This is a tall order for a forum post! I can help guide you in your research by talking about who was important in history, and the general progression of ideas.
If we define
science as “a theoretical understanding of the natural world”, then we can start with the Greeks in western civilization. The pre-Socratic philosophers (~585-248 BC) basically came up with ideas like:
-Everything is made of elements, such as fire, air, earth and water
-Change had to be accounted for logically, since it seems to imply movement from non-existence to existence and vice versa, which doesn’t make sense.
-Everything is made of atoms
-There are/aren’t void spaces
Plato (418-348 BC) liked mathematics because it was a more certain form of knowledge. He thought the four elements were made of the platonic solids, and that the heavenly bodies moved in a combination of uniform circular motions.
Aristotle (384-322) basically defined science for over 1500 years. You’ll want to read up on him.
He didn’t come up with any “laws” that we still use today, though. Mathematical laws didn’t really come around until Galileo.
The Epicurans and Stoics were other schools of natural philosophy around Aristotle’s time.
Archimedes figured out the lever law, as well as a bunch of mathematical stuff.
Eratosthenes calculated a reasonable circumference of the earth in 235 BC. The ancients, by the way, did NOT argue a flat earth. Anybody who was educated in the philosophical thought of the time believed in a spherical earth.
Ptolemy’s (100-178 A.D.)
Almagest was basically the reference standard for astronomical theories until Copernicus.
Galen (129-200 AD) was the reference standard for human physiological theories until the 1500s.
In the 1300s people were figuring out motion. Read about the Merton mean speed rule, and the impetus theory of motion.
The “scientific revolution” began in 1543 with the publication of Vesalius’
De Fabrica and Copernicus’
De Revolutionibus.
Tycho Brahe was the most significant observational astronomer during his lifetime (1546-1601). Interestingly, he rejected the notion that the earth revolved around the sun.
William Gilbert (1600) studied magnetism and influenced certain people’s theories.
Kepler (1571-1630) came up with 3 laws of planetary motion which are still taught today.
Galileo made numerous astronomical observations with his telescope, and was the first guy to really try and study motion,
physics, mathematically.
Descartes (1596-1650) was extremely influential. Read up on his ideas.
William Harvey (1628) figured out that blood
circulated in our body instead of being absorbed. (Yes, it took humanity thousands of years to figure out that blood circulated.)
Robert Boyle in the 1600s discovered the pressure-volume relationship of gases. William Gilbert studied magnetism.
Isaac Newton published his three laws of motion and his theory of universal gravitation in 1687. He also studied the properties of light. His biggest accomplishment, in retrospect, was the use of calculus to explain motion.
After the 1600s, things started to really take off. I haven’t take a modern history of science course yet, but I can outline the most important modern physical concepts that we use today (in my next post).
My history professor’s top ten list of most influential “scientists” before the 1700s was:
10. Galileo
9. Copernicus
8. Parmenides
7. William Harvey
6. Plato
5. Thomas Aquinas (sums up relation between Greek and Christian thought)
4. Galen
3. Newton
2. Descartes
- Aristotle
It’s an immutable law of the universe.