< Back to previous page

Project

On crying boars and croaking frogs. A Study of Plutarchus' Causes of Natural Phenomena.

Although the fame of Plutarch of Caeronea (ca. 45 C ca. 125 CE) rests largely upon his activity as a 'moralist' and biographer, he was als familiar with the state of the arte in thefield of contemporary physics. The proposed project aims at interpreting Plutarch's treatise Causes of Natural Phenomena (Aitiai Physikai, Quaestiones Naturales) by contextualising it, and thus to contribute not only to a better understanding of the writing itself, but also of the paradigm under which Greek science was developed and spread. Modern obligatory salute of ancient Greek science as 'foundational' indeed tends to neglect the social, economic and political context in which that science was generated although that context largely determined its characteristics (such as its rhetorical vein). Moreover, modern conceptions of 'science' often tend to highlight the 'classical' texts (Plato, Aristotle, Euclides) and not seldom simply neglect the more peripheral 'scientific' discussions. These factors explain why Plutarch's short treatise Causes of Natural Phenomena, a colleciton of 41 specific problems of ancient Greek physics, never got much scholarly attention. In modern times, the text is edited (with registration of parallel passages) only twice, and only a couple of studies are exclusively devoted to it. This text is thus in dire need of an interpretation that, in line with the approach of classical hermeneutics, not only analyses a) its textual texture (terminology, style, structure, literary and other 'sources'), but also b) its proper implicit view on the aim and method of the science of physics, and c) its function within the context of Plutarch's 'Popularphilosophy' (relating it to other treatises such as On the principle of cold and On the face in the moon) and of contemporary physics.
Date:1 Oct 2009 →  30 Sep 2015
Keywords:Science in education, Notebooks, Natural phenomena, Ancient science, Plutarch
Disciplines:Theory and methodology of philosophy, Philosophy, Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified, Theory and methodology of literary studies, Language studies, Literary studies