SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN PTOLEMYS HARMONICS

The science called harmonics was one of the major intellectual enterprises of Greek antiquity. Ptolemys treatise seeks to invest it with new scientific rigour; its consistently sophisticated procedural self-awareness marks it as a key text in the history of science. This book is a sustained methodological exploration of Ptolemys project. After an analysis of his explicit pronouncements on the sciences aims and the methods appropriate to it, it examines Ptolemys conduct of his investigation in detail, concluding that despite occasional uncertainties, the declared procedure is followed with remarkable fidelity. Ptolemy pursues tenaciously his novel objective of integrating closely the projects theoretical and empirical phases and shows astonishing mastery of the concept, the design and the conduct of controlled experimental tests. By opening up this neglected text to historians of science, the book aims to provide a point of departure for wider studies of Greek scientific method.