ORIGINS OF SCIENCE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 31 



spirit, is here first recognizable. Inquiry did not stop with 

 everyday experience, but leaped beyond to theories of the 

 universe and of ultimate reality. "All things have arisen 

 from water and will return to water," not water but "air or 

 fire or the four original elements or atoms are the universal 

 principles of reality," are examples of Greek speculative 

 thought. The intellectual failure of the Greek was his 

 inability to see the point at which philosophic speculation so 

 far outruns fact as to become unprofitable. That his specu- 

 lations on the evolution of life and on the atomic nature of 

 matter are in line with the facts established by modern 

 science is not mere coincidence. It is rather the insight of 

 master minds groping towards the truth without sufficient 

 factual knowledge. The Greek in his theorizing had the 

 advantage of a rationalistic point of departure, since the 

 Greek religion offered no compelling philosophical system as 

 did Christianity at a later day. Deductive logic was form- 

 ally organized, while the inductive method was practiced, if 

 not clearly apprehended. 18 The concept of physical causa- 

 tion was apprehended. Thus the Greek perceived the gen- 

 eral in the midst of the particular more truly than did any 

 other ancient people. Moreover, the part played by intellect 

 was for the first time, consciously recognized. 



It is unsafe to generalize regarding racial traits even 

 among our contemporaries. But the capacity of certain of the 

 Greeks for abstract and analytical thinking marks them as 

 the intellectual forebears of modern scientific thought. 

 The Greek mind showed its ability to grasp the scientific 



18 The following example of the inductive method is cited by Sedgwick and 

 Tyler, "A Short History of Science," p. 54: "We may recognize here the char- 

 acteristic elements of the inductive method, first, observation of the par- 

 ticular fact that in a certain right triangle, with sides, 3, 4, and 5, the sum of 

 the squares on the two sides is equal to that on the hypotenuse; second, the 

 formation of the hypothesis that this may be true also for right triangles in 

 general; third, the verification of the hypothesis in other particular cases. 

 Then follows the deductive confirmation of the hypothesis as a law for all 

 right triangles." 



