This edited volume is a welcome addition to the series Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, which since the early 1990s has been providing clear state-of-the-art introductions to philosophical authors and subjects for the benefit of advanced students and non-specialist readers.
In the expert hands of Taub, who has also recently co-edited the first volume of the Cambridge History of Science, this Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science has been steered in a safe, but interesting, direction. The book provides a good snapshot of the current state of the field, but it also offers a few surprises. In line with the general brief of the Companions series, this is a volume with a variety of viewpoints rather than a single voice. The thirteen chapters, plus introduction, deal with different subjects, some more, some less philosophical (as explained in the introduction, p. 10), but they also opt for different argumentative and expositive structures. Some could be characterised as surveys, whether on a more general (e.g. P. Curd on Presocratic natural philosophy; M. Raffa on music) or a more specific topic (e.g. D. Sedley on creationism; S. Berryman on the mechanical hypothesis). Sometimes the focus narrows further to the analysis of a particular question, as seen through the lens of specific ancient philosophers. For instance, both K. Corcilius and T. Kjeller Johansen discuss teleology, but from two different perspectives, while L. Totelin produces a wonderful chapter in answer to the deceptively simple question ‘What's a plant?’.
The variety extends to some extent to the choice of contributors, who fittingly represent the different disciplines involved in the study of ancient Greek and Roman science: philosophy (unsurprisingly, here the majority), Classics, ancient history, history of science.
There are also some interesting variations in terms of methodology. Some of the chapters articulate a claim or argument in stronger terms than others: that is the case, for instance, with J. Allen's piece on reason and experience, which draws on philosophical and medical texts from the classical period. On the other hand, some contributors do not appear to have a specific thesis, but rather aim to produce a clear and well-reasoned synthesis of current scholarship: Taub's chapter on astronomy is exemplary in this respect, while Curd's overview of Presocratic natural philosophy, albeit extremely accessible and well-structured, comes across as a rather traditional take on the topic.
For most of the chapters that discuss early Greek philosophy, I was left wondering whether readers might not have benefited from a wider discussion of the nature of the extant evidence, and in particular a more explicit contextualisation of the so-called ‘fragments’ of the so-called Presocratics. Recent scholarship has devoted closer attention to the nature of ‘fragments’ in classical literature and advocated what we could call embracing ‘fragmentariness’ rather than ignoring it. Thus, it felt as a bit of a missed opportunity that in this volume texts were sometimes cited solely via their Diels–Kranz reference, with little discussion of whether they were embedded in a fourth-century bce or a sixth-century ce text, and by authors with, inevitably, their own philosophical agenda. Beyond the philological issue of authenticity, a discussion of which would admittedly be unsuitable for a volume of this kind, it would certainly have been enriching and thought-provoking for non-specialist readers to be made more aware of the forms and ways in which the texts discussed have come down to us, even more so given that the last chapter discusses the ancient reception of early Greek philosophy.
Analogously, in several of the contributions, though by no means all, scholarly debates and controversies tend to be relegated to the footnotes. While this certainly simplifies matters for readers and allows for uninterrupted flow of argumentation, it feels, again, like a bit of a missed opportunity for readers, who surely would have benefited from some exposure to the historiographical process behind our reading of the sources.
Taub's introduction does an excellent job of raising some ‘big’ questions, including the very notions of ‘science’ and ‘nature’, in a succinct but informative historiographical context. Curd's Chapter 1, on Presocratic natural philosophy, is, as mentioned, a traditional but effective overview of the main early Greek thinkers as well as some of the main scholarly debates, in particular the relationship between natural philosophy and religion.
Allen's contribution in Chapter 2 explores the alleged opposition of reason and experience, and traces its genealogy in ancient philosophical and medical literature. Compared to Curd's general, accessible chapter, this is more narrowly focused. While Allen's argument that the Hippocratic On Ancient Medicine cannot be characterised unqualifiedly as an empiricist text is certainly convincing, his chapter may be pitched too high for the intended audience of the volume. Similar thoughts were elicited by D. Ebrey's account of some aspects of Aristotle's descriptions of matter (Chapter 4). While I found it persuasive and thought-provoking, I am not sure that the intended readership of the Companion would be quite on the same wavelength, so to speak. Allen and Ebrey give excellent answers to questions that are not necessarily the kind of question non-experts in the field would ask or be invested in.
Corcilius's account of the cosmological method in Plato and Aristotle in relation to teleology (Chapter 3) is clear and well written. He guides readers towards seeing interesting and fresh connections between the universe and life on earth in the thought of early Greek philosophers and, after that, in Plato and Aristotle. While the piece illuminates familiar terrain in novel ways, I thought that it somewhat sacrificed more explicit engagement with the scholarly debates to clarity and ease of communication. On a related theme, Kjeller Johansen chapter is another admirably clear and persuasive account of natural teleology (Chapter 5), seen here in relationship to craft, which is, as Aristotle exemplifies, a prime model of purposeful activity or embodied purpose. At the same time Kjeller Johansen commendably dedicates some space in the text (not the footnotes) to points of debate and objections to his argument (pp. 116–18). Sedley's chapter on creationism (Chapter 6) is a masterclass on this topic, which has been put firmly on the map of the history of ancient philosophy by Sedley himself. The contribution, while going over well-rehearsed ground with an extremely good control of the structure, achieves an enviable balance between complexity of argumentation and clarity of exposition.
Chapter 7 by Totelin was my favourite in the book. It was exciting and fresh; it turned a seemingly simple question into an exploration of various fascinating aspects of ancient philosophy, natural philosophy, medicine and mythology (there is a foray into Ovid's Metamorphoses), while remaining solidly grounded in the sources and in up-to-date scholarship. I particularly appreciated the fact that Totelin, unlike some of the other contributors, openly acknowledged and made a part of her discussion the fact that what we know about the early Greek philosophers needs to be contextualised against the background of the authors who report their views (p. 148).
M. Ransome Johnson's account of meteorology (Chapter 8), organised chronologically, gives due space to Aristotle but also to parapegmata and Epicurus; it is a useful introduction for readers new to the subject but curious about it. The account of mathematics by N. Sidoli, Chapter 9, exemplifies again the fruitful diversity of approaches in this volume. Eschewing a chronological account, Sidoli organises his contribution thematically (e.g. there are sub-sections on structures, arguments and constructions) and has a sub-section devoted to explaining the complex issue of the sources. While the emphasis is, unsurprisingly, given the philosophical slant of the volume, on ‘theoretical’ mathematics, the result is an extremely well-rounded exposition and explanation of the field, which avoids excessive focus on the ‘great mathematicians’ and devotes close attention to language and style, making the topic more relevant for readers who may approach ancient science from the discipline of Classics. Taub follows in Chapter 10 with a survey of astronomy in its contexts: she more than succeeds in clearly and lucidly showing the different facets of astronomy and how they related to other fields of knowledge in antiquity, particularly philosophy, while also touching on material culture and instruments. Equally readable, despite some structural complexities, and well attuned to the philosophical slant of the volume, is Chapter 11 by Berryman, who charts the mechanical hypothesis (the idea that mechanics can provide a model for explaining the natural world) through several ancient authors, extending into late antiquity and beyond. Chapter 12, by Raffa, on ancient music and harmonics, is a masterful exercise in making a topic that can come across as hypertechnical accessible and fascinating. While keeping a chronological structure as the background to the survey, Raffa explains things clearly and is careful to signpost and to gloss specialist terms and concepts. Moreover, he highlights at all times the bigger picture of music-making and of the different interests, by different people, in harmonics and music theory. He is particularly effective at pointing out that ancient authors would come to music and to ‘measuring musical beauty’ (p. 248) from different perspectives and with different questions in mind.
The culmination of the volume is L. Zhmud's account of ancient historiography of science in Chapter 13. He explores both some aspects of the early modern and modern reception of ancient science, and, crucially, ancient narratives about protoi heuretai (‘first discoverers’). He touches upon the issue of progress narratives and devotes an interesting section to Eudemus, the author of arguably one of the earliest histories of science. The concluding foray into the aftermath of the Lyceum (within which Eudemus operates), which reaches as far as Clement of Alexandria, leaves the reader eager for more.
In conclusion, the new Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science is a welcome addition to the series. It navigates a well-balanced course between well-trodden areas and new territory, and between surveys of the known and windows into the unexpected.
