Anaximander and the Architects

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.

"…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

• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PREFACE INTRODUCTION 1. ANAXIMANDER AND THE ORIGINS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY The Problem and the Three Tiers of ExplanationThe Conventional View and Its DiscontentsThe New Contributing Thesis:Technology as Politics 2. THE IONIAN PHILOSOPHERS AND ARCHITECTS Fixing Anaximander's Date:The First Philosophical Book in ProseArchaic Prose Writing: Pherecydes' Cosmogony and Legal InscriptionsProse in Archaic Architectural Treatises and the Community of Thales and Anaximander, Theodorus and Rhoikos, Chersiphron and MetagenesThe New Connection:The Contribution of the Egyptian Architects to the Ionian Greek Architects of the Archaic PeriodAn Overview of Monumental Temple Projects in Archaic IoniaThe Meaning of the Temple: Design Choices 3. THE TECHNIQUES OF THE ANCIENT ARCHITECTS The Evidence for Imagining in Plan or Aerial ViewThe Evidence for ModelsThe Theory of ProportionsThe 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 PictureHesiod's World PictureAnaximander's World Picture:The Plan or Aerial ViewAnaximander'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 AccountThe Aristocratic Patrons of Archaic TemplesTechnology as Politics: The "Argument" for the Appropriation of Civic Authority NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX