Topic summary
Hellenistic science
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Hellenistic period.
Sciences
Past interpretations of Hellenistic science often downplayed its significance, as found for instance in the English classical scholar Francis Cornford, who believed that "all the most important and original work was done in the three centuries from 600 to 300 BC". Recent interpretations tend to be more generous, leading a few people like mathematician Lucio Russo to claim that the scientific method was actually born in the 3rd century BC, to be largely forgotten during the Roman period and only revived in full during the Renaissance.