- Created By
- First Aired on
Mar 19, 1985
- Popularity: 6.2529
- 10 votes
- Networks
- (GB)
- Production
BBC (GB)
- Status: Ended
Show Ended
1 seaons till May 21, 1985
Last episode: Worlds Without End: Changing Knowledge, Changing Reality
Seasons & episodes
Total 1 seasons, 10 episodes

Season 1
Aired
Episode 1The Way We Are: It Started with the Greeks45 min
Written and presented by James Burke, this 10-part series traces the development of Western thought through its major transformations since the days of ancient Greece. Program one is an overview of the series, showing how a culture’s view of the world around it determines how it sees itself, and is reflected even in the smallest details of its customs and habits.
Episode 2In the Light of the Above: Medieval Conflict: Faith and Reason45 min
Overview not available
Episode 3Point of View: Scientific Imagination in the Renaissance45 min
Shows that Western Europe’s rediscovery of perspective through the study of Arab optics led to revolutions in art and architecture. The West’s new-found ability to control things at a distance resulted in new methods of warfare and the confidence to make long voyages of exploration.
Episode 4A Matter of Fact: Printing Transforms Knowledge45 min
Observes that the invention of printing and the advent of cheap paper forever transformed the nature of knowledge from the local and traditional to the systematic and testable. Nationalism, public relations, and propaganda are among the results.
Episode 5Infinitely Reasonable: Science Revises the Heavens45 min
Notes that investigators such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton evolved better explanations of natural phenomena than those of Aristotle. Highlights the theories that led to a new conception of how the universe works and of man’s place in it.
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