The Essay

"A Hellenophile suffers from a form of madness that blinds him or her to historical truth and creates in the imagination the idea that one of several false propositions is true. The first is that the Greeks invented science; the second is that they discovered a way to truth, the scientific method, that we are now successfully following; the third is that the only real sciences are those that began in Greece; and the fourth (and last?) is that the true definition of science is just that which scientists happen to be doing now, following a method or methods adumbrated by the Greeks, but never fully understood or utilized by them."

- David Pingree, 'Hellenophilia versus the History of Science', Isis 1992.

Using examples from the lecture course write an essay discussing the validity or otherwise of the Hellenophile's views. [10 marks]

OR

Assess the probability that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe. [5 marks]
Speculate on the psychological and philosophical impact of the unambiguous discovery of life (in any form) on other planets. [5 marks]

Your answer should include your definition of life/intelligent life, and an outline of your assessment of the conditions required for such life to develop. Combine these to give a NUMERICAL estimate for the number of intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy, and in our Universe (the Drake Equation). Assess the status of searches for life on Mars/elsewhere in our solar system/extrasolar planets. Discuss what would constitute unambiguous evidence for life elsewhere. Compare and contrast the psychological and philosophical impact of such a discovery with that of previous expansions of human worldview (heliocentric solar system, nature of stars/galaxies, evolution). Any cogent and coherent arguments will get marks irrespective of the conclusion. You should include a complete bibliography, including references to web sites (beware of nutters) where applicable.