Читать книгу A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy онлайн

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(2) The early genius of the Greek is shown in his reflections upon physical events. The Greek had been accumulating for a long time many kinds of information, but, what is more important, he had been reflecting upon this information. The Ionian was a sea-faring man. He had had much practical experience and had made many true observations about the things he had seen. In his travels he had come in contact with the Orientals and the Egyptians, and although his scientific conceptions were probably in the main his own, his knowledge was undoubtedly increased by his travels. In the seventh century B.C., the Greeks had a respectable body of physical science. It was mostly inorganic science, however,—astronomy, geography, and meteorology. The early Greek knowledge of organic phenomena was very meagre, as, for example, medical and physiological knowledge. They also showed little genuine research in the field of mathematics, although they had picked up mathematical information here and there. Many of the first philosophers were scientists.