&gt; I was watching the second lecture yesterday, towards the end of which Feynman distinguishes between what he calls a ‘Babylonian’ approach and a ‘Greek’ one. His idea here is that mathematicians have a tendency to arrange their theories in the Greek style on an axiomatic basis, while this can’t work in physics, at least in a time of theoretical growth, because it is never clear which approach is basic. For example, one may view a physical theory in terms of forces or field potentials or conservation laws or paths of least action, and unpredictably any one of them might provide new insight as to how to link together physical facts.<p>Okay, so that explains the Greek approach. What&#x27;s the Babylonian approach? Without that key piece of information I&#x27;m pretty lost as to what this is about.