Archimedes, an ancient Greek mathematician, was still on the ground, carefully studying geometric shapes when Roman soldiers stormed the city. Focused on his research, Archimedes said to the soldier pointing his sword at him, "Please wait until I finish this problem." Then he tragically died under the knife of the heartless, ignorant soldier.
How do you feel after hearing this story? Why did Archimedes suffer such a bad fate? Was it because his pursuit of truth made him put life and death at risk, or was it because of the barbaric ignorance of the Roman soldier? If we take the history of science into consideration, we will find that the behavior of Archimedes and the Roman soldiers in this story reflects the cultural spirit of the two periods of history: ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
What do you associate with ancient Greece?The death of Socrates, Plato's Ideology, or Aristotle's metaphysics? And what do you think of when you think of ancient Rome? Perhaps you will think of Julius Caesar, the East and West, the great water repairs and the construction of various public **** buildings. From this, we can clearly feel the difference between the spirit of ancient Greek culture and the spirit of ancient Roman culture: ancient Greece advocate abstract and pure theoretical research, ancient Rome focus on practical.
It can be said that the ancient Greek scientists, mathematicians are more concerned about the head of the stars, the truth of the universe, they are committed to the study of the operation of the celestial bodies, a variety of geometric shapes; scientists, scholars in ancient Rome is more practical, not too much attention to those abstract, cumbersome theoretical research, for them, the construction of their own city-state, expanding the country's territory is a more important thing.
Thus, ancient Rome had a high level of architecture, scientific urban living facilities, good public **** medical system, these real life in the field of development and progress, directly benefited from the results of applied scientific research; as for those pure theoretical research, it was placed in a secondary position by the scientists.
Archimedes' encounter shows the kind of persistence and pure pursuit of truth that he held as a typical ancient Greek mathematician; and the behavior of the Roman soldiers reflects the characteristics of the Romans' aggressive and pragmatic approach.
Summary:In fact, it is hard to say which is the better attitude. On the one hand, we need to understand the valuable aspects of the ancient Greek spirit: precision, rigor, and purity. Without such a spirit, the ancient Greeks could not have achieved so much in philosophy, art and science.
On the other hand, the spirit of ancient Rome has much to offer: practicality, effectiveness, and practicality. It was this passion for building a better life that created such a glorious Roman Empire. From the perspective of the history of science and technology, both the pursuit of scientific truth and the promotion of technological creativity are important for scientific development.