathematical

model that describes them; if there are

many solutions choose the simplest; verify

if the solution is compatible with the
phenomena (what we observe).

Euclid’s Elements