Science Lit: Greece Rome

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

For the Greeks and Romans, 'knowledge' was one cohesive concept that combined scientific awareness and literary proficiency, and no educated person could forsake one without endangering their access to the other. In this course we will examine some texts by the most important authors in the Greek and Roman tradition who conveyed scientific contents through literary work or expanded their literary creations with the infusion of scientific concepts. These will include scientists such as Hippocrates, Aristotle, Archimedes, and Ptolemy; but also poets such as Homer, Vergil, and Ovid; philosophers such as Empedocles and Plato; rhetoricians such as Cicero; and many more. The last few classes will be devoted to the continuation of the synergic relationship between science and literature through the Modern Age, also trying to see developments in more recent time (for instance, Primo Levi or Albert Einstein).