Abstract
Besides the serious, methodological problems a historian of science usually faces, there are some which are by-products of the special case under examination. For those who have decided to explore the “virgin” world of the structure and development of scientific thought in Greece during the so-called “Greek Enlightenment” (1750–1821), these many and sometimes peculiar problems present a case for study themselves. The main problem is the very subject under investigation, because the researcher must first convince the scientific community that this period is worthy that science in this area of Greek culture actually existed during the occupation of the Ottoman Empire. The researcher must also be careful to avoid repeating the mistake made concerning science in the Middle Ages. Some of the “ordinary problems which arise in the exploration of this magnificent but still unknown world” will be presented here.
The history of science like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams...
Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, 1963, p. 216.
This paper is dedicated to Dr. I. Karas, my teacher.
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Notes
Ianis Karas, Oi Thetikes Epistimes ston Elliniko 18. Aiona (Natural Sciences in the Greek 18th Century), Gutenberg Publ., Athens, 1977, p. 42.
Linos G. Benakis, Apo tin istoria toy metabysantinou aristotelismou ston Elliniko choro. Amfisvitisi ke iperaspisi tou philosophou ston 18. Aiona. Nikolaos Zerzoulis-Dorotheos of Lesvios, Filosophia (Philosophy) 7, (1977) pp. 420–421.
Dimitrios N. Darvaris, Epitomi Physikis (Synopsis of Physics), Vienna 1812, preface: `Physics is not only the most enjoyable but the most useful science as wellchwr(133) It sets us free from the injurious and miserable superstition under the yoke of which so many people without any knowledge of Physics are terribly tortured.“
This is the case of Veniamin Lesvios and Theofilos Kairis who introduced two theories based on the existence of some kind aetherial matter which was named pantachikiniton by the first and phlogiston by the latter.
Iossipos Moisiodax, Apologia (Apology),Vienna 1780, p. 17 “Thus Aristotelism, pure or mingled with Platonism is an enemy of the healthy philosophy for the eternitychwr(133)”
George Vlahakis, 1 “Fisiki” tou Nikephorou Theotoki, stathmos stin epistemoniki skepsi tou 18ou Aiona (Physics of Nikiphoros Theotokis, a turning point in the scientific thought of the 18th century), Ph. D. Thesis, Athens Technical University, Athens 1990.
A procedure of presentation of the three systems is proposed by Iossipos Moisiodax in his Apologia, p. 36 “The question for example is how the shining sun sets and rises every day. The philosopher gives firstly a general idea of the three systems of the planets, secondly he explains each one according to the background of the listeners, thirdly he emphasizes the weakness of Ptolemaic and Tychonic systems and at the end after the examination of the case under study with a historical method he leaves the final choice of the correct system to his systems.
Fillipides-Konstantas, Geographia Neoteriki (Geography based on new opinions),Vienna 1791, p. 1.
Ermis o Logios was a periodical publication in Vienna supporting the progressive opinions of the period under consideration. Its edition stopped abruptly in 1821, when the Austrian authorities obliged the editors to publish the “excommunication” of the Greek War of Independence by the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church Grigorios the fifth.
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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Vlahakis, Y.N. (1994). Problems and Methodology of Exploring the Scientific Thought During the Greek Enlightenment (1750–1821). In: Gavroglu, K., Christianidis, J., Nicolaidis, E. (eds) Trends in the Historiography of Science. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 151. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3596-4_29
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