Some Attitudes to Scientific Progress: Ancient,Medieval and Early Modern

For general histories of the idea of progress and further specialized bibliography see Delvaille J. , Essai sur l'histoire de l'idée de progrès jusqu’ à la fin du 18ième siècle (Paris, 1910); Bury J. B. , The idea of progress (London, 1920); Hubert R. , “Essai sur l'histoire de l'idée de progrès”, Revue d'histoire de la philosophie et d'histoire générale de la civilisation, ii (1934), 289–305; iii (1935), 1–32; Teggart F. J. , The idea of progress, revised with introd. by Hildebrand G. H. (Berkeley, California, 1949); Rossi P. , I filosofi e le macchine, 1400–1700 (Milano, 1962), translated into English as Philosophy, technology, and the arts in the early modern era, transl. Attanasio A. , ed. Nelson B. (New York, 1970), ch. 2; Edelstein L. , The idea of progress in Classical Antiquity (Baltimore, Maryland, 1967); Van Doren C. , The idea of progress (New York, 1967); Passmore J. A. , The perfectibility of man (London, 1970), ch. 10; Dodds E. R. , review of Edelstein, op. cit., Journal of the history of ideas, xxix (1968), 453–7; idem, The Ancient concept of progress and other essays (Oxford, 1973), ch. i; references below, especially in refs 2, 27–31, 40, 52 and 73–75; and cf. Johnson J. W. , “Chronological writing: Its concepts and development”, History and theory, ii (1962), 124–45. The quotations that follow are of course from the end of Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Diodorus of Sicily, with an English translation by Oldfather C. H. , (Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1936), i. 8. What follows is based primarily on Dodds's account of ancient conceptions of time and human history. I should also like to thank for his guidance Mr G. E. M. de Ste Croix of New College, Oxford. For further studies see Lovejoy A. O. Boas G. , Primitivism and related ideas in Antiquity (Baltimore, Maryland, 1935); Robin L. E. E. , “Sur la conception Épicurienne de progrès” (1916), 525–52, in La pensée hellénique des origines à Epicure (Paris, 1942); van Groningen B. A. , In the grip of the past: Essay on an aspect of Greek thought (Leiden, 1953); Guthrie W. K. C. , In the Beginning: Some Greek views on the origins of life and the early state of man (London, 1957); Momigliano A. , “Time in ancient historiography”, History and theory, Beiheft vi (1966), 1–23; de Romilly J. , “Thucydide et l'idée de progrès”, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, ser. 2, xxxv (1966), 143–91; cf. below, ref. 14.

Diadochi Proclus , In primum Euclidis Elementorum librum commentariorum … libri iv, Latin translation by Barozzi Francesco (Patavii, 1560), ii. 4; first Greek edition, by Grynaeus S. , Basel, 1533; see (editor) Friedlein G. (Teubner: Leipzig, 1873), 65 and English translation with historical introduction by Morrow G. (Princeton, 1970).

Below , ref. 34.

See Dodds , The Ancient concept of progress, 4–13.

Ibid., 13 seq.; Lovejoy Boas , op. cit. (ref. 2), 117 seq., 287 seq.

Ibid., 16–20; for Posidonius see Seneca's Epistolae, xc, and see Lucretius, De rerum natura, v, 1410 seq.; Robin , op. cit. (ref. 2).

Seneca , Naturales quaestiones, iii. 27–30; Dodds , op. cit. (ref. 1), 20–22.

Seneca , Naturales quaestiones, vii. 25; cf. 30, with an English translation by Corcoran T. H. , ii (Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass., & London, 1972).

Ibid., vi. 4; Dodds , op. cit. (ref. 5), 23; cf. Edelstein , op. cit. (ref. 1), 169–77.

Plinius See , Naturalis historia, ii. 13. 62; Dodds, op. cit. (ref. S), 22–23; cf. Guthrie , op. cit. (ref. 2), 78 seq.

Lucretius , De rerum natura, v, 1457.

Dodds , op. cit. (ref. 5), 14–16; see especially Aristotle , Politico i. 2, 1252a1 seq.; ii. 7, 1268b31 seq.; vii. 10, 1329b25 seq.; cf. Balme D. M. , “Aristotle: Natural history and zoology”, Dictionary of scientific biography, i (New York, 1970), 259–61.

Cochrane C. M. , Christianity and classical culture, revised (New York, 1944; paperback 1957), 183 seq.; Bury , op. cit. (ref. 1), 22 seq. Cf. for providential views of history especially in Platonic and Stoic thought, Theiler W. , Zur Geschichte der teleologischen Naturbetrachtung bis auf Aristoteles (Zürich, 1925); Solmsen F. , Plato's theology (Ithaca, New York, 1942); Festugière A. J. M. , La révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste: Ii. Le Dieu cosmique (Paris, 1949).

Cochrane , op. cit. (ref. 14), 246.

Augustine , De civitate Dei, xx.

See for the composition of this work, Augustine , Concerning the City of God against the Pagans, trans. Bettenson H. with introd. by Knowles D. (Pelican Classics, London, 1972), xv seq., and Mommsen T. E. , “St Augustine and the Christian idea of progress: The background of the City of God”, Journal of the history of ideas, xii (1951), 346–74; cf. Spitzer L. , “Classical and Christian ideas of world harmony”, Traditio, ii (1944), 409–64; iii (1945), 307–64; Patrides C. A. , The phoenix and the ladder: The rise and decline of the Christian view of history (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 1964).

Augustine , De civitate Dei, xii. 10, 12, 14, in Augustini Aurelii Opera curaverunt Dombart B. et Kalb A. (Corpus Christianorum, ser. Lat. xlvii–xlviii; Turnholti, 1955): Chs 12–22 correspond to chs 11–21 in the older editions, including Migne.

Ibid., 14.

Ibid., 20–22; cf. lib. xv–xvi.

Ibid., xxii. 24.

Ibid., xviii. 37–39; cf. viii. 2, 23–24. For this view of intellectual history, taken from the Hermetic Asclepius, see Nock A. D. et Festugière A. G. M. , Corpus Hermeticum, ii (Paris, 1945), 259, 264 seq.; cf. Yates F. A. , Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic tradition (London, 1964), 9 seq.; below ref. 52.

Ibid., 41.

Ibid., xxii. 24.

Ibid., xxii. 30.

E.g., Kepler to von Hohenburg Herwart , 9/10 April 1599, Gesammelte Werke, xiii, ed. Casper M. (München, 1945), 309, Dissertatio cum nunceo sidereo (1610; in Galilei Galileo , Opere, ed. naz. da Favaro A. , 2a ed. (Firenze, 1968), iii, 123); cf. Whitehead , Science and the modern world (Cambridge, Mass., 1926), ch. 1.

Beda , Opera de temporibus, ed. Jones C. W. (Cambridge, Mass., 1943), 201–2, 303, 307–15; Southern R. W. , “Aspects of the European tradition of historical writing: 2. Hugo of St Victor and the idea of historical development”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, xxi (1971), 161–2.

Ioannis Saresberaensis Episcopi Carnotensis , Metalogicon libri iiii, ed. Webb C. C. J. (Oxford, 1929), iii. 4; John of Salisbury , The Metalogicon: A twelfth century defense of the verbal and logical arts of the trivium, transl. McGarry D. D. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 1962), 167.

von Bath Adelardus , Die Quaestiones naturales, c.6, ed. Müller M. (Beitrage zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, xxxi. 2; Münster, 1923); Thorndike L. , A history of magic and experimental science, ii (New York, 1923), 28–29.

Southern R. W. , Medieval humanism and other essays (Oxford, 1970), 40–42, 79–80.

de Sancto Victore Hugo , Didascalicon de studio legendi, ed. Buttimer C. H. (Washington, D.C., 1939), i. 5, 8, ii. 1; English transl., with introduction and notes by Taylor J. (New York and London, 1961), 18 seq., 28–30; Southern, op. cit. (ref. 27), 163 seq.

De sacramentis: see Southern, op. cit. (ref. 27), 166 seq.

Hugh of Victor St , Didascalicon, ii. 1, 20; i. 9, 11, cf. 4–5.

Ibid., i. 9; transl. Taylor , 56.

Ibid., ii. 1, 17, 30.

Epitome Dindimi in philosophiam: see Didascalicon, transl. Taylor , 12.

Didascalicon, transl. Taylor , 12 seq.; 18 seq.; 28 seq.

Reeves M. , The influence of prophecy in the later Middle Ages: A study of Joachimism (Oxford, 1969), 3–14; Southern, “Aspects of the European tradition of historical writing: 3. History as prophecy”, Translations of the Royal Historical Society, xxii (1972), 173–7.

Reeves , op. cit. (ref. 38), 48–59, 82–95, 227–8, 242–7, 308–16, 322–4, 367–9.

He set this out in the Opus maius, Opus minus and Opus tertium. For a summary of Bacon's life and writings, with bibliography, see Crombie A. C. North J. D. , “Bacon, Roger”, in Dictionary of scientific biography, i (New York, 1970), 377–85; see also Thorndike , History of magic (ref. 29), ii, 616 seq.; Easton S. C. , Roger Bacon and his search for a universal science (Oxford, 1952).

Bacon Roger , Opus maius, iv, “Mathematicae in divinis utilitas”, “Judicia astronomiae”, ed. Bridges J. H. , i (Oxford, 1897), 268–9.

Ibid., “Geographia”, 303 seq., 356–66, “Astrologia”, 398 seq.; cf. ibid., vi, “De scientia experimentali”, ed. Bridges , ii (1897), 221–2; vii, “Moralis philosophia”, i, 234 seq., iv. 1, 367 seq.

Ibid., ii, “Philosophiae cum theologia affinitas”, c.9, vol. i, 44–49; c.14, vol. iii (London, 1900), 67–68; cf. i, “Causae erroris”, c.14, vol. i, 28 seq., vol. iii, 30 seq.

Ibid., i, “Causae erroris”, c.4, vol. i, 9–11.

See the three main works mentioned above, ref. 40; the Communia naturalium and Communia mathematica published in Opera hactenus inedita, ed. Steele R. , ii, xvi (Oxford, 1905–40), and the Epistola de secretis operibus artis et naturae , in Opera quaedam hactenus inedita, ed. Brewer J. S. (London, 1859), 532 seq.; Thorndike , op. cit. (ref. 29), ii, 654 seq., 688 seq. Cf. Molland A. G. , “Roger Bacon as magician”, Traditio, xxx (1974), 445–60; idem, “Nicole Oresme and scientific progress”, Miscellanea mediaevalia Veröffentlichungen des Thomas-Instituts der Universität zu Köln, ix (1974), 206–20. This volume is devoted to “Antiqui und Moderni”.

Bacon Roger , Opus maius, i. 1–10, vol. i, 1 seq.

Ibid., i. 9, 12, vol. i, 17–21, 24–26.

Ibid., iii, “De utilitate grammaticae”, vol. i, 92, vol. iii, 115, continued 119–25, vii.iv. 1, vol. ii, 375–7.

Ibid., i. 10, vol. i, 21–23.

Ibid., ii. 15, vol. iii, 69–70; cf. i. 5–6, vol. i, 12–13, citing Seneca, Naturales quaestiones, vi. 5, vii. 25.

As above refs 48, 50; Opus tertium, ed. Brewer , in Opera quaedam hactenus inedita (ref. 45), 3–4.

Horace , Odes, i. 3; Rabelais , Pantagruel, iii. 51 (1546); Bury , op. cit. (ref. 1), 18; Keller Alex , “Mathematical technologies and the growth of the idea of technical progress in the sixteenth century”, in Debus A. G. (ed.), Science, medicine and society in the Renaissance, i (1972), 14. See also Weisinger H. , “Ideas of history during the Renaissance”, Journal of the history of ideas, vi (1945), 415–35, idem, “The idea of the Renaissance and the rise of modern science”, Lychnos (1946–7), 11–35; Zilsel E. , “The genesis of the concept of scientific progress”, Journal of the history of ideas, vi (1945), 325–49; Ferguson W. K. , The Renaissance in historical thought: Five centuries of interpretation (Cambridge, Mass., 1948); Keller A. C. , “Zilsel, the artisans and the idea of progress in the Renaissance”, Journal of the history of ideas, xi (1950), 235–40; Garin E. , Medioevo e Rinascimento (Bari, 1954); Jones R. F. , Ancients and moderns: A study of the rise of the scientific movement in seventeenth century England, 2nd ed. (St Louis, 1961); Crombie A. C. , “Historians and the scientific revolution”, Physis, xi (1969), 167–80. Cf. for the Hermetic-Platonist view of intellectual history, Kieszkowski B. , Studi sul platonismo del Rinascimento in Italia (Firenze, 1936); Walker D. P. , The Ancient Theology: Studies in Christian Platonism from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century (London, 1972); above ref. 22.

See especially Bodin Jean , Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem, c. 7 (Parisiis, 1572; Oeuvres philosophiques, texte établi, traduit et publié par Mesnard P. , Paris, 1951; 1st ed. 1566); Leroy Loys , Considérations sur l'histoire universelle (Paris, 1567); idem, De la vicissitude ou variété des choses en l'univers, x-xii (Paris, 1576), 96v seq., 115v; Bury , op. cit. (ref. 1), 33, 37–41; Rossi , op. cit. (ref. 1), 70–72, 79–81.

Cf. Jones , op. cit. (ref. 52); Williamson G. , “Mutability, decay and seventeenth century melancholy”, Journal of English literary history, ii (1935), 121–50; Hepburn R. W. , “George Hakewill: The virility of nature”, Journal of the history of ideas, xvi (1955), 135–50; Hill C. , Intellectual origins of the English revolution (Oxford, 1965), 137 seq., 200 seq.

Leroy , Considérations … (ref. 53), 8–9, De la vicissitude … (ref. 53), i, ff.9v seq., xi, f.112rv; Bury , op. cit. (ref. 1), 43–49; Rossi , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Keller Alex , op. cit. (ref. 52), 23–24; cf. Sizi Francisco , Dianoia (Venetiis, 1611; in Galilei G. , Opere, iii, 2a ed. (Firenze, 1968), 239–40).

Ramus Petrus , Scholarum mathematicarum, libri unus et triginta (Basileae, 1569).

I died libri dell’ architettura di M. Vitruvio, tradutti et commentati da Monsignor Barbara Eletto Patriarca d'Aquileggia (Vinegia, 1556); cf. Zoubov V. P. , “Vitruve et ses commentateurs du xvis siècle”, in La science au xvis siècle: Colloque de Royaumont 1957 (Paris, 1960), 69–90.

Persio Antonio , Trattato dell'ingegno dell'huomo (Vinetia, 1576), ff. 3, 8–10; cf. Galileo , Opere, ed. naz. iii, 366; Crombie A. C. , with the collaboration of Carugo A. , Galileo and Mersenne: Science, nature and the senses in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, ch. 4.iv and 5. ii (Oxford, forthcoming).

E.g., Campanella to Galileo , 13 January 1611, Galileo , Opere, ed. naz. xi, 24; below ref. 65.

For Bacon see Rossi P. , Francesco Bacone: Dalla magia alia scienza (Bari, 1957, English translation, London, 1968); Farrington B. , The philosophy of Francis Bacon (Liverpool, 1964).

Cf. the commonplace repeated in the phrase used by Raleigh Walter Sir , History of the world, ii. 21.6 (London, 1614), 537, that it was “the end and scope of all Historie, to teach by example of times past, such wisdome as may guide our desires and actions”, and see the preface; Crombie , op. cit. (ref. 52).

Leroy , De la vicissitude … (ref. 53), xi, ff. 114v–115; Bury , op. cit. (ref. 1), 46–47.

Pererius Benedictus , Tertius tomus selectarum disputationum in Sacram Scripturam, continens … Disputationes super libro Apocalipsis B. Ioannis Apostoli, prolegomena, disp. 5, marginal no. 30 (Lugduni, 1606), 21–22, cf. c. 1, disp. 20, marg. no. 82, p. 58. In De Antichristo included in this volume he rejected the idea that Mahomet was Antichrist. See Reeves , op. cit. (ref. 38), 283–4; Crombie A. C. , “Sources of Galileo's early natural philosophy”, in Reason, experiment and mysticism in the scientific revolution, ed. Bonelli M. L. Righini Shea W. R. (New York, 1975); Crombie , with the collaboration of Carugo, Galileo and Mersenne (ref. 59), ch. 2.ii.

Campanella , La Città del Sole, ed. Seroni A. (Milano, 1962); Bury , op. cit. (ref. 1), 62–63; Yates, Bruno, 360–70; Keller Alex , op. cit. (ref. 52), 24–25.

See Crombie , with the collaboration of Carugo, Galileo and Mersenne (ref. 59), ch. 2.iii.

See Lenoble R. , Marin Mersenne, ou la naissancea du mécanisme (Paris, 1943); Crombie A. C. , “Mersenne, Marin”, Dictionary of scientific biography, ix (New York, 1974), 316–22; Crombie , with the collaboration of Carugo, Galileo and Mersenne (ref. 59), ch. 8.

Cf. Descartes , Discours de la méthode, texte et commentaire par E. Gilson (Paris, 1947), 29, 267 seq.; and his correspondence with Mersenne in 1630 discussed by Smith N. Kemp , New studies in the philosophy of Descartes (London, 1952), 178 seq.

Pascal , “Préface sur le Traité du vide”, Oeuvres complètes, ed. Lafuma L. (Paris, 1963), 232.

Augustine , De civitate Dei, x. 14.

Pascal , Pensées, no. 427, ed. Lafuma (= no. 194, ed. Brunschvicg L. ).

Bury , op. cit. (ref. 1), 2, 5.

Diaz F. , “Idea del progresso e giudizio storico in Voltaire”, Belfagor, ix (1954), 21–45; Brumfitt J. H. , Voltaire historian (Oxford, 1958); cf. Cento A. , Condorcet e l'idea di progresso (Firenze, 1956).

Darwin , Origin of species (1859), end; cf. Gillispie C. C. , Genesis and geology (Cambridge, Mass., 1951); Jones H. M. Cohen I. B. (eds), Science before Darwin (Boston, Mass., 1963).

Glass B. Temkin O. Straus W. L. Jr (eds), Forerunners of Darwin: 1745–1859 (Baltimore, Maryland, 1958); Haber F. C. , “The Darwinian revolution in the concept of time”, Studium generale, xxiv (1971), 289–307; Crombie A. C. , “Historical commitments of biology”, The British journal for the history of science, iii (1966), 97–108.

Leroy , De la vicissitude … (ref. 52), xi, f. 114v; Bury , op. cit (ref. 1), 46.

Horace , Odes, i. 3.