Human intellectual curiosity - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Geography is also the study of the planetary variation of both natural and human phenomena on Earth.
Study of Geography is as old as human history. It was systematically studied by the ancient Greeks, who also developed a philosophy of Geography. The most prominent of them were Thales, Eratosthenes, Aristotle, Strabo, and Ptolemy. The Romans also made contributions to Geography by doing the mapping of previously unknown lands. The Arabs also bequeathed in the progress of Geography during the Middle Ages.
Human beings have always been involved in pondering over Nature. The real initial recorded achievements were those of the Greeks. Thales was the first philosopher whose mythology was used to explain the nature of the physical world. He introduced Geometry and was a prominent astronomer. He was also the first man who started the real process of pondering and predicting.
Raphael Sanzio was the great painter and philosopher whose name is used for the famous "Raphael's The School of Athens". During those days of the 16th century, the meaning of the great old ages was being rediscovered and absorbed in Europe. His painting shows the constellation of great Greek philosophers in a beautiful way. The two great scholars, Plato and Aristotle, are present at the centre of his painting.
Plato and Aristotle were two of the great Greek philosophers. ...
, with Plato holding his hand upright as if to indicate, "Look to the perfection of the heavens for Truth," while Aristotle holds his arm straight out, implying "Look around you as if you would know the Truth." Plato was also a good astronomer. He was among the first few great scientists who studied the sky with his limited resources and revealed many facts that are still relevant with some minor amendments.

Meterorologica, 340 B.C.
Aristotle's Meteorologica is considered to be the oldest study on meteorological subjects. The bulk of information proved incorrect according to modern research, but it was considered to be authority in those days up to recent years. The Greek philosophers developed their theories just by observation and mere intellectual pondering, but they never did any experiments to prove them. Yet their theories -while not quite correct- helped a great deal in the foundation of the modern scientific knowledge. For example, some theories and theorems by the great philosopher Pythagoras are still relevant. Plato was deeply interested in Pythagoreanism, even though he was reserved about him. He only mentioned him once by name in all his writings, and all we are told then is that he won the affections of his followers in an unusual degree by teaching them a "way of life," which was called Pythagorean. Aristotle also wrote a special treatise on the Pythagoreans, which has not come down to us, but some of its quotations are found in later writers. These are of great value as they deal with the religious side of Pythagoreanism.

Antikythera Mechanism.
The level reached by the Greeks in Astronomy and Engineering is impressively shown by the Antikythera mechanism. In 1901, divers working off the isle of Antikythera found the remains of a 2,000-years-old ...Download file to see next pagesRead More