Abstract
THERE was a blissful time when human knowledge was npt formally differentiated. Without going far back into history, we may recall the wise men of ancient Greece, who never thought of drawing a distinction between mathematics and natural science, psychology and moral science. So Thales and Pythagoras are hailed as the true founders of practically every major branch of knowledge. Indeed, the early Greek thinkers were at the same time not only philosophers and social reformers, mathematicians and physicists, but also politicians and soldiers, engineers and traders—a fact which suggests a special conception of the unity of knowledge, if not of knowledge and action as well. Even the teaching of the Academy and the Lyceum, following the Pythagorean tradition, had a universal character, though some members of these schools specialised in particular branches of learning. It was not until the Alexandrians that the various sciences were really differentiated and studied separately.
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Science and Philosophy. Nature 133, 341–343 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133341a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133341a0