Euclid and the scientific thought in the third century B.C.
Abstract
The criticism on the texts of Euclid, even assuming different positions, starts generally from the previous assumption that the author of the Elements is totally inside the Platonic-Aristotelian tradition. The thesis affirmed in this paper is that many of the gaps and contradictions found by the criticism have their root in this assumption. The authors assert that Euclid was a scientist that belonged in a full way to the new cultural climate of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, and particularly of the Alexandria’s Museum. In this climate, characterized by lively philosophical disputes, the scientists, and in particular Euclid, tend to obtain coherent and stable results, voluntarily omitting to give their opinion on the real being of the scientific
object and on the truth of the principles.
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