Magic, Reason and Experience: Studies in the Origins and Development of Greek Science

by G.E.R. Lloyd

This study of the origins and progress of Greek science focuses especially on the interaction between scientific and traditional patterns of thought from the sixth to the fourth century BC. It begins with an examination of how particular Greek authors deployed the category of "magic," sometimes attacking its beliefs and practices; these attacks are then related to their background in Greek medicine and philosophical thought. In his second chapter Lloyd outlines developments in the theory and practice of argument in Greek science and assesses their significance. He next discuses the progress of empirical research as a scientific tool from the Presocratics to Aristotle. Finally, he considers why the Greeks invented science, their contribution to its history, and the social, economic, ideological and political factors that had a bearing on its growth.

Genres: History, History Of Science, Science, Nonfiction, Classics, Philosophy

348 pages, Hardcover

First published November 22, 1979

About the author

Sir Geoffrey Ernest Richard Lloyd is Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy and Science at the Needham Research Institute. His University career has been based chiefly at the University of Cambridge, where he held various University and College posts, first at King's College and then at Darwin. From 1983 onwards he held a personal Chair in Ancient Philosophy and Science and from 1989 until retirement in 2000 he was Master of Darwin College. He served as Chairman of the East Asian History of Science trust, which is the governing body directing the work of the Needham Research Institute from 1992 to 2002, and afterward Senior Scholar in Residence at that Institute.

Prof. Lloyd has held visiting professorships and lectured across the world, in Europe (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Greece) in the Far East (Fellow of the Japan society for the Promotion of Science in Tokyo in 1981, visiting professor at Beijing daxue in 1987, visiting professor at Sendai in 1991, and the first Zhu Kezhen Visiting Professor in the History of Science at the Institute for the History of Natural Science, Beijing, in 2001), in Australasia (Hood Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, 2006) and in North America (Bonsall professor, Stanford in 1981; Sather professor Berkeley in 1984; AD White professor at large, Cornell from 1990 to 1996; also lectured at Harvard, Princeton, the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, Yale, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, UCLA, Austin, Chicago among other places).

He has served on the editorial committees of 10 journals, including Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, Journal of the History of Astronomy, Physis, History of the Human Sciences, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Endoxa and Antiquorum Philosophia.

Reviews

[Scotchneat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good way to return to schools of thought I haven't pondered since school. Tracing magic, reason and empiricism through Greek authors and scientists, Lloyd brings to life the development of thought in a way that's accessible and lively.