big ideas in perspective
Reading Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy puts some of human kind's biggest ideas in perspective for you:
- Their [Leucippus and Democritus, 5th century b.c.] point of view was remarkably like that of modern science. They believed that everything is composed of atoms, which are physically, but not geometrically, indivisible; that between the atoms there is empty space; that atoms are indestructible; that they always have been, and always will be, in motion; that there are an infinite number of atoms...
- Aristarchus of Samos (310-230 b.c.) is the most interesting of all ancient astronomers, because he advanced the complete Copernican hypothesis, that all planets, including the earth, revolve in circles round the sun.
- Aenesidemus of Knossos (1st century b.c.), a sceptic, wrote a short treatise, 'Arguments Against Belief in a God'.
For all these ideas, it took centuries before they reappeared...