> Two other perfect examples of "obvious-in-retrospect" theories are evolution and special relativity. Admittedly, I don't know if the ancient Greeks, sitting around in their togas, could have figured out that these theories were true. But certainly -- certainly! -- they could've figured out that they were possibly true: that they're powerful principles that would've at least been on God's whiteboard when She was brainstorming the world.
Actually, people studying the Pre-socratics like to point out that Anaxagoras (IIRC) theorizes something eerily close to evolution: that at the beginning, there were all sorts of random creatures, and only the ones which did well survived and created more creatures like them. I don't know why noone followed up on it (in contrast to something like heliocentrism, where we know why the Greeks abandoned it for what were excellent and unobjectionable reasons at the time).
Actually, people studying the Pre-socratics like to point out that Anaxagoras (IIRC) theorizes something eerily close to evolution: that at the beginning, there were all sorts of random creatures, and only the ones which did well survived and created more creatures like them. I don't know why noone followed up on it (in contrast to something like heliocentrism, where we know why the Greeks abandoned it for what were excellent and unobjectionable reasons at the time).