The great gift that the Greek philosopher, Plato gave Western Science was the importance of using the senses in understanding the natural world without requiring an absolute and constant appeal to the supernatural.
However…
“…Since physical reality is a shadow of the ideal, physics is always subordinate to the metaphysics. Philosophy struggles to understand the Ideal from which the world has declined. Science merely uses observation the declined shadow itself. And so science can never lead to truth; it must always sit at philosophy’s feet, willing to receive correction.”
This quote comes from the fantastic book: The Story of Western Science from Susan Wise Bauer (who also brought us The Story of the World).
This book is for more advanced readers than SOTW, but is recommended highly for anyone who wants to understand the writings of ancient, middle age, and modern science, and the WHY behind the HOW.
(The NanoSchool “Arche” is meeting once a week to talk about this book for the rest off the Spring. If you need some help with your little one going through it, let us know.)
