Written before the collapse of the research program of the logical positivists and the resurgent interest in the development of scientific thought as exemplified in analyses of actual historical transitions, this book is unique in undertaking to elucidate the cognitive developments and their causes underlying the history of science. Beginning with a description of forms of primitive mentality, as exemplified historically in the earlier animistic, mythopoetic, and theogonic traditions, the present volume identifies the transformations in the thought processes inherent in the emergence and the growth of scientific rationalism from the Presocratics through Plato and Aristotle to Archimedes, the culminating scientific figure in the ancient world.
Richard H. Schlagel
Animism Archimedes Cosmology From Growth Mentality Mind Modern Myth Origins Ptolemy Rationalism Reprint Schlagel Scientific
«...the presocratics...are...highly creative individuals. The strength of Schlagel's study is that he reminds us of this simple but very significant fact.» (South African Journal of Philosophy, 1986).
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