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Materia Philosophiae. Material Dimensions of Ancient Philosophy
Series:
Ever since Thales fell into the well, popular imagination has pictured philosophers as abstracted from everyday reality. Materia Philosophiae: The Material Dimensions of Ancient Philosophy counters that view. Philosophy in ancient Greece grew out of and remained closely connected to the material realities around it—difficulties of travel, reliance on cumbersome scrolls, learning acquired literally at the foot of a master; but also the spread of coinage, contemporaneous achievements in technology and engineering, and contact with everyday household objects. By resituating philosophers in their material contexts, Materia Philosophiae opens research avenues that have not previously been explored in a single volume.
William Wians (Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Merrimack College) teaches at Boston College. Edited collections include Logos and Muthos: Philosophical Essays in Greek Literature; Logoi and Muthoi: Further Essays in Greek Literature; and Reading Aristotle: Argument and Exposition, with Ronald Polansky.
Robert Hahn is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Publications include Anaximander and the Architects; Archaeology and the Origins of Philosophy; and The Metaphysics of the Pythagorean Theorem. He was recently honored as Outstanding Researcher by his university.
Contributors are: Robert Hahn, Andrei Lebedev, Andrew Gregory, Sylvia Berryman, Nathasja Roggo-van Luijn, Richard Seaford, Dirk L. Couprie, Ellen Harlizius-Klück and Giovanni Fanfani, Harold Tarrant, Gastón Javier Basile, Geoffrey Lloyd, Philip Thibodeau, Bella Vivante, William Wians.
Robert Hahn is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Publications include Anaximander and the Architects; Archaeology and the Origins of Philosophy; and The Metaphysics of the Pythagorean Theorem. He was recently honored as Outstanding Researcher by his university.
Contributors are: Robert Hahn, Andrei Lebedev, Andrew Gregory, Sylvia Berryman, Nathasja Roggo-van Luijn, Richard Seaford, Dirk L. Couprie, Ellen Harlizius-Klück and Giovanni Fanfani, Harold Tarrant, Gastón Javier Basile, Geoffrey Lloyd, Philip Thibodeau, Bella Vivante, William Wians.
Contents
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Philosophical Argument and Material Realities An Introduction William Wians and Robert Hahn
Part 1 Philosophers and Technologies
1 Material Modular Thinking, Substance Monism, and the Origins of Greek Philosophy Architecture, Gnomon, Coinage, and the Felting of Wool Robert Hahn
2 Placing the Ionian Περι Φυσεως Ιστορια in Context The Role of Sea Trade, Colonization, Navigation and Analogies from Manufacturing Crafts (Τεχναι) in the Birth of Greek Science
Andrei Lebedev
3 Greek Ships, Seamanship and Cosmology
Andrew Gregory
4 The Gods and the Machine Ancient Automata and Divine Causation Sylvia Berryman
Part 2 Thinking with Objects
5 Using a Household Artefact as an Epistemological Tool The Clepsydra in Anaxagoras, Aristotle’s de Caelo, and Empedocles
Nathasja Roggo-van Luijn
6 The Metaphysics of the Coin-Image
Richard Seaford
7 Anaximenes and the Millstone
Dirk L. Couprie
8 Weaving the Double Square An (Im-)Material Contribution to Early Greek Mathematics Ellen Harlizius-Klück and Giovanni Fanfani
Part 3 Philosophical Media and Their Messages
9 The Limited Relevance of Writing in Early Greek Philosophy and Science
Harold Tarrant
10 Metadiscourse The Fabric of Early Greek Philosophical Prose
Gaston Javier Basile
11 Materiality and Philosophy The Ancient Greek and Chinese Experiences Compared G.E.R. Lloyd
Part 4 Philosophy and Ancient Embodiment
12 Thales and the Measure of Wisdom
Philip Thibodeau
13 New Insights into Pythagorean Women’s Material Philosophy
Bella Vivante
14 Xenophanes the Sophist? Material Realities and Philosophical Innovation
William Wians
Index
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Philosophical Argument and Material Realities An Introduction William Wians and Robert Hahn
Part 1 Philosophers and Technologies
1 Material Modular Thinking, Substance Monism, and the Origins of Greek Philosophy Architecture, Gnomon, Coinage, and the Felting of Wool Robert Hahn
2 Placing the Ionian Περι Φυσεως Ιστορια in Context The Role of Sea Trade, Colonization, Navigation and Analogies from Manufacturing Crafts (Τεχναι) in the Birth of Greek Science
Andrei Lebedev
3 Greek Ships, Seamanship and Cosmology
Andrew Gregory
4 The Gods and the Machine Ancient Automata and Divine Causation Sylvia Berryman
Part 2 Thinking with Objects
5 Using a Household Artefact as an Epistemological Tool The Clepsydra in Anaxagoras, Aristotle’s de Caelo, and Empedocles
Nathasja Roggo-van Luijn
6 The Metaphysics of the Coin-Image
Richard Seaford
7 Anaximenes and the Millstone
Dirk L. Couprie
8 Weaving the Double Square An (Im-)Material Contribution to Early Greek Mathematics Ellen Harlizius-Klück and Giovanni Fanfani
Part 3 Philosophical Media and Their Messages
9 The Limited Relevance of Writing in Early Greek Philosophy and Science
Harold Tarrant
10 Metadiscourse The Fabric of Early Greek Philosophical Prose
Gaston Javier Basile
11 Materiality and Philosophy The Ancient Greek and Chinese Experiences Compared G.E.R. Lloyd
Part 4 Philosophy and Ancient Embodiment
12 Thales and the Measure of Wisdom
Philip Thibodeau
13 New Insights into Pythagorean Women’s Material Philosophy
Bella Vivante
14 Xenophanes the Sophist? Material Realities and Philosophical Innovation
William Wians
Index
Materia Philosophiae will interest scholars of ancient philosophy, science, and technology. Topics include the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, architecture, coinage, travel, commerce, cosmology, cognition, writing, Chinese philosophy, Sophists, and the body.