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DanArmak comments on Rationality Quotes May 2013 - Less Wrong
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-Marcus Aurelius
Observing the sky is good and productive science. Perhaps he meant that as an emperor (or responsible senator, etc) he should not have been drawn into a serious scientific or philosophical career, but for those who can afford the time and effort, it's a fine pursuit.
I was told that that part was actually a reference to astrology.
Gasp, I definitely didn't read that way. Observing the sky sounded like science, and the logical puzzles sounded like math. Plus, it was already useful at the time: it helped keep track of time, predict seasons…
There's a bit in CS Lewis about modern people thinking of astrology and alchemy as the same sort of thing, but when they were current, astrology was a way of asserting an orderly universe while alchemy was asserting human power to make things very different.
Quite so-- and less obvious applications are evidenced by the example of Thales.