JHS 86 (1966), 26-40) was waning. It is sad to see Aujac reverting to it, and even adducing (p.12... more JHS 86 (1966), 26-40) was waning. It is sad to see Aujac reverting to it, and even adducing (p.12) as corroborative evidence Ionian coins supposedly incorporating a relief map on the reverse (recognizable, of course, only by the eye of faith which in this case literally moves mountains). There are wrong references on p.68 (where '11,5,9' should be '11,5,10) and p. 110 (where '114c' should be '115b'), and 'ruisselle' (p.82) is not an accurate translation of oxnow irotcirai in Strabo 1.3.12. More serious are the errors and inconsistencies over the equivalent value in modern linear measurement of the ancient stade: on pp.98 and 103 12 stades are said to be equivalent to 2 km—this entails a stade of 167 m;but on p . I l l , 2,000 or 3,000 stades are stated to be equivalent to 300 or 400 km-this entails a stade of 150 or 133 m. In fact, all these equivalents (together with the stade of 157-5 m which Aujac assumes throughout tom.i of the Bude edition of Strabo) are wrong, and the correct figure should be 185 m to the stade as used by Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Strabo, and most ancient geographers (see my review of the above volume in CR 85 (1971), 193-4). However, as well as these faults, Aujac compresses much reliable information into a few pages and gives on the whole a trustworthy account of at least the main features of Greek (and therefore Roman, since the latter was entirely derivative from Greek) geographical knowledge. Since such compression and reliability are presumably the chief desiderata in a series such as 'Que sais-je?', this book well merits its place in it.
The article – originally published as part of the author's book The Ambitions of Curiosity. U... more The article – originally published as part of the author's book The Ambitions of Curiosity. Understanding the World in Ancient Greece and China – systematically compares the roots of historiography in ancient China and ancient Greece. In both cases early historiography seems to be a hybrid, a mixture of several disciplines and knowledge- bases. The social roles of early historians are different: Chinese historians work and write to celebrate, to serve, to teach and to admonish the emperor and his ministers, Greek historians work and write for their peer groups and local communities. But what they have in common, the article argues, is a desire for historical truth derived on the basis of research and criticism.
En este trabajo se exploran las diferentes vias por las que la ciencia, la medicina y las matemat... more En este trabajo se exploran las diferentes vias por las que la ciencia, la medicina y las matematicas se desarrollaron en la Grecia y la China antiguas, y se relacionan estas diferencias con los distintos factores ideologicos e institucionales en juego. Se sugieren conexiones, por ejemplo, entre la experiencia politica y legal griega, y el interes de los griegos por la evaluacion formal de argumentos, incluida la definicion y practica de la demostracion axiomatico-deductiva estricta. Los chinos se interesaron menos por tales cuestiones secundarias, pero dieron de forma consistente un apoyo institucional mayor a la indagacion en areas tales como la astronomia, que era percibida como importante para el bien del estado.
We all owe Joseph Needham an immense debt for discovering Chinese science and technology for West... more We all owe Joseph Needham an immense debt for discovering Chinese science and technology for Western scholars. But his famous question (Why did the Chinese, who had been so far in advance of Europe until the 17th century, fail to produce modern science independently?) is simplistic. Needham’s discussion relied on categories (‘physics’, ‘engineering’, even ‘mathematics’) that are largely anachronistic. He was preoccupied by questions of priorities (who did what first). We should recognise that the historical record brings to light many breakthroughs in the development of science, in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, ancient Greece and ancient China, as well as in Europe in the 17th century and beyond; they all call for detailed analysis of the different social, political, economic, institutional and intellectual factors at work. One topic of particular importance and current interest concerns the factors that enable innovation to flourish, where the differing experience of ancient societies...
This paper acknowledges that the issues of translation and of translatability are general and con... more This paper acknowledges that the issues of translation and of translatability are general and concern the possibility of mutual intelligibility in many registers and including within a single natural language. Both anthropologists and ancient historians are faced with such problems, where the historians are at a disadvantage in not being able to check their understandings with those whom they are seeking to understand. But faced with seemingly paradoxical statements, beliefs, or practices, we must and can avoid the apparent dilemma (either those statements must be rendered in or reduced to our terms or we must admit they are strictly incomprehensible) by insisting on the revisability of our existing conceptual framework, especially in relation to such key terms as personhood, agency, causation, and nature. Again, instead of insisting on the dichotomy of literal and metaphorical, we should allow that any term may exhibit what is here called semantic stretch. moreover, if we accept (as is argued here) that the phenomena or realities described are multidimensional, then the goal of a single definitive translation is a mirage. The open-endedness of translation is no threat to mutual intelligibility but its precondition.
The history of rhetoric and argumentation theory is most usually based and centred on Greek and L... more The history of rhetoric and argumentation theory is most usually based and centred on Greek and Latin Classical sources describing the long development of the so called "Classical Rhetoric", a dominant tradition for more than twenty centuries in our West World. The present paper offers us a parallel study of argumentative matters (practices and theories) as based on ancient Chinese sources. It also undertakes a comparative study of both cultures that aims at revealing some significant traits in each of them. The very different contexts in which argumentation took place in the Chinese ancient courts, on the one hand, and the Greek polis, on the other, would result in also different approaches to rhetorical theory.
A note on Erasistratus of Ceos In an article entitled 'The Career of Erasistratus of Ceos&#x... more A note on Erasistratus of Ceos In an article entitled 'The Career of Erasistratus of Ceos' in Rendiconti del Istituto Lombardo (Classe di Lettere e Scienze Morali e Storiche, 103, I969, pp. 518-37, abbreviated as RL) and more briefly in his three-volume work on Ptolemaic Alexandria (Oxford, ...
IN a previous article (JHS Ixxxii (1962) 56 ff.) I examined some of the theories and explanations... more IN a previous article (JHS Ixxxii (1962) 56 ff.) I examined some of the theories and explanations which appear in Greek philosophy and medicine in the period down to Aristotle, in which reference is made to right and left or certain other pairs of opposites (light and darkness, male and ...
The study of ancient science and its relations with Greek philosophy has made a significant and g... more The study of ancient science and its relations with Greek philosophy has made a significant and growing contribution to our understanding of ancient thought and civilisation. This collection of articles on Greek science contains fifteen of the most important papers published by ...
GERLLOYD HE GROWTH STRUCTURl OFH1S TH OU GHT ... ARISTOTLE: THE GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF HIS THOUG... more GERLLOYD HE GROWTH STRUCTURl OFH1S TH OU GHT ... ARISTOTLE: THE GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF HIS THOUGHT ... ARISTOTLE: THE GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF HIS THOUGHT BY GERLLOYD Professor of Ancient Philosophy and Science, and Master ...
JHS 86 (1966), 26-40) was waning. It is sad to see Aujac reverting to it, and even adducing (p.12... more JHS 86 (1966), 26-40) was waning. It is sad to see Aujac reverting to it, and even adducing (p.12) as corroborative evidence Ionian coins supposedly incorporating a relief map on the reverse (recognizable, of course, only by the eye of faith which in this case literally moves mountains). There are wrong references on p.68 (where '11,5,9' should be '11,5,10) and p. 110 (where '114c' should be '115b'), and 'ruisselle' (p.82) is not an accurate translation of oxnow irotcirai in Strabo 1.3.12. More serious are the errors and inconsistencies over the equivalent value in modern linear measurement of the ancient stade: on pp.98 and 103 12 stades are said to be equivalent to 2 km—this entails a stade of 167 m;but on p . I l l , 2,000 or 3,000 stades are stated to be equivalent to 300 or 400 km-this entails a stade of 150 or 133 m. In fact, all these equivalents (together with the stade of 157-5 m which Aujac assumes throughout tom.i of the Bude edition of Strabo) are wrong, and the correct figure should be 185 m to the stade as used by Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Strabo, and most ancient geographers (see my review of the above volume in CR 85 (1971), 193-4). However, as well as these faults, Aujac compresses much reliable information into a few pages and gives on the whole a trustworthy account of at least the main features of Greek (and therefore Roman, since the latter was entirely derivative from Greek) geographical knowledge. Since such compression and reliability are presumably the chief desiderata in a series such as 'Que sais-je?', this book well merits its place in it.
The article – originally published as part of the author's book The Ambitions of Curiosity. U... more The article – originally published as part of the author's book The Ambitions of Curiosity. Understanding the World in Ancient Greece and China – systematically compares the roots of historiography in ancient China and ancient Greece. In both cases early historiography seems to be a hybrid, a mixture of several disciplines and knowledge- bases. The social roles of early historians are different: Chinese historians work and write to celebrate, to serve, to teach and to admonish the emperor and his ministers, Greek historians work and write for their peer groups and local communities. But what they have in common, the article argues, is a desire for historical truth derived on the basis of research and criticism.
En este trabajo se exploran las diferentes vias por las que la ciencia, la medicina y las matemat... more En este trabajo se exploran las diferentes vias por las que la ciencia, la medicina y las matematicas se desarrollaron en la Grecia y la China antiguas, y se relacionan estas diferencias con los distintos factores ideologicos e institucionales en juego. Se sugieren conexiones, por ejemplo, entre la experiencia politica y legal griega, y el interes de los griegos por la evaluacion formal de argumentos, incluida la definicion y practica de la demostracion axiomatico-deductiva estricta. Los chinos se interesaron menos por tales cuestiones secundarias, pero dieron de forma consistente un apoyo institucional mayor a la indagacion en areas tales como la astronomia, que era percibida como importante para el bien del estado.
We all owe Joseph Needham an immense debt for discovering Chinese science and technology for West... more We all owe Joseph Needham an immense debt for discovering Chinese science and technology for Western scholars. But his famous question (Why did the Chinese, who had been so far in advance of Europe until the 17th century, fail to produce modern science independently?) is simplistic. Needham’s discussion relied on categories (‘physics’, ‘engineering’, even ‘mathematics’) that are largely anachronistic. He was preoccupied by questions of priorities (who did what first). We should recognise that the historical record brings to light many breakthroughs in the development of science, in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, ancient Greece and ancient China, as well as in Europe in the 17th century and beyond; they all call for detailed analysis of the different social, political, economic, institutional and intellectual factors at work. One topic of particular importance and current interest concerns the factors that enable innovation to flourish, where the differing experience of ancient societies...
This paper acknowledges that the issues of translation and of translatability are general and con... more This paper acknowledges that the issues of translation and of translatability are general and concern the possibility of mutual intelligibility in many registers and including within a single natural language. Both anthropologists and ancient historians are faced with such problems, where the historians are at a disadvantage in not being able to check their understandings with those whom they are seeking to understand. But faced with seemingly paradoxical statements, beliefs, or practices, we must and can avoid the apparent dilemma (either those statements must be rendered in or reduced to our terms or we must admit they are strictly incomprehensible) by insisting on the revisability of our existing conceptual framework, especially in relation to such key terms as personhood, agency, causation, and nature. Again, instead of insisting on the dichotomy of literal and metaphorical, we should allow that any term may exhibit what is here called semantic stretch. moreover, if we accept (as is argued here) that the phenomena or realities described are multidimensional, then the goal of a single definitive translation is a mirage. The open-endedness of translation is no threat to mutual intelligibility but its precondition.
The history of rhetoric and argumentation theory is most usually based and centred on Greek and L... more The history of rhetoric and argumentation theory is most usually based and centred on Greek and Latin Classical sources describing the long development of the so called "Classical Rhetoric", a dominant tradition for more than twenty centuries in our West World. The present paper offers us a parallel study of argumentative matters (practices and theories) as based on ancient Chinese sources. It also undertakes a comparative study of both cultures that aims at revealing some significant traits in each of them. The very different contexts in which argumentation took place in the Chinese ancient courts, on the one hand, and the Greek polis, on the other, would result in also different approaches to rhetorical theory.
A note on Erasistratus of Ceos In an article entitled 'The Career of Erasistratus of Ceos&#x... more A note on Erasistratus of Ceos In an article entitled 'The Career of Erasistratus of Ceos' in Rendiconti del Istituto Lombardo (Classe di Lettere e Scienze Morali e Storiche, 103, I969, pp. 518-37, abbreviated as RL) and more briefly in his three-volume work on Ptolemaic Alexandria (Oxford, ...
IN a previous article (JHS Ixxxii (1962) 56 ff.) I examined some of the theories and explanations... more IN a previous article (JHS Ixxxii (1962) 56 ff.) I examined some of the theories and explanations which appear in Greek philosophy and medicine in the period down to Aristotle, in which reference is made to right and left or certain other pairs of opposites (light and darkness, male and ...
The study of ancient science and its relations with Greek philosophy has made a significant and g... more The study of ancient science and its relations with Greek philosophy has made a significant and growing contribution to our understanding of ancient thought and civilisation. This collection of articles on Greek science contains fifteen of the most important papers published by ...
GERLLOYD HE GROWTH STRUCTURl OFH1S TH OU GHT ... ARISTOTLE: THE GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF HIS THOUG... more GERLLOYD HE GROWTH STRUCTURl OFH1S TH OU GHT ... ARISTOTLE: THE GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF HIS THOUGHT ... ARISTOTLE: THE GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF HIS THOUGHT BY GERLLOYD Professor of Ancient Philosophy and Science, and Master ...
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Papers by Geoffrey Lloyd