Palimpsest Teaches History, Geography

The exciting article by Reviel Netz on the recently discovered Archimedes Palimpsest (Physics Today, June 2000, page 32 ), reminds us once again about science’s ancient legacy, particularly from Greece. I cannot help but think that the way the manuscript was discovered symbolized the fate of a great many ancient scientific achievements and the barrier against them that the Christian church imposed in medieval Europe. That the monks “saved” the manuscript by “recycling” it as a palimpsest reminds me of the story of the fate of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, which was rescued from the butcher’s hands by Felix Mendelssohn, just as the butcher was about to wrap a piece of meat in the manuscript.

The case of Archimedes illustrates well the modern trend of neglecting Greek antiquity in the hard sciences. Surely, our modern daily experience is far different from ancient times, but we should be aware that what has survived from ancient science must be just the tip of the iceberg, saved for us more by Moslem culture, Arab in particular, than through our Christian ancestors.

I agree that Archimedes’ rationale for doing research was essentially to develop powerful argumentation rather than to search for truth. An affinity for competition pervaded the culture of ancient Greece. Although the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, and others did contain teleological aspects, Greeks in general, unlike medieval Christian Europeans, did not live to fulfill a particular aim or purpose, human or divine. Perhaps it was just this absence of an obligation to achieve a prescribed goal that allowed them to achieve so much.