Archaeology and the Origins of Philosophy

by Hahn, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781438431659
• ISBN10: 1438431651
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-30
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Detailed study of how Anaximander's cosmological and philosophical conceptions were affected by architectural technologies.

Author Biography

Robert Han is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xiii
Preface	p. xxi
Acknowledgments	p. xxvii
Introduction	p. 1
Archaeology and Anaximander's Cosmic Picture: An Historical Narrative
Anaximander, Architectural Historian of the Cosmos	p. 11
Why Did Anaximander Write a Prose Book Rationalizing the Cosmos?
A Survey of the Key Techniques that Anaximander Observed at the Architect's Building Sites
An Imaginative Visit to an Ancient Greek Building Site
Architectural Planning
Anaximander's Cosmic Picture: The Size and Shape of the Earth	p. 31
The Doxographical Reports
The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its Interpretation
The Archaeological Evidence
The Column and its Symbolic Function in Archaic Greece
Archaeological Evidence for Archaic Column Construction
Anaximander's Cosmic Picture: The Homoios Earth, '9', and the Cosmic Wheels	p. 53
The Doxographical Reports
The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its Interpretation
The Earth is Homoios in the Center
The Cosmic Numbers
The Archaeological Evidence
Architectural Plan Techniques for Laying Out the Ground-Plan
The Archaeologist's Idea of Technological Style
Anaximander's Cosmic Picture: The "Bellows" and Cosmic Breathing	p. 87
The Doxographical Reports
The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its Interpretation
The Archaeological Evidence
Smelting
Melting and Forging
Two Forms of Bellows
Anaximander's Cosmic Picture: The Heavenly "Circle-Wheels" and the Axis Mundi	p. 115
The Doxographical Reports
The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its Interpretations
The Archaeological Evidence
The Archaeological Evidence for Early Wheeled Vehicles
The Archaic Greek Wheel and Axle
Fixed Axle: Chariots of the Mainland
Fixed Axle: Chariots of East Greece
Fixed Axle: Carts and Wagons
Rotating Axle: Carts and Wagons
Anaximander and the Chariot Wheel, Revisited: Cosmic Wheel and Axle, Cosmic Tree, and Axis Mundi
Anaximander's Cosmic Picture: Reconstructing the Seasonal Sundial for the Archaeologist's Investigations	p. 145
The Doxographical Reports
The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its Interpretation
Reconstructing the Sundial for the Archaeologist's Explorations
Objecting Arguments and Summary
Archaeology and the Metaphysical Foundations of an Historical Narrative About the Origins of Philosophy
The Problems: Archaeology and the Origins of Philosophy	p. 179
The Problem of Philosophical Rationality and Cultural Context
The Problem of Archaeology and Greek Philosophy
What Is the Archaeologist's Theoretical Frame When Inferring Ideas from Artifacts? A Short Historical Overview of Theoretical Archaeology	p. 185
How Is Archaeology Relevant to a Philosopher's Mentality?
A Synoptic Overview of Archaeological Theory
Postprocessual or Interpretative Archaeology
Some Conclusions About Archaeological Interpretation
The Interpretative Meaning of an Object: Grounding Historical Narratives in Lived Experience	p. 203
The Imaginative Meaning of an Artifact
Hermeneutic and Pragmatic Interpretations
Digging for Meaning: Hermeneutic Play, Interpretation and Archaeology: What is a thing?
Pragmatic Interpretations: From Material Context to Imagining Thought
Philosophical Strategies for Making Sense of the "Real"
Quine and Davidson: The Indeterminacy of Translation and Radical Interpretation
Putnam's Internal Realism or Historical Realism
Searle's Empirical Realism and Social Construction of Reality
The Embodied Ground of Abstract and Speculative Thought	p. 223
The Matter of Mind: An Archaeological Approach to Ancient Thought
John Dewey and William James on the Context of Consciousness
Thinking Through Metaphor and the Body of Knowledge
Archaeology and Future Research in Ancient Philosophy: The Two Methods	p. 229
The Method of Discovery
The Method of Exposition
The Application of Archaeology to Ancient Philosophy: Metaphysical Foundations and Historical Narratives	p. 233
The Realism in Narrative Accounts
The Hopelessness of Metaphysical Realism
Crafting a Case for "Experiential Realism": The Argument of Part II
The Presence of the Past and the Problem of the Supracelestial Thesis
Notes	p. 247
Bibliography	p. 277
Index	p. 293
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