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Thucydides as Science

Malaspina.com - Thucydides as Science Thucydides as Science (c) Russell McNeil, Malaspina University-College, 1996 Had Thucydides been born a century later (he was born about 460) it is entirely possible he would have contributed more to Greek mathematics and science than to history. The strength and influence Thucydides exerts on the Greek mind draws in part from it's detached vantage. Euclid, and all the mathematical thinking that laid the groundwork for Euclid flourished in large part because it constituted a logically consistent system with explicit rules and assumptions in which all rational observers had to draw identical conclusions. This "impulse" exerted a strong influence on the Greek mind and is clearly evident in the work of Thucydides. Thucydides' explanation for the Peloponnesian War focuses on empire and power. War arises when power begins to shift. In fact, Thucydides provided the basis for the so-called "balance of power" politics which the Western tradition has used and still uses to underpin its thinking for over two millennia. Because this amoral explanation of political "reality" emerges from what appears to be a scientific framework, we tend to buy into the idea more readily than if we understood it more for what it is, the carefully contrived opinion of a clever thinker. Thucydides "detached vantage" as an objective observer (we can argue whether it really was detached in seminar) allows him to probe beneath the surface reasons for war to reveal those hidden forces (power, fear, and self interest) that are really responsible for events. I think many of are impressed and persuaded that Thucydides really has uncovered some truths about human nature and war because of his "detached vantage" and because this account unfolds for us as "systematic and formulated knowledge," which in very general terms is how we define science. First, he convinces us that he has "gotten the facts straight." Second, he persuades us that

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