Page 58 - Handbook of Gold Exploration and Evaluation

Nature and history of gold 39

which listed all the rocks and minerals known at the time. Aristotle (384±
322 BC) whose works include 22 treatises dealing with logic, physics,
astronomy, meteorology, biology, psychology, ethics, politics and literary
criticism, believed that the Earth's structure was constantly changing. He noted
that siltation in streams of the Black Sea region had necessitated a shift to
smaller boats after only 60 years of sedimentation.
However, although early Christian theology absorbed many of the ideas of
Socrates and Aristotle, the teachings of the church were also influenced strongly
by Plato (428±347 BC). Plato was a pupil of Socrates but his philosophy was
generally unfavourable toward empirical knowledge and rejected scientific
rationalism in favour of arguments. Plato's `ideal state of Utopia' (The Republic
and The Laws) took a view of the world verging on mysticism and thereby
discouraged secular knowledge, believing it to be a manifestation of heathenism.
The freedom of expression enjoyed by science had thus begun to be seriously
challenged during the rise of the Christian Church. An organised priesthood
developed a religious theory of creation, and differences between established
religion and the irreligious attitude of the free-thinking philosophers became a
dominant issue. Even the most renowned philosophers were persecuted from
that time onwards. For example:
· Anaxagoras had to leave Athens in exile.
· Socrates was condemned to death by the Athenian authorities and died by
drinking hemlock.
· Aristotle was forced into exile in Chalcis, where he died.
· St Augustine of Hippo (AD 354±430) maintained the Doctrine of Original Sin
and the necessity of Divine Grace. He taught that all natural processes have a
spiritual purpose.
· Bishop Theophilus (AD 390) destroyed the Library of the Temple of Serapis
in Alexandria.
· St Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, instigated the murder of the mathematician
Hypatia (AD 415).
Following the conquering of the world and before his death in 323 BC,
Alexander the Great spread Greek philosophy to many other countries including
Egypt, where the new Hellenistic culture flourished. Under this culture:
· Mathematicians advanced the study of curved figures and algebra. Archi-
medes (287±212 BC) with his Archimedean spiral solved two of the classic
problems, trisection of the angle and squaring of the circle.
· Hellenistic astronomers produced accurate observational results of the
universe. Hipparchus (190±120 BC) invented trigonometry, calculated the
length of the solar year and the lunar month, and discovered the precession of
the equinoxes. He also made a catalogue of 800 stars and advanced the
method of determining the location of places on the Earth's surface by lines
of latitude and longitude.