Anaximander and the Architects: The Contributions of Egyptian and Greek Architectural Technologies to the Origins of Greek Philosophy

by Robert Hahn

Overview

Anaximander and the Architects opens a previously unexplored avenue into Presocratic philosophy—the technology of monumental architecture. The evidence, coming directly from sixth century B.C.E. building sites and bypassing Aristotle, shows how the architects and their projects supplied their Ionian communities with a sprouting vision of natural order governed by structural laws. Their technological innovations and design techniques formed the core of an experimental science and promoted a rational, not mythopoetical, discourse central to our understanding of the context in which early Greek philosophy emerged. Anaximander's prose book and his rationalizing mentality are illuminated in surprising ways by appeal to the ongoing, extraordinary projects of the archaic architects and their practical techniques.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791491546
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Series:	SUNY series in Ancient Greek Philosophy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	350
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Robert Hahn is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is the author of Formal Deductive Logic, Fifth Edition; Conduct and Constraints: Testing the Limits of the 'Harm Principle;' and Kant's Newtonian Revolution in Philosophy.

Table of Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

1. ANAXIMANDER AND THE ORIGINS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY

The Problem and the Three Tiers of Explanation
The Conventional View and Its Discontents
The New Contributing Thesis:Technology as Politics

2. THE IONIAN PHILOSOPHERS AND ARCHITECTS

Fixing Anaximander's Date:The First Philosophical Book in Prose
Archaic Prose Writing: Pherecydes' Cosmogony and Legal Inscriptions
Prose in Archaic Architectural Treatises and the Community of Thales and Anaximander, Theodorus and Rhoikos, Chersiphron and Metagenes
The New Connection:The Contribution of the Egyptian Architects to the Ionian Greek Architects of the Archaic Period
An Overview of Monumental Temple Projects in Archaic Ionia
The Meaning of the Temple: Design Choices

3. THE TECHNIQUES OF THE ANCIENT ARCHITECTS

The Evidence for Imagining in Plan or Aerial View
The Evidence for Models
The Theory of Proportions
The Techniques of Anathyrosis and Empolion

4. ANAXIMANDER'S TECHNIQUES

Architect, Philosopher, and the New Vision Supplied by the Application of Geometrical Techniques
Homer's World Picture
Hesiod's World Picture
Anaximander's World Picture:The Plan or Aerial View
Anaximander's World Picture:Three-dimensional Views—The Side, Elevation, Oblique, and Axonometric Views

5. TECHNOLOGY AS POLITICS: THE ORIGINS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN ITS SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT

Re-Framing the New Narrative Account
The Aristocratic Patrons of Archaic Temples
Technology as Politics: The "Argument" for the Appropriation of Civic Authority

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Editorial Reviews

Bypassing Aristotle to look at evidence directly from the sixth century BCE, Hahn (philosophy, Southern Illinois U.-Carbondale) shows how the architects and their projects supplied their Ionian communities with a sprouting vision of natural order governed by structural laws. He argues that their technological innovations and design techniques formed the core of an experimental science and promoted a rational, not mythopoetical, discourse central to our understanding of the context in which early Greek philosophy emerged. He illuminates Anaximander's prose book and rationalizing mentality by appealing to the ongoing extraordinary projects of the archaic architects. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"…novel and exciting. For the first time, the origins of Greek philosophy are illuminated by an appeal to archeology … Hahn's study will move Presocratic studies in a new direction, but it also raises a number of interpretative controversies that deserve a critical assessment." — Ancient Philosophy

"In Anaximander and the Architects, Hahn's accomplishment is that he forces us for the first time to consider the new world of technology (techne) in which Thales and Anaximander lived, reminds us pointedly of the other authors of the earliest treatises in prose, and makes us aware of the brutal fact that the earliest Greek philosophers had 'lives,' meaning that they did not have the leisure Aristotle required for the development of philosophy. Anaximander and the Architects is a daring project—one that will cause dispute, but one which will concentrate attention afresh on the culture in which Anaximander lived and wrote." — Diskin Clay, author of Paradosis & Survival: Three Chapters in the History of Epicurean Philosophy

"Hahn has produced a work of old-fashioned scholarship...written in an unusually engaging style. His book opens new doors to our understanding of so-called Presocratic philosophy by virtue of its interdisciplinary approach...It is a work of genuine significance." — Robert Bernasconi, author of Heidegger in Question: The Art of Existing

"Anaximander and the Architects is a groundbreaking work. Through its study of ancient architecture, it opens an entirely unexplored path into Anaximander's cosmic architecture. Hahn's work invites scholars to pay attention, perhaps for the first time, to the light that archaeology can shine on the origins of Greek philosophy." — Gerard Naddaf, York University

From the Publisher