At the Sources of Science − THEORÍA
Abstract
In the article, the author presents certain aspects concerning the constitution of science as a distinct domain of culture. Although civilizations antedating Greek civilization had many important achievements that today we would call scientific, science itself as having a definite object, method and aim appeared first in Greece. In Babylon and Egypt science had purely practical aims, such as counting and astrology. Among the Greeks, science possessed a theoretical dimension. The Greek concept of THEORIA signified science as well as the highest type of life man could achieve, the BIOS THEORETIKOS. Human knowledge progresses through stages. It passes through a phase where it has much in common with the knowledge possessed by brute animals, based on sensation and memory. At a later and higher phase, human knowledge is characterized by a more comprehensive experience than mere memory of facts, then by art, and finally by science, the crowning point of which is wisdom (philosophy).
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