Born in Alexandria, Egypt ca. 90 AD while under the control of the Roman
Empire, Claudius Ptolemy became one of the most influential natural philosophers during
his time. His findings in the fields of astronomy, astrology, geography, and mathematics
set the foundations for further discoveries in cosmology later on during medieval times in
Europe and the Islamic world. Ptolemy was the author of several scientific works,
including one of his most significant books: the Almagest, which contains his astronomy
studies. Ptolemy was able to learn from the scientific works written by the likes of
Aristotle and his predecessors and apply a new method to collect data to unveil ground
breaking discoveries such as the geocentric model of
…show more content…
Born in Egypt of Greek descent, surrounded by the greatness of the Roman Empire, and
influenced by natural philosophers such as Aristotle, Hipparchus and Euclid, Ptolemy's studies of
natural processes were beneficial to the Roman Empire in the short term, but also of more
importance for laying the basis for other scientists' work, especially in the Islamic world and
Europe. The mathematical influence that other Greek philosophers had on Ptolemy was
definitely strong and led him to create a new method of taking observations of the cosmos. The
Aristotelian and the Church's way of thinking was predominant during ancient times and it is
possible to see its effects on the works of natural philosopher in antiquity, such as Ptolemy. After
the ancient Greek/Roman time periods, Western Europe experienced a decline in the study of
astronomy, until the rise of Islam brought many scientific improvements by studying and
polishing the work of Ptolemy.
Overall, although Ptolemy's geocentric model is incorrect because the Earth is
positioned at the center of all, he was able to create a model with good enough measurements to
be used for many centuries later by collecting data from observations and organizing it in