An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science

1

Introduction

1.1 The History of Science

The history of science is a study of the history of ideas. It helps us to understand the present better, and to guide our course for the future. Philosophy of science deals with the logic of ideas, and it gives us a perspective on what we know and how we know it. It makes us aware of the limitations of our knowledge and helps us to apply it more prudently.

Science as a Process

• Two thousand years ago, Eratosthenes of Alexandria performed a simple experiment to calculate the circumference of the Earth, and he got the answer as 39,638 kilometres. The modern estimate is 40,008 kilometres! You can see that the error was less than 1%.
• The Mesopotamians had computed the length of the lunar month, as 29.530596 ...