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From Hesiod to Saussure, from Hippocrates to Jevons

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From Hesiod to Saussure, from Hippocrates to Jevons ROSKILDE UNIVERSITETSCENTER ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY Faggruppen for filosofi og Section for philosophy videnskabsteori and science studies FROM HESIOD TO SAUSSURE, FROM HIPPOCRATES TO JEVONS an introduction to the history of scientific thought Jens Høyrup Eighth, still preliminary version, Summer 2004 Advice, commentary and objections are utterly welcome! 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) δ∆Delta d εΕEpsilon e (short) ζΖZeta z (i.e., voiced s) ηΗEta e¯ (long) θΘTheta þ (unvoiced th; originally t’) ιΙIota i (as e in English be, but may be short or long) κΚKappa k λΛLambda l µΜMu m νΝNu n οΟOmikron o (short) πΠPi p ρΡRho r (transkribed rh in initial position) 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 or Scottish Loch: originally k’) ψΨPsi ps ωΩOmega o¯ (long) The following double vowels may be taken note of: αυ au ευ eu ου u 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 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 tone 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, 1968. 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 liters. 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). ©2004 Jens Høyrup I promise nothing complete; because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that reason infallibly be faulty Herman Melville, Moby Dick CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS ..................................... 1 Notes on references ............................................... 6 On the present version ............................................. 7 “BEFORE PHILOSOPHY” ............................................. 8 Mesopotamia .................................................... 9 TSS 671, the Shuruppak division problem (11); VAT 8512, the partition of a triangle (13) Egypt .......................................................... 16 CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY ............................................. 17 The beginnings ................................................... 17 The “miracle” .................................................... 20 “Pre-Socratic science” .............................................. 24 From Socrates to Aristotle .......................................... 29 Hellenism ....................................................... 38 Late Antiquity ................................................... 49 Texts ........................................................... 53 Hesiod, Theogony (53); The Orphic current. Fragments (54); Hesiod, Works and Days (56); Thales, summary of Diels, Fragmente (57); Anaximander, fragments and summary of ancient accounts (58); The Hippocratic corpus (60); The Sacred Disease (60); Airs Waters Places (62); Prognostic (64); Ancient Medicine (66); Herodotos, Histories, book III (67); Aristotle, Constitution of Athens (68); Titus Livy, Ab urbe condita (71); Aristotle, Metaphysics, book A (75); Aristotle, Metaphysics, book Λ (78); Aristotle, De caelo, Book II (87); On the Almagest, and on eccentric and epicyclic planetary theory (90); Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos (94); Sextus Empiricus, Against the Astrologers (97); Aristotle, Historia animalium (106); Aristotle, De anima (108); Theophrastos, Inquiry into Plants, book I (117); Theophrastos, Characters xxiv (118); The Elder Pliny, Natural History (119); Galen, On the Natural Faculties (122); Archytas, fragments 1 and 2 (129); Plutarch, Quaestiones conviviales VII.2 (130); Euclid, Elements, book I (134); Sextus Empiricus, Against the Geometers (138); Archimedes, On the Equilibrium of planes (144); Aristotle(?), Mechanica (145); Plotinus, The Enneads (148); vi Proclos Diadochos, Elements of Theology (150); Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, book I (151); Aristotle, Categoriae (155); Donatus, Ars minor (157); Cassiodorus, Institutiones divinarum et saecularium literarum (159); Augustine, De civitate Dei (166) THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE AGES .........................................168 THE MIDDLE AGES .................................................169 The early Middle Ages .............................................169 The Central Middle Ages – 750 to 1050 ................................173 The age of the liberal arts ...........................................178 The rise of universities .............................................189 Aristotelianism ...................................................191 The compromise ..................................................196 The fourteenth century .............................................198 The post-medieval university ........................................201 Texts ...........................................................202 Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, book III (202); Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks (207); Alcuin, list of didactical and other writings (208); (ps?)-Alcuin, Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes (210); Hrabanus Maurus, De universo (212); Abaelard, Sic et non (214); John of Salisbury, Metalogicon (216); John of Salisbury, Polycraticus (219); Thomas Aquinas, De regimine principum (221); Gerard of Cremona: list of his translations (226); The Art of Nombryng (230); Albertus Magnus, Speculum astronomiae (232); Albertus Magnus, De mineralibus (241); Étienne de Tempier, theses condemned in 1277 (245); al-Khwa¯rizmı¯, Book of Algebra and Almucabala, translated by Gerard of Cremona (248); Jordanus of Nemore, On given numbers (251); Ranulph Higden, De arte predicandi (253); Jacopo da Forli, Commentary to Galen’s Tegni (255); Jean Buridan, Sophismata (257); Nicole Oresme, Algorismus proportionum (259); Nicole Oresme, Le Livre du ciel et du monde, Book II (262) THE RENAISSANCE, 1400–1600 ........................................270 Renaissance and Humanism .........................................270 The wider context .................................................275 Humanist scholarship, pedantry, and the humanities ......................279 A “Scientific Renaissance”? ..........................................284 Texts ...........................................................289 Leonardo Bruni on Petrarca and his importance (289); Marsilio Ficino, Letter to Paul of Middelburg (291); Leonardo da Vinci, observations on nature as supreme authority (293); Bruni and Valla on the noble language (294); Juan Luis Vives, writings on dialectic and the teaching of dialectic (296); Lorenzo Valla, The Falsely-Believed and Forged Donation of Constantine (300); Giovanni Villani, Cronica (305); Jacopo of Florence, Tractatus algorismi (309); Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (314); Francisco de Vitoria, De jure belli (317); Pomponazzi, De immortalitate vii animae (319); Johann Reuchlin, Pythagoras redivivus (322); Marsilio Ficino, De vita triplici (323); Paracelsus, The Book Concerning the Philosophers (327); Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica (330); Giovanni Battista della Porta, Magia naturalis (336); John Dee, Monas hieroglyphica (344); Regiomontanus, De triangulis (351); Luca Pacioli, De divina proportione (352); Copernicus, De hypothesibus motuum coelestium commentariolus (356); Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (360) THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: TIME OF REAPING, TIME OF SOWING .......365 The post-Renaissance “scientific Renaissance” ...........................365 A shifting centre of gravity ..........................................371 Courtly culture and classicism .......................................373 From scientific to philosophical revolution ..............................377 Humanistic scholarship and theoretical activity ..........................383 The problem of the Baroque .........................................387 Texts ...........................................................391 Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (391); Francis Bacon, Novum organum. Aphorisms, book II (396); William Gilbert, De magnete (399); Marini Ghetaldi, Promotus Archimedis, Seu, De variis corporum generibus gravitate, et magnitudine comparatis (402); Galileo Galilei, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze (405); Descartes, Les Principes de la philosophie (410); The tools of experimental philosophy (414); Robert Hooke, Micrographia (417); Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air and Its Effects (420); Robert Boyle,
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