Einstein

Einstein discovered the relativity of simultaneity and, in his special theory of relativity, unified:

space and time;
mass and energy;
electricity and magnetism.

Newton: space, time and particles;
Faraday and Maxwell: space, time, fields and particles;
Einstein, 1905: spacetime, fields and particles;
Einstein, 1915: fields and particles;
Dirac (and see here): fields are particles;
quantum mechanics: spacetime and quantum fields;
quantum gravity: covariant quantum fields.

Einstein's general theory of relativity identifies space-time with the gravitational field.

Carlo Rovelli, Reality Is Not What it Seems (Allen Lane, 2016), pp. 51-107.

From Plato

Reality Is Not What It Seems. See here.

Rovelli shows continuity between ancient philosophy and modern science:

Plato asked his mathematical disciples if they could calculate the motions of heavenly bodies;

Ptolemy, summarizing centuries of Greek astronomy, wrote the Almagest, which predicts planetary movements;

Greek learning went to India and returned to Europe via the Arabs;

Copernicus revised Ptolemy, putting the Sun at the center;

Kepler improved Copernicus;

Galileo, using a telescope, discovered Saturnian rings, lunar mountains, Venerian phases and Jovian moons;

initiating experimental science, Galileo discovered mathematical laws for the movement of bodies on Earth;

Newton discovered that the same laws of motion applied to celestial and terrestrial bodies;

Faraday theorized electric and magnetic fields in space;

Maxwell devised equations for fields;

Maxwell's equations describe electricity, magnetism, visible light and invisible wavelengths;

Einstein;

modern technology uses electromagnetic waves.

Greek Philosophical Schools, Continued

I do not fully agree with this quote but it covers a lot of the territory. There is a problem with any proposition that begins with the word, "All..."

Reality Is Not What It Seems. See here.

There is continuity between Lucretius' "living proof" of atomism and Einstein's confirmation in 1905 of the existence and size of atoms.

Aristotle initiated and defined the sciences of biology, zoology and physics. Plato recognized the importance of mathematics which had been developed by Pythagoras, a disciple of Anaximander.

"Ptolemy was an astronomer who lived in Alexandria in the first century of our era, under the Roman Empire, when science was already in decline and about to disappear altogether, overwhelmed by the collapse of the Hellenistic world and suffocated by the Christianization of the empire." (p. 30)

This historical summary is relevant to science fiction "alternative histories." See here.

Lucretius

Carlo Rovelli, Reality Is Not What It Seems (Allen Lane, 2016).

"Lucretius decants in verse the thought of Epicurus and the atomism of Democritus, and in this way a part of this profound philosophy was saved from the intellectual catastrophe of the Dark Ages." (p. 20)

"The Catholic Church attempted to stop Lucretius: in the Florentine Synod of December 1516 it prohibited the reading of Lucretius in schools. In 1551, the Council of Trent banned his work. But it was too late. An entire vision of the world which had been swept away by medieval Christian fundamentalism was re-emerging in a Europe which had reopened its eyes. It was not just the rationalism, atheism and materialism of Lucretius that were being proposed in Europe. It was not merely a luminous and serene meditation on the beauty of the world. It was much more: it was an articulate and complex structure of thinking about reality, a new mode of thinking, radically different from what had been for centuries the mind-set of the Middle Ages." (pp. 24-25)

Greek Philosophical Schools

Carlo Rovelli, Reality Is Not What It Seems (Allen Lane, 2016), 1 "Grains," pp. 3-26.

Thales and his pupil, Anaximander, were natural philosophers.
Hecataeus differentiated history from myth.

Thales: "All is water," i.e., there is a single material substance.

Anaximander: the sky continues beneath the Earth;
rain comes from evaporation;
plants and animals evolve and adapt;
men must have evolved from other animals.

Parmenides and his pupil, Zeno, rejected empiricism in favor of rationalism.

According to tradition, Zeno taught Leucippus.

Leucippus and his pupil, Democritus, continued natural philosophy and founded atomism.

Lucretius poetically expressed the atomism of Epicurus, a pupil of a pupil of Democritus.

Plato and Aristotle rejected causal explanations in favor of teleology.

Centuries Dominated By Monotheism

On the Poul Anderson blog, we have discussed the connection between monotheism and science. See:

The Birth Of Science
Religion And Science
Different Histories

Here is an alternative perspective:

"...centuries dominated by monotheism have not permitted the survival of Democritus' naturalism. The closure of the ancient schools such as those of Athens and Alexandria and the destruction of all the texts not in accordance with Christian ideas were vast and systematic, at the time of the brutal anti-pagan repression following from the edicts of Emperor Theodosius, which, in 390-1 declared that Christianity was to be the only and obligatory religion of the empire. Plato and Aristotle, pagans who believed in the immortality of the soul or in the existence of a Prime Mover, could be tolerated by a triumphant Christianity. Not Democritus."
-Carlo Rovelli, Reality Is Not What It Seems (Allen Lane, 2016), p. 20.

Plato: immortality of the soul;
Aristotle: a Prime Mover but the soul as the form of the body;
both: teleological, not causal, explanations of natural phenomena.

"Time Does Not Exist"

Whereas my son-in-law gave me Jerusalem by Alan Moore, my granddaughter gave me Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey To Quantum Gravity (Allen Lane, 2016) by Carlo Rovelli. Chapter 7 of Rovelli's book is entitled "Time Does Not Exist." Does this agree with Eternalism? I suspect not.

I think that Rovelli means not that reality is static and therefore that change is an illusion but only that commonsense ideas about time are inadequate. This would be unsurprising. Many commonsense ideas are inadequate.

Descartes argued, "I think, therefore I am," i.e., even if all my experience were illusory, I would still exist as the experiencer of the illusion. Similarly, change occurs at least within the illusion. To articulate "Change does not occur" is to change from articulating "Change..." to articulating "...does not occur."

I will carefully read Rovelli's account of the progression from Greek philosophy through classical mechanics and relativity to quantum gravity in order to gain a more accurate understanding of his "Time Does Not Exist." Rovelli will have to be read in conjunction with Jerusalem.