PATH of ILLUMINATION Aristotle Da Vinci Newton

Dear Reader,

This book is a collection of conversations about art and science that I have with two of my friends who are world-renowned professors in the fields of philosophy and history. We meet every year during the first week of April in our favorite cafe in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

The conversations we have, which delve into the challenging journeys of humanity in the fields of science and art from Aristotle to Newton.

To respect their privacy, my...
More Description

Dear Reader,

This book is a collection of conversations about art and science that I have with two of my friends who are world-renowned professors in the fields of philosophy and history. We meet every year during the first week of April in our favorite cafe in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

The conversations we have, which delve into the challenging journeys of humanity in the fields of science and art from Aristotle to Newton.

To respect their privacy, my friends' names have been changed, and each year a different student joins our team and is referred to as Claire Martinez in the book. It is my hope that these discussions will provide you, dear reader, with a fresh perspective on the topics of art and science.

Prologue

"The brilliant achievements of the Ionian school of natural science cannot be fully described within the confines of space and time. It is commonly believed that with the enlightenment they brought, humans would remain steadfast on the path of critical reason. Unfortunately, reality proves to be the contrary.

In the 5th century BCE, Socrates in Athens and Pythagoras and Parmenides in Southern Italy, known as "Great Hellas," rebelled against the conclusions of Ionian natural science. Specifically, they were troubled by the Ionian belief that certainty in knowledge was unattainable and that all knowledge was subject to continuous revision. Instead, they sought "precise, unassailable, and correct information." Pythagoras believed that the accuracy of knowledge could be ensured through numerical precision.

However, the discovery of irrational numbers, such as the square root of 2, posed a challenge to the Pythagorean school, which was structured as a religious sect. To avoid embarrassment, it was decided to keep this discovery confidential. It is said that the sect member, Hippasus, who revealed this secret, was punished by being drowned at sea.

Parmenides claimed that his teachings were endowed with power by the Goddess Dike, while Socrates taught that the immortal soul would come to know God, and that a good man was one who closely resembled God. In contrast, Heraclitus from the Ionians, characterized Pythagoras as a fraud.

The teachings of Socrates are among the most misconstrued systems of thought in the history of philosophy. In actuality, works such as the "Defense of Socrates" and "Euthyphro" were techniques utilized to enforce specific moral principles onto individuals. The renowned philosopher Bertrand Russell characterized Socrates' approach as the "greatest abandonment of truth."

Plato, a student of Socrates, went on to establish the first totalitarian state philosophy in Europe, while his student Aristotle instilled an unwavering passion for truth in scientific inquiry. Later, the arrival of Christianity in Europe resulted in the widespread ignorance and brutal torture of its people during the Middle Ages.

It took a full millennium for Europe to emerge from this dark period. The infusion of Hellenic science, which had been preserved and advanced by the Muslim world, into Europe through Spain, Sicily, and the Trabzon-Istanbul route over a 500-year span, combined with the wealth of the Italian Republics like Genoa and Venice through trade, sparked the Renaissance, or rebirth.

The great geographical discoveries of the Renaissance formed the basis for the revival of the Ionian spirit in Europe through the Galilean era. The widespread availability of individual freedom was a crucial factor in the rapid development of critical thinking in Europe. While the Ottoman Empire prohibited the introduction of the printing press, Europe, with a population of only 60 million, saw the printing of 20 million books between 1450 and 1500."