Ancient Science

Buy The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire!

Ancient Science

Dr. Carrier has updated his Columbia Univsersity dissertation into the books The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire and Science Education in the Early Roman Empire, which survey the social role of Roman scientists, what they did, and how they were perceived, including the role of science in ancient education and popular culture, and how scientists themselves were educated, and where they came from. He also has an acclaimed chapter in The Christian Delusion on why "Christianity Was Not Responsible for Modern Science," and another in Christianity Is Not Great on "The Dark Ages."

Buy Science Education in the Early Roman Empire!

Books on Ancient Science (2007)
Brief but informed survey of the best books to read for beginners in the history of Greco-Roman science. For more see the same category on Carrier's Recommendations. Dr. Carrier is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases following links on his website.

The Origins of Greek Philosophy (2000)
First proposed chapter of an abbreviated history of the rise of scientific epistemology. The future chapters planned have been superseded by my forthcoming work on ancient science.

Cultural History of the Lunar and Solar
Eclipse in the Early Roman Empire (1998) PDF
Surveys various ancient beliefs regarding eclipse phenomena (both scientific and superstitious). I'm planning a future revision (this was originally my Columbia master's thesis), but in the meantime it's still a useful reference.

Cosmology and the Koran (2001)
Shows how the Koran was influenced by popular religious and scientific knowledge of its time, and didn't supernaturally predict the Big Bang Theory.

With a Ph.D. in ancient history from Columbia University, Dr. Carrier specializes in the intellectual history of Greece and Rome, particularly the history of science and the origins of Christianity. This page is dedicated to the former. He also discusses this subject on his blog, under history of science [old | new] and ancient technology [old | new]; also, historical method [old | new]. For his recommended readings on ancient science, see Richard Carrier Recommends. He also teaches an online course on it (see Course Roster for details).

Predicting Modern Science: Epicurus vs. Mohammed (2004)
Shows armchair speculation and common observation were sufficient to make the Epicureans more scientifically prescient than the Koran.

Ancient Roman Tax Receipt (1999)
My work on P.Col. 408 indirectly relates to technology (e.g. economics, agriculture, scribal and administrative practice).

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