Hello!
I have done a little bit of reseach on internet about significant mathematicians, scientists and inventors and have seen that almost all of these modern (or progressive) people, have read the works of Ancient Greek Philosophers.
We are, in class, mainly reading and discussing about people from Europe, after 14th century B.C. We can see that these people from the Renaissance or Age of Enlightenment (including Pico and Kant), mainly influenced by Ancient Greek Philosophers, especially from Plato and Aristotle. Here are Wikipedia pages of some of the significant Western scientists. Notice that under the "Influences" tab, there is either Plato, or Aristotle, or both:
-Kant
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
-Pico
-Leibniz
-Descartes
... The list can go on. You can check for more yourself. We can also see the same thing for Middle-Eastern scientists in Islamic Golden Era. Here are some of them. Again, check the "Influences" tab, or read through the text. These people also influenced by Ancient Greek philosophers, mainly from Plato and Aristotle:
-Al-Kindi
-Avicenna
-Al-Farabi
-Averroes
-Alhazen
-Omar Khayyam
What do you think? Is it a coincidence that people who are interested in Ancient Greek Philosophy throughout the history become more humanistic, modern, and scientific, or is there some sort of a link between modernity and Ancient Greek Philosophy?
I believe in order to improve ourselves we need to examine and understand our past. Ancient Greek Philosophers generated such a deep questioning that it influenced different study fields both directly and indirectly. I believe Ancient Greek Philosophy and modernity have strong relationship in the manner of scientific findings and the understanding of different concepts such as beauty, modernity, justice, etc.
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