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[Phys-L] Re: Empedocles



On Wednesday, June 15, 2005, at 11:47 AM, Gary Karshner wrote:

Jim,
It hard to read a mind that has been gone for over 2400
years. I
think a slightly more fruitful question is why did it take two thousand
years to need a better description of matter?

...A solid discussion of how ideas underlying the development
of modern mechanics from Aristotelian philosophy was presented by
Jean Piaget and a physicist co-author. It's not gentle reading, but
it does present valuable insight into this process. Clearly the
ancients
(like our own students today) meant completely different things
often only loosely and naively / under-differentiatedly linked to modern
concepts labeled with often the same names. Unsurprisingly, the
processes the ancients underwent as a community are somewhat related
to how our own students learn science (if they're actually learning and
not memorizing/regurgitating).

Piaget, Jean & Garcia, Rolando (1989). H. Feider, Trans.
Psychogenesis and the history of science. NY: Cambridge Univ Press.

Chapters 1&2, p30-87 deal with pre-Newtonian mechanics.

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State College
222SciBldg BSC, 1300 Elmwood Ave , Buffalo NY 14222 USA 716-878-3802
<macisadl@buffalostate.edu> <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu>
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