Preprint N°500
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2020 Preprint N°500 From Hesiod to Saussure, from Hippocrates to Jevons: An Introduction to the History of Scientific Thought between Iran and the Atlantic Jens Høyrup ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR Section for philosophy WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE and science studies Berlin FROM HESIOD TO SAUSSURE, FROM HIPPOCRATES TO JEVONS An introduction to the history of scientific thought between Iran and the Atlantic Jens Høyrup Preprint, April 2020 ©2020 Jens Høyrup In memory of Alex Novikoff whose Climbing Our Family Tree introduced me to scientific thinking at the age of six I promise nothing complete; because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that reason infallibly be faulty Herman Melville, Moby Dick Jens Høyrup Section for Philosophy and Science Studies Roskilde University P.O. Box 260 DK-4000 Roskilde Denmark [email protected] http://ruc.dk/~jensh/ Greek alphabet V GREEK ALPHABET As a pretext for training the use of a dictionary of ancient Greek, the following pages contain a few words written in Greek letters. The four columns below show the corresponding alphabet – first the Greek minuscule, then the corresponding majuscule, then the name, and finally the approximate phonetic value (which does not always coincide with the phonetic value in modern Greek). αΑalpha a βΒBeta b γΓGamma g ( before γ, κ and χ; γγ thus as ng in English anger, γκ as nk in ink) δΔDelta d εΕEpsilon e (short) ζΖZeta z (i.e., voiced s) ηΗEta e¯ (long) θΘTheta þ (unvoiced th; originally t’) ιΙIota i (as i in English if or e in be, may thus be short or long) κΚKappa k λΛLambda l µΜMu m νΝNu n ξΞKsi ks οΟOmikron o (short) πΠPi p ρΡRho r (transcribed rh in initial posi- tion) σΣSigma s ςΣSigma s (used in final position) τΤTau t υΥYpsilon y (as German ü) φΦPhi f (originally p’) χΧKhi χ (as ch in German Ich; orig- inally k’) ψΨPsi ps ωΩOmega o¯ (long) The following double vowels may be taken note of: VI Greek alphabet αυ au ευ eu ου u (as English oo) Vowels in the initial position are marked by one of the two aspiration marks and . corresponds to the initial glottal stop before a vowel in initial position (as in English island), corresponds to h. They are written before majuscules and above minuscules. Further, there are three accent marks, ´, ` and ~; originally, these corresponded to tones (ancient Greek was a tonal language), but they may be read as stress. The major professional dictionary is: Henry George LIDDELL & Robert SCOTT, A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and Augmented Throughout ... With a Supplement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. 11843. It has three defects: (i) It is quite expensive; (ii) it presupposes that the user knows the language, and therefore does not identify irregular conjugated and declinated forms (which are copious); (iii) its volume is 5.7 litres. However, a good abbreviated version is available, which generously lists irregular forms: An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, founded upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell & Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888 (regularly reprinted). This dictionary may also be consulted online, at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu Various scanned versions of the full dictionary can be found at https://archive.org – as of 17 June 2017, none later than 1901. However, a html-version of the 1940 edition is to be found at https://ia601509.us.archive.org/16/items/Lsj--LiddellScott/lsj.html Greek alphabet VII CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS ........................ 1 Guide to the reading, and notes on references .............. 9 “BEFORE PHILOSOPHY”: ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA ......... 13 Near Eastern Bronze Age scribal Cultures ................. 13 Mesopotamia: Protoliterate and Sumerian beginnings ........ 15 The Old Babylonian period ............................ 20 Collapse, and Assyrian new life of scholarship ............. 26 Texts ............................................. 31 “Examination Text A” (31); VAT 8512, the partition of a triangle (33); YOS 10, 17 and OBE 1, extispicy (37); The therapeutical series UGU, tablet BAM 237, gynaecology (40); The magical series Maqlû (43); The Farmer’s Instructions (47) CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY ................................ 51 The beginnings ..................................... 51 The “miracle” ...................................... 57 “Pre-Socratic science” ................................ 63 From Socrates to Aristotle ............................. 73 Hellenism ......................................... 88 Late Antiquity ..................................... 106 Texts ............................................ 113 Hesiod, Theogony (113); The Orphic current. Reports (115); Hesiod, Works and Days (118); Thales of Miletos. Reports (120); Anaximander, fragments and summary of ancient accounts (125); The Hippocratic corpus (131); The Sacred Disease (132); Airs Waters Places (135); Prognostic (138); Ancient Medicine (141); Herodotos, Histories (143); Aristotle, Constitution of Athens (145); Titus Livy, Ab urbe condita (150); Aristotle, Metaphysics, book A (155); Aristotle, Metaphysics, book Λ (158); Aristotle, On the Heavens (172); Ptolemy, Syntaxis mathematica (176); Ptolemy, VIII Greek alphabet Tetrabiblos (189); Sextus Empiricus, Against the Astrologers (194); Aristotle, Historia animalium (206); Aristotle, On the Soul (208); Theophrastos, Inquiry into Plants (220); Theophrastos, Characters (224); The Elder Pliny, Natural History (225); Galen, On the Natural Faculties (230); Archytas, fragments 1 and 2 (239); Plutarch, Quaestiones conviviales (241); Euclid, Elements (247); Sextus Empiricus, Against the Geometers (254); Archimedes, On the Equilibrium of planes (262); Aristotle(?), Mechanica (264); Plotinus, The Enneads (268); Proclos Diadochos, Elements of Theology (271); Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (273); Aristotle, Categories (279); Donatus, Ars minor (282); Cassiodorus, Institutiones divinarum et saecularium literarum (285); Augustine, De civitate Dei (293) THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE AGES ........................... 295 The political, socio-economic and religious-jurisprudential landscape ...................................... 295 Institutions ....................................... 306 The beginnings of Islamic science ...................... 312 New impact of old knowledge ......................... 314 Philosophy ........................................ 329 Other awa¯ilsciences ................................ 343 “The Islamic miracle” ............................... 345 “Naturalization” ................................... 348 Texts ............................................ 354 Report about Sulayma¯n ibn Jarı¯r (354); Ibn Hanbal, The Roots of the Sunnah (357); Hunayn ibn Isha¯q’s letter to Alı¯ ibn Yahya¯ about the books of Galen that as far as he knows have been translated, and a few of those that have not (361); Al-Fa¯ra¯bı¯, Catalogue of the Sciences (367); The Philosopher’s Assembly (374); al-Khwa¯rizmı¯, Book of Algebra and Almucabala, translated by Gerard of Cremona (381); Abu¯Ka¯mil, Book of the Rarities of Calculation (385); Book Explaining the Beauties of Trade and the Knowledge of Good and Bad Merchandise and How Frauds Falsify It (388); Al-Tabarı¯, Histories (396); Muhammad ibn Isha¯q al- Nadı¯m, Fihrist (403); Abu¯ Ma šar, The Book of Religions and Greek alphabet IX Dynasties (413); Ibn Khaldu¯n, Muqaddimah (418) THE LATIN MIDDLE AGES ............................. 429 The Early Middle Ages .............................. 429 The Central Middle Ages – 750 to 1050 .................. 435 The age of the Liberal Arts ........................... 443 The rise of universities ............................... 462 Aristotelianism .................................... 466 The compromise ................................... 474 The 14th century ................................... 477 The post-medieval university .......................... 482 Texts ............................................ 484 Isidore of Seville, Etymologies (484); Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks (490); Alcuin, list of didactical and other writings (492); (ps?)-Alcuin, Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes (495); Hrabanus Maurus, De universo (498); Abelard, Sic et non (501); John of Salisbury, Metalogicon (504); John of Salisbury, Policraticus (508); Thomas Aquinas, De regimine principum (511); Gerard of Cremona: list of his translations (519); The Art of Nombryng (523); Albertus Magnus, Speculum astronomiae (526); Albertus Magnus, De mineralibus (538); Étienne de Tempier, theses condemned in 1277 (543); Jordanus of Nemore, On given numbers (548); Ranulph Higden, De arte predicandi (550); Jacopo of Forli, Commentary to Galen’s Tegni (553); Jean Buridan, Sophismata (556); Nicole Oresme, Algorismus proportionum (559); Nicole Oresme, Le Livre du ciel et du monde (563) 1400 TO 1600 – RENAISSANCE AND OTHERWISE ........... 573 Renaissance and Humanism .......................... 573 The wider context .................................. 581 Humanist scholarship, pedantry, and the humanities ........ 589 A “Scientific Renaissance”? ........................... 597 Texts ............................................ 609 Leonardo Bruni on Petrarca and his importance (609); Francesco Petrarca, Letter to Giovanni Dondi dall’Orologio (613); Marsilio Ficino, Letter to Paul of Middelburg (617); Leonardo da Vinci, That X Greek alphabet painting declines and deteriorates from age to age, when painters have no other standard than painting already done (620); Bruni and Valla on the noble language (621); Juan Luis Vives, writings on dialectic and the teaching of dialectic