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“Only one piece missing” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. There is an entire tech tree between the Ancient Greeks and photography not the least of which is
by civilitty 3y ago
“Only one piece missing” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. There is an entire tech tree between the Ancient Greeks and photography not the least of which is the hard transition from Platonism to empiricism during the Renaissance without which the development of chemistry stalled for many centuries. Their very metaphysics trapped them and prevented their philosophers from making those kinds of developmental leaps - they were stuck with earth, wind, water, and fire.
The irony being it took more than 2,000 years to come full circle to Platonic ideals with the periodic table and atomic theory, which are the foundations of chemistry.
- ghaff 3y agoWith the benefit of hindsight, the ancient Greeks had both some perhaps surprisingly advanced science and gaps, especially in the physical sciences, that wouldn't be filled in for millennia.
- vivekd 3y ago>hard transition from Platonism to empiricism during the Renaissance I'm highly suspicious of the historical accuracy of this popular claim. I don't think any such transition occurred. In fact I think the idea of the Renaissance is more myth than reality. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_thesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_thesis