ABSTRACT
The rebirth of the culture of antiquity, the Renaissance, has definite significance for the foundation of the experimental sciences. When the Eastern Roman Empire fell in 1453, a number of men of learning fled to the West. Their arrival led to a rediscovery of ancient Greek philosophy, especially Plato — just as the Arabs a few centuries before had made possible a renewed knowledge of Aristotle. This injection of Greek theories, in the fifteenth century, helped to create the conditions that made possible the founding of experimental science. On the one hand, we had adequate concepts and theories — from Greek philosophy — and logical method — from training in scholastic philosophy in the Middle Ages — and, on the other hand, we had a newly awakened interest in the exploitation and control of nature — a secularization of interests typical of the Renaissance.
