What is science? In the opening chapter of this revised edition of his 1992 survey of pre-Renaissance scientific thought historian David C Lindbergh offers three responses. Science can be thought of in terms of theory, method, or the practices of scientists. This is all very well, Lindberg argues, but such limited concepts won't survive if we are to understand science historically. Since the range of Lindberg's book is the two millennia prior to 1450 AD a concept of science is needed that is more compatible with inquiry into the natural world in ancient and medieval times. Lindberg introduces the terms "natural philosophy" and "philosophy of nature", and the stage is set for an encyclopedic exploration of investigative practices in the time before science became the highly systematized set of procedures it is today. Lindberg's historical analysis recognizes that concepts such as 'science' are apt to become reified, and at several points he reminds us that what we today would regard as speculative inquiry should be seen as deriving from the same impulse as scientific investigation: the desire to know and understand the natural world. Lindberg's view is supported by a comment made by Patricia Fara in a review of Richard Holmes' Watcher of the Skies, an exploration of science in the Romantic period. Fara notes that the word 'scientist' was not widely used until the twentieth century, and was originally "a reviled term which roused the fury of Victorian pedants, but somehow survived." This is perhaps because 'scientist' is analogous to the accepted term 'artist', but at any rate the controversy shows the relative recency of the term, and of what it represents as a method of acquiring knowledge.

The Beginnings of Western Science contains fourteen chapters, more or less chronologically organized, following the development of western science through Greece, Rome, the Islamic world, and Medieval Europe. The individual chapters are quite brief, but highly informative, covering the developing philosophy of science, as well as the particular problems that preoccupied each historical period. Each chapter contains a wealth of detail, as well as commentary on what early science means for the twentyfirst century. For example in the conclusion to the second chapter, in which Lindberg explores Greek cosmology, he reminds us that the conceptual schemes of the natural world developed by the ancient Greeks are substantially those that underpin modern science, illustrating that the 'foundations and superstructure [of science] are complementary and reciprocal' (p. 44). The following chapters on Aristotle and Greek natural philosophy cover the tensions and conflicts in Greek thought, especially those between the teleological views of Plato and Aristotle, and the alternatives proposed by the Epicurean and Stoic schools. The latter schools, Lindberg argues, re-emerged in the early modern period to inform the development of science in the seventeenth century.

There is a fascinating chapter on Islamic science, covering the means of diffusion of Greek ideas into Alexandria and beyond, between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. Multiple translations ensured that Greek texts were available to Islamic scientists, but Lindberg gives emphasis to the Islamic engagement with these texts, rather than to their passive absorption. Greek scientific problems were subject to continued scrutiny and analysis and so were extended rather than merely recorded. The period was marked by refinement as much as continuity, as well as unique achievements in astronomy and development of the observatory as a scientific institution. The eleventh century Book of Optics outlined a new theory of vision that was to inform the science of optics until the seventeenth century. Lindberg concludes this chapter with a timely reminder that interpretation of the 'decline' of Islamic science is frequently ill-informed, and has more to do with religious polemics than with clear-eyed analysis.

Throughout the book Lindberg challenges various mythologies of the history of science, including the place of Gondeshapur as a center of intellectual activity, and the role of the medieval church in championing the ideas of Aristotle. Of the former, Lindberg sees Gondeshapur as an important intellectual focus, but not with the developed institutions that others have proposed. In the case of Aristotle, Lindberg's argument is the explanatory power of Aristotle's ideas were more important than the authority of the church in securing the influence of Aristotle in medieval science.

It would be fair to say that Lindberg is an opinionated writer. He doesn't limit himself to a dispassionate review and analysis of his topic. If he thinks something needs to be said, he says it, and there is something of the presence of the classroom professor about this book. Lindberg's admiration for the ancients is summed up in his response to modern scholars who, in Lindberg's view, are 'angry at [Galen] for not being modern'. Rather than regret Galen's shortcomings, seen from modern perspective, Lindberg's takes an historical perspective, urging that the place of the gods in Galen's thought 'is not a feature to be regretted, but one to be understood as typical of ancient medicine and philosophy.' (original emphasis). The current debate about intelligent design is seen to have, if not Greek roots, at least a Greek precedent, as Lindberg explains Galen's belief that 'behind the admirable design found in living things could be discerned a designer' But Lindberg is also emphatic that such a belief need not detract from an otherwise empirical approach to the human body. About Galen's teleology, Lindberg reminds us that despite the empiricism of the Hellenistic and early Roman thinkers 'the order and organization of the universe remained a problem of central importance, which very major thinker felt obliged to address and on which the last word had yet to be said – a problem, indeed, on which the last word has yet to be said today.'

The Beginnings of Western Science provides an excellent overview of science over a period in which exploration of the natural world was intimately tied up with the fortune of invading armies, the rise and fall of religious influence, and the development of technologies that are now taken for granted. In arguing that science in the two millennia before the Renaissance shared its defining features with our current practices, Lindberg is also arguing that our own period is not unique. Modern scientists are limited both by the available tools and the supporting conceptual schemes. What is accepted as the legitimate focus of inquiry is determined by economic and political interests as well as scientific curiosity. Lindberg's achievement is to provide a unified account of two millennia of scientific thought from very diverse historical and political contexts, which nevertheless wrestled with fundamentally similar problems. The narrative unity of The Beginnings of Western Science is the result of careful analysis and a singular focus on science, whatever its manifestation, rather than on individual schools or politico-religious regimes. The book is approachable by those with at least a passing familiarity with classical philosophy and history and it will extend understanding of the common ground between the natural philosophers of the past and modern scientists with their increasingly narrow fields of inquiry.

© 2008 Tony O'Brien

Tony O'Brien, RN, MPhil, Senior Lecturer, Mental Health Nursing, University of Auckland, a.obrien@auckland.ac.nz

Keywords: science, history, philosophy