An enquiry into the origins of science is immediately faced with fundamental questions about the nature of science itself. Is science a discrete activity that endures over time? Can it adequately be distinguished from related human activities such as magic and religion? Is it a peculiarly Western phenomenon? Traditional histories of science have tended to answer each of these questions in the affirmative. Science is customarily defined as the systematic description or explanation of natural phenomena along with the habits of mind that make that possible—typically logic and mathematics. Working with this understanding of science, historians have traced the origins of Western science to Greek thinkers living on the west coast of Asia Minor in the sixth century B.C.E.

Science in antiquity

The speculations of these ancient Greek philosophers—principally...