The Golden Age Of Greece

Author Jerry A. Coyne once said that: “If the entire course of evolution were compressed into a single year, the earliest bacteria would appear at the end of March, but we wouldn't see the first human ancestors until 6 a.m. on December 31st. The golden age of Greece, about 500 BCE, would occur just thirty seconds before midnight.”. His quote reflects the monumental importance of the Golden Age of Greece upon our society; using his metaphor, it can be said that this age was one of the great bursts of evolutionary brilliance from humanity. One of the factors that contributed to both the Golden Age of Greece and our modern society is science. Another factor of the Golden Age of Greece is philosophy. Finally, the Golden Age of Greece contributed

Science was a part of the Golden Age of Greece due to the multiple mathematical and medical breakthroughs during this time period. Firstly, Hippocrates was an important contributor in the field of medicine. Hippocrates was “the founder of medicine as a rational science”, and also wrote a code of ethics known as the Hippocratic Oath. Hippocrates was known as “the personification of the ideal physician - wise, caring, compassionate and honest”. Thusly, his contribution to modern society was that, through the Hippocratic Oath, a standard of ethics in medicinal practice was upheld and continued to the present day. Secondly, Pythagoras created one of the most widely used theorems, the Pythagorean Theorem, in which the relationship of the sides of a right angle triangle are calculated in the form a2 + b2 = c2. This was a major contribution to our modern society as the Pythagorean Theorem is still in use today in mathematics, and is one of the major aspects of Euclidean geometry. Finally, Euclid was a contributor modern understanding of mathematics, specifically geometry. According to the University of New Mexico’s NonEuclid page: “Euclidean geometry was named after Euclid, a Greek mathematician who lived in 300 BC. His book, called "The Elements", is a collection of axioms, theorems and proofs about squares, circles, acute angles, isosceles triangles, and other such things”. As “most of the theorems which are taught in high schools today can be found in Euclid's 2000 year old book”, and the fact that “Euclidean geometry is of great practical value”, it can be said that his book was a fundamental contribution to modern society. To summarise, the Golden Age of Greece contributed to our modern society through the medical achievements of Hippocrates, and the mathematical achievements of Pythagoras and