The Origin of Quantification

Neither the Greek nor the Alexandrian nor the early Arabic philosopher/scientists ever developed a mathematical representation of qualities, a prerequisite for a mathematical physics. By the early seventeenth century the quantification of qualities was a common practice. This article traces the way this practice developed. It originated with a medievally theological problem and was developed by philosophical logicians who did not have mathematical physics as a goal. The verbal algebra they developed was given a mathematical formulation in the late fifteenth century. This was subsequently assimilated into a neo-Platonic revival that stressed mathematical forms. The quantification of qualities developed in physics supplied the paradigm for quantification in other fields.