Leonid Zhmud The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity

ciennes des ouvrages d’Aristote, Louvain 1951, 111f. The only one which has sur-

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Chapter 3: Science in the Platonic Academy
112
interested in mathematics as a researcher, which makes his stay at the Academy
a still more important factor in the formation of his views on science.
The historical development of mathematics, unlike its philosophical impli-
cations, was of comparatively little concern for the Academics. Though we
have no grounds for asserting that this subject preoccupied them
only in con-
nection with Plato, the passage quoted by Philodemus is one of very few pieces
of evidence we can rely on. In spite of a wealth of treatises devoted to exact
sciences, the extant fragments of Speusippus and Xenocrates do not allow us to
consider them predecessors of Eudemus in the historiography of science. The
extract from Speusippus’ work
On Pythagorean Numbers does contain some
material on Pythagorean arithmetic. It is mixed, however, with Speusippus’
own arithmological speculations, which have little to do with either mathemat-
ics or history.
147
The only evidence to be found in Xenocrates is the mention of
Pythagoras’ discovery of harmonic intervals (fr. 87 Isnardi Parente). Heraclides
is known to have written a historical treatise
On the Pythagoreans. But the ex-
tent to which it concerned scientific discoveries is not clear.
148
A much more interesting source is the
Epinomis. It contains a few ideas also
found in Aristotle, Eudemus, and Aristoxenus. According to the scheme sug-
gested by Philip, the first to appear were técnai and ëpist4mai necessary for
human life; these were followed, in succession, by técnai that serve pleasures
and those used for defense (medicine, maritime and martial arts, etc.). The last
to appear was ëpist2mh, which gives people the knowledge of number and
leads them to wisdom.
149
The author identifies this wisdom with astronomy.
The knowledge of number is the most valuable and important knowledge, the
lack of it making the exercise of reason impossible.
150
But rather than discover-
ing number by themselves, people received it as a gift from a deity, which Phil-
ip identifies with the visible cosmos (976e 3f.). This deity taught and still
teaches people to distinguish the numbers one and two through the alternation
of day and night, the numbers three to fifteen through the phases of the moon,
etc. (978b 7f.). The inhabitants of Egypt and Syria were the first to discover the
vived, Mhcanikón (= Mechanical Problems), shows the influence of Archytas
(Krafft.
Mechanik, 149f.).
147
Tarán.
Speusippus, 257ff.; Zhmud. Philolaus, 261ff.
148
D. L. V, 88 = fr. 22, 41–42. Wehrli traces to his book only the two mentions of the
prohibition on beans. Some of Heraclides’ astronomical ideas obviously have Py-
thagorean origin (see above, 103); we do not know, however, in what particular book
they appeared.
149
974d 3–977b 8. The chronological sequence of the two last stages is less pro-
nounced than that of the first two. Philip, like Plato, combines systematic classifi-
cation with historical periodization (Gaiser.
Platons ungeschriebene Lehre, 223f.,
245). For detailed analysis, see Tarán.
Academica, 69ff.
150
Number plays an important role in the técnai necessary for survival, which are good
only insofar as they possess number (977d 7). See Pl.
Phileb. 55d 5–8, 55e–56c,
Leg. 747b 1f.

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5. The theory and history of science in the Academy
113
planets and given them divine names, since the sky in those countries is clear
and propitious for astronomical observations (986e 9f.).
151
Having inherited
astronomy from the ‘barbarians’, the Greeks are going to turn it into real wis-
dom owing to their ability to bring to perfection everything they borrowed, as
well as to their climate, which favors the practice of virtue (987d 3f.).
We know many of the elements of this theory from the earlier literature on
the origins of culture (2.1). They include the division of the técnai into the
necessary and the pleasurable (Democritus); the appearance of sciences after
the main material needs have been satisfied (Isocrates); the borrowing of
knowledge from the barbarians, Egyptians in particular (Herodotus, Isocrates);
the divine origin of the técnai (Ps.-Epicharmus); the connection of knowledge
with number (Philolaus); the bringing of sciences to perfection (Hippocratic
treatise
On Art, Isocrates); the favorable influence their climate exercised on
the character of the Greeks (the Hippocratic corpus). All these elements are
found, in one form or the other, in Plato’s dialogues,
152
which further confirms
the continuity of these ideas with earlier literature on the técnai.
The fact that these subjects were discussed in the Academy is also supported
by the similarity between Philip’s scheme and the aforementioned Aristotelian
theory, which distinguished three stages in the development of knowledge:
1) the necessary técnai; 2) arts, music in particular; 3) sciences and philosophy
directed toward pure knowledge.
153
This theory, familiar to us from the