Astronomy 2021A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Anaximander, Atheism, Spherical Earth

• School: Western University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: Astronomy 2021A/B
• Professor: Chris Racknor

Document Summary

2. 1 the ancient debate about life beyond earth. If we want to understand how modern science works, and how we can use it to study the possibility of life beyond earth, we must begin by peering more than two millennia into the past. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, its precise path varying with the seasons. It would be quite natural to assume, as did the people of many early cultures, that earth is a flat, motionless disk surmounted by a domelike sky across which the heavenly bodies move. By about 2500 years ago, written records allowed the babylonians to predict eclipses with great success: halfway around the world, a few centuries later, the mayans of central america independently developed the same ability. Three major innovations in greek thought that helped pave the way for modern science: 1. The greek philosophers developed a tradition of trying to understand nature without resorting to supernatural explanations.