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Anaximander: And the Birth of Science

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Anaximander wrote the first text in prose about natural phenomena. Earlier works on the origin and structure of the world (Hesiod’s Theogony, for example) had always been written in verse. It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories. In my experience, working scientists often get history of science wrong - in this case, as it's arguably more history of philosophy, I can't say whether or not Carlo Rovelli is straying far from what's known to make his point, but what he has to say about the Greek philosopher Anaximander from the 6th century BC is fascinating. Correspondingly, what comes after Anaximander is neither pure naturalistic science nor pure rationalism. The themes that Rovelli pulls from Anaximander’s thought and times are important for the future history of knowledge, but in various guises besides anything we would call “science” in a modern sense. An insightful survey of the scientific contributions of Greek philosopher Anaximander…Rovelli makes the most of the available evidence in building his case that the philosopher’s emphasis on natural causes marked a sea change in human thought. This is a masterful overview of a pivotal figure in scientific history.”— Publisher’s Weekly

Since the dawn of civilization, humans had believed in the heavens above and the Earth below. Then, on the Ionian coast, a Greek philosopher named Anaximander set in motion a revolution. He not only conceived that the Earth floats in space, but also that animals evolve, that storms and earthquakes are natural, not supernatural, that the world can be mapped and, above all, that progress is made by the endless search for knowledge. A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere. It defies common sense but it happens to be true. Anaximander held that the Earth was a flattened cylinder, which is less true but does not undermine his achievement. As Rovelli argues, it is the conceptual shift that opens the questions of the Earth’s shape and size in the first place (the former firmly established as a sphere within a century after Anaximander, and the latter measured quite accurately by the third century BC). It is the power to produce such a shift that makes Anaximander special, and which, in Rovelli’s view, makes him the father of scientific thought. It is with him that “a search for knowledge based on the rejection of any obvious-seeming ‘certainty’” begins. He is, in short, Rovelli’s hero, and Anaximander and the Nature of Science sets out to show how important he was. There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness, Penguin Random House, 2020 / Ci sono luoghi al mondo dove più che le regole è importante la gentilezza, Solferino, 2020.What is time, what is space? (interview), Di Renzo Editore, 2006 / Che cos'è il tempo, che cos'é lo spazio?, Di Renzo Editore, 2004. Rovelli: «Al Primo Maggio ho detto quello che pensavo: non sono filorusso, ma questo governo fa scelte bellicose»", Corriere della Sera 23-5-2023, 2017. Retrieved 1-6-2023 He appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in February 2023. [48] His hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was a white hole. Si parte da quello che l'autore considera il primo scienziato ante-litteram, Anassimandro, per allargarsi ad una riflessione più ampia sul ruolo della scienza e del pensiero critico. The transformation of one thing into another is regulated by “necessity,” which determines how phenomena unfold in time.

Rovelli has written more than 200 scientific articles published in international journals. He has published two monographs on loop quantum gravity and several popular science books. His book, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, has been translated into 41 languages. Zwanzig, R. (1973). "Nonlinear generalized Langevin equations". Journal of Statistical Physics. 9 (3): 215–220. Bibcode: 1973JSP.....9..215Z. doi: 10.1007/BF01008729. S2CID 121594079. I primarily was expecting a good explanation of the history of Anaximander, and Rovelli does a great job of explaining what we know, and also what he thinks are the important scientific takeaways. His history of Anaximander is the facts as historians know it along with the cultural milieu of ancient Greece. As Rovelli explains, it doesn't really matter if Anaximander exists for some of these takeaways, so long as the idea originated from people (or a person) of the era. The idea of the Earth floating in space, of naturalistic accounts of nature (no supernatural explanations), and of accepting uncertainty are the breakthroughs inherent in Anaximander's work, and the groundwork for much of modern science. The Sun, the Moon, and the stars rotate around the Earth, forming complete circles. Immense wheels, similar to wagon wheels, carry them along. They are hollow inside (like a bicycle tire), filled with fire, and pierced along their inward-facing surface. The Sun, the Moon, and the stars that we see in the sky are the fire visible through these holes. The wheels are probably meant to explain why the planets don’t fall. The stars are on the wheels closest to us, the Moon on the middle wheel, and the Sun on the wheel farthest from us. Their distances from Earth are in the proportion 9:18:27.

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Ma non si spaventi il lettore digiuno di studi umanistici (come, per dire, me): la lettura scorre sempre facile, il dibattito non si fa mai sterilmente accademico, animato com'è dalla prosa energica dell'autore, e dal suo ottimismo di fondo. The effort to reconstruct Anaximander's ideas from indirect sources has been extensive, but does ultimately show that this man was the first to undertake scientific thinking as we know it today. Anaximander was always searching for knowledge to progress his understanding of the world. The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening. Carlo Rovelli (born May 3, 1956) is an Italian theoretical physicist and writer who has worked in Italy, the United States and, since 2000, in France. [1] He is also currently a Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute, [2] and core member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy of Western University. [3]

The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will. Anaximander wrote a treatise in prose, On Nature (Περι ́ φυ ́σεως), now lost. Only one fragment remains, quoted by Simplicius of Cilicia in his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics… Much has been written about this handful of obscure words, which can easily inspire fanciful interpretations. It is always difficult to interpret a passage out of its context with any degree of certainty. It is not this fragment of direct evidence that tells us what is interesting in Anaximander’s ideas. Instead, many Greek sources relay the content of Anaximander’s book…Rovelli infatti non si accontenta del ruolo "tecnico" della scienza, di fare previsioni affidabili. Questo è, sì, il metodo per validarne I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

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