The Background of Modern Science 7 



tion particularly, since it highlights what is perhaps the most 

 important element in the method of modern science. 



On the whole, the Greeks seem to have paid too much 

 attention to the use of their heads and not enough to the 

 use of their hands. They were captivated by the beauty of 

 the mathematical methods they had developed and they 

 made great progress in the use of language as an instrument 

 of logical thought. So successful were they that they came 

 to believe that the truth can be discovered and proved by 

 reason alone. They were much less concerned than the 

 modern scientist is in finding out whether their thoughts 

 actually agreed with the way things are in the world we 

 see and feel. As a result, they made relatively little progress 

 in inventing instruments with which to extend the ability 

 of the natural sense organs to observe the outside world, 

 and they did practically nothing to develop an experimental 

 method. The celebrated experiment Archimedes made in 

 his bathtub to determine the specific gravity of the king's 

 crown may be the exception that proves the rule. 



The Greeks had a number of reasons for their attitude, 

 some good and some not so good. In the first place, it is 

 a fact that the results of good mathematical or logical 

 reasoning often do agree precisely with observations in 

 the natural world. We shall have more to say about this 

 later on. It may also be noticed that much of the manual 

 work in Greek society was carried out by slaves. The 

 aristocratic citizens of the Greek city states tended there- 

 fore to look down on the mechanical arts which could 

 have helped them in observing nature. This downgrading 

 of manual work often leads to erroneous ideas about the 

 nature of man and his destiny. In varying degrees, almost 

 everyone believes that human beings consist of two parts 

 — a material body with many embarrassing and objection- 

 able characteristics, and a spiritual part which is beautiful, 



