Resumen de Epistemological Aspects of Historiography of Science in Greece
This paper examines the epistemological aspects of the course of development of the discipline of history of science in Greece focusing on three controversial themes: i) “Continuity” with the ancients, ii) reception of modern science in the Greek speaking communities in the 18th - early 19th centuries and finally iii) the issue of teaching the history of science in the science classroom.
Starting with the work of the first Professor of history of science, Michael Stefanidis, this paper examines the transition from a discipline of history of science dominated by the attempt to establish the continuity of Greek Science from the ancients onwards up to the last decades of the 20th century when a new generation of historians of science, which appears on the scene in the late 1970s, prevailed in the cultural life of Greece. .
This new generation considered the argument for “continuity” as an ideological construction, and turned its attention in the study of the post-Byzantine era, in a period that has been called “Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment”, and focused on the study of reception and assimilation of the ideas of the 17th century scientific revolution in Greek speaking communities.
Finally, this work examines the newly established relations between the historians of science and the historians of science education considering the study of the two fields tightly connected in the Greek framework and discusses the epistemological problems arisen from proposals and attempts to incorporate history of science in the teaching of science in line with the developments in the international community.
