The Influence of Natural Philosophy in Engineering, Design, Modern Mechanisms and Machine Theory
Development of logic into a science served as an instrument for the progress in natural philosophy and the scientific method in the 6 th and 5 th Centuries BC in China, India, the Arabian world, the Middle East and ancient Greece. Rapid advancements in natural sciences were followed by systematic attempts to organize knowledge in the 4t h to 1 st Centuries BC in the Greek and Hellenistic world, reaching maturity in the Roman Empire after the 2 ndCentury AD. The influence of natural philosophy to the development of mechanics and engineering as a science is discussed here, along with an overview of the History of Machine and Mechanism Science (HMMS), from the earliest times up to recent past, including technical aspects. Studying the HMMS leads to greater motivation to currently increase the efforts needed for advancing technology and hence progress of humanity.