Book contents
- The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria
- The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Systems of Explanation
- Chapter 3 Theorizing the World
- Chapter 4 Hero in Context
- Chapter 5 Hero in the Age of Print
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 2 - Systems of Explanation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2023
- The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria
- The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Systems of Explanation
- Chapter 3 Theorizing the World
- Chapter 4 Hero in Context
- Chapter 5 Hero in the Age of Print
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Strabo portrays the geographer at work, sitting at the nexus of innumerable pathways of information. He collects the data to be inscribed on his pinax from an assortment of witnesses, who have seen the far corners of the Earth and bring their information to him for synthesis.1 Strabo compares these voyagers to sensory organs, each with its own subset of information about an object (he offers an apple by way of example) and each presenting its own part of the story to the understanding (dianoia), which then synthesizes them into a single schēma.2 So eyewitnesses transmit their knowledge to those who want to learn it (οἱ φιλομαθεῖς ἄνδρες), who take responsibility for collecting a world’s worth of information and synthesizing it into a single synoptic diagramma.
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- Information
- The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria , pp. 20 - 73Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023