Methods in the Exact Sciences of the Ancient and Medieval Periods

古代和中世纪精确科学的方法

• 批准号: 0431982
• 负责人: Nathan Sidoli
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Sidoli Nathan C
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-11-01 至 2006-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0431982&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Methods; Exact; Sciences; Ancient; Medieval

This Postdoctoral Fellowship is to develop the language skills to conduct research in the methods and practices of the ancient exact sciences of medieval Arabic. The PI will acquire the historical background to situate the evidence within the culture of medieval Islam. These skills and knowledge will be applied in a collaborative project on the mathematical methods of ancient and medieval astronomy. The scholar host is an expert in the exact sciences of both the Greco-Roman and medieval Arabic periods, with a strong publishing record in both areas. The project will investigate different approaches to producing astronomical knowledge using spherical geometry in Greco-Roman Antiquity. There were a number of different ways of approaching spherical problems in the ancient period. It has usually been assumed that there was an historical progression in ancient spherical methods, moving from the simpler to the more powerful and complex. In fact the ways in which knowledge was produced in each method are different and problems can only be solved with a particular approach. All ancient methods continued to coexist as complementary ways to produce astronomical knowledge in the Medieval and Early Modern periods. In a number of cases, the Latin or Arabic translations are our only evidence for a lost Greek original. In order to apply the techniques of textual studies to these texts, it will be necessary to situate the translations in their cultural and linguistic contexts while still reading them as witnesses of much older work. This means being sensitive to the texts and the editorial changes that have been made to them.. By using the method of textual comparison, the investigators will be able to shed light, not only on the form of the original texts, but also on the conditions of the medieval transmission of these texts. The project will undertake a study of the texts to develop a characterization of the mathematical procedures that is situated in the intellectual and cultural context of the sources. It will then proceed to an exploration of the properties of these different approaches using more powerful, modern mathematics which will allow the full range and limitations of the ancient methods to be seen. Finally, it will show, through balanced reconstruction, how these methods might have been used in practice. This study will be part of a growing body of recent work that explores historical science not simply in terms of the theoretical statements it produced but also with regard to the conditions, problems and practices. Although there is no evidence that historians have insight into the process of scientific discovery, by drawing out the practices witnessed in the ancient texts, this study will furnish a better understanding of the methods that scientists used to generate their results. This study will contribute to our understanding of the methods and practices used in the production of ancient and medieval mathematical astronomy. One of the most exiting aspects of this study will be following a continuous scientific tradition as it was transmitted through different cultures and languages. This project will provide an important case study of the transmission of particular texts, theorems and methods of mathematical astronomy from Greco-Roman Antiquity into the Arabic, and thence Latin Middle Ages.

这个博士后奖学金是为了发展语言技能，以进行中世纪阿拉伯语古代精确科学的方法和实践的研究。 PI将获得历史背景，以在中世纪伊斯兰教文化中找到证据。 这些技能和知识将应用于古代和中世纪天文学数学方法的合作项目。 学者主持人是希腊罗马和中世纪阿拉伯时期精确科学的专家，在这两个领域都有很好的出版记录。 该项目将研究使用希腊罗马古代球面几何产生天文知识的不同方法。 在古代，有许多不同的方法来处理球面问题。 人们通常认为，古代球面法有一个历史性的进步，从简单到更强大和复杂。事实上，每种方法产生知识的方式都是不同的，问题只能用特定的方法来解决。在中世纪和近代早期，所有古代方法作为补充方式继续共存，以产生天文知识。 在许多情况下，拉丁文或阿拉伯文译本是我们丢失的希腊原文的唯一证据。 为了将文本研究的技巧应用到这些文本中，有必要在文化和语言背景中理解这些译本，同时仍然阅读它们，作为更古老作品的见证。这意味着要对文本和对它们所做的编辑修改保持敏感。通过使用文本比较的方法，研究者将能够阐明，不仅在原始文本的形式，而且在中世纪的条件下，这些文本的传输。 该项目将对文本进行研究，以确定数学程序的特征，这些数学程序位于来源的知识和文化背景中。然后，它将继续探索这些不同方法的属性，使用更强大的现代数学，这将使古代方法的全部范围和局限性得以显现。 最后，它将显示，通过平衡重建，这些方法可能已在实践中使用。这项研究将是近年来越来越多的工作的一部分，这些工作不仅从它产生的理论陈述方面，而且还从条件、问题和实践方面来探索历史科学。虽然没有证据表明历史学家对科学发现的过程有深刻的见解，但通过借鉴古代文献中的实践，这项研究将更好地理解科学家用来产生结果的方法。这项研究将有助于我们了解古代和中世纪的数学天文学生产中使用的方法和实践。这项研究最令人兴奋的方面之一将是遵循一个连续的科学传统，因为它是通过不同的文化和语言传播的。该项目将提供一个重要的案例研究，研究从希腊罗马古代到阿拉伯语，再到拉丁中世纪的特定文本、定理和数学天文学方法的传播。