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

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)

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.