ASR in the presocratics and Plato

• Main Author: Bargrave-Weaver, Derek
• Published: Durham University 1956
• Subjects: 540
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.578095

I intend in this dissertation to enquire into the ideas held by the Pre-Socratics and Plato about the nature and properties of the substances that we now call 'gases' - a word invented by van Helmont (1577 1644), a pioneer of modern chemistry, who was the first man to recognise the nature of gases other than air. Before his time, and indeed for some time after, man had no idea of what gases really are, and what gives them their properties. !et the Greeks did realise that there are certain things that, although they are invisible and intangible, and therefore fail to pass two of the typical tests for reality used by the early 'scientists', are, nevertheless, real substances. ~Nb.at led to this discovery, how did they interpret it, and how far was that interpretation in accord with modern theory? These are the questions that i hope to answer.