Page 7 - Cognition and Thinking of the history of Science and Technology

The quantification of nature

• Pre-Modern civilisations had a human
approach to the environment. For those

civilisations that had not develop any kind of
science, natural phenomena and nature itself
were deified. Western civilisations that
followed the tradition of Ancient Greek science,
developed the philosophy of nature to study
and explain the phenomena.

• The quantification of nature came with the
scientists-engineers of the Western 17th
century. Galileo is the seminal figure for the

quantification of terrestrial phenomena.
• Before him, during the Renaissance period, the
figure of the engineer was related to arts.
Michelangelo’s machines were not based on

mathematics; they were based on the technical
arts of his time and his immense skills and
imagination.

• This approach changed dramatically after
Galileo and as a consequence the impact of
science and technology on society became
seminal. Galileo Galilei