Alex Ely Kossovsky - The Birth of Science

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This book has been written for two distinct audiences, and without the slightest internal contradiction, namely, for the educated general public who are not necessarily proficient in mathematics and physics, as well as for expert physicists, other scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians, who I hope will find many sections of the book to be thought-provoking and informative at their own professional level. The four chapters marked as optional require a somewhat higher level of mathematical skills on the part of the reader, and could be skipped by the general reader without any loss of continuity, and without diminishing their ability to understand the rest of the book. It should be noted that the notation for the multiplication of A by B is conveniently denoted here in a variety of ways, such as AxB, A*B, AB; and that conventionally, squares, namely NxN, are denoted as N2, and cubes, namely NxNxN, are denoted as N3. Feedback, questions, suggestions, or criticism about the content of the book could be sent to the email address akossovsky@gmail.com, and would be warmly welcome by the author.

I would like to express my profound gratitude to the late Professor Edward Binkowski, my mentor and the former director of the Applied Mathematics and Statistics Department at the City University of New York, who passed away last year. I thank him for teaching a broader, more balanced and open-minded approach regarding issues in mathematical statistics and philosophy of science, as well as for his support and encouragement leading eventually to the writing of this book. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Professor George Feuerlicht of Prague University of Economics and Sydney University of Technology, for his unfailing loyalty, support, and enthusiasm for this book, as well as for his thorough and brutal purge of typos from my original manuscript. Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the distinguished physicist and author Professor Don Lemons, and to Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Sciences Walter Makous, for their scientific insights and comments, for their constant support, and for Walters reviewing of the prose in the book.

It was the continent of Europe, during the transformative era of the Renaissance, where this remarkable revolution in knowledge took place. Yet, Europe at that era was neither peaceful nor prosperous; rather it was largely a continent suffering from superstition and ignorance; ruled mostly by exploitative and despotic kings. More benevolent and humanistic rulers who supported the arts and the sciences were the exception. It was also a continent torn by brutal and senseless wars, mostly in order to enhance this or that dynastic royal family, and also in part due to the violent schism between the newly formed Lutheran Church established by Martin Luther in the Protestant Reformation, and the older and well-established Catholic Church.