Archaeology and the Origins of Philosophy

Robert Hahn is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He is the author of Anaximander and the Architects: The Contributions of Egyptian and Greek Architectural Technologies to the Origins of Greek Philosophy and the coauthor (with Dirk L. Couprie and Gerard Naddaf) of Anaximander in Context: New Studies in the Origins of Greek Philosophy, both also published by SUNY Press.

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. Archaeology and Anaximander's Cosmic Picture: An Historical Narraitve 1. Anaximander, Architectural Historian of the CosmosA. Why Did Anaximander Write a Prose Book Rationalizing theCosmos?B. A Survey of the Key Techniques that Anaximander Observed at the Architect’s Building SitesC. An Imaginative Visit to an Ancient Greek Building SiteD. Architectural Planning2. Anaximander’s Cosmic Picture: The Size and Shape of the EarthA. The Doxographical ReportsB. The Scholarly DebatesC. The Archaeological EvidenceC.1. The Column and its Symbolic Function in Archaic GreeceC.2. Archaeological Evidence for Archaic Column Construction3. Anaximander’s Cosmic Picture: The Homoios Earth, ‘9’, and the Cosmic WheelsA. The Doxographical ReportsB. The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its InterpretationB.1. The Earth is Homoios in the CenterB.2. The Cosmic NumbersC. The Archaeological EvidenceC.1. Architectural Plan Techniques for Laying Out the Ground-PlanC.2. The Archaeologist’s Idea of Technological Style4. Anaximander’s Cosmic Picture: The "Bellows" and Cosmic BreathingA. The Doxographical ReportsB. The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its InterpretationC. The Archaeological EvidenceC.1. SmeltingC.2. Melting and ForgingC.3. Two Forms of Bellows5. Anaximander’s Cosmic Picture: The Heavenly"Circle-Wheels" and the Axis MundiA. The Doxographical ReportsB. The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its InterpretationsC. The Archaeological EvidenceC.1. The Archaeological EvidenceC.2. The Archaic Greek Wheel and AxleC.2.A. Fixed Axle: Chariots of the MainlandC.2.B. Fixed Axle: Chariots of East GreeceC.2.C. Fixed Axle: Carts and WagonsC.2.D. Rotating Axle: Carts and WagonsC.3. Anaximander and the Chariot Wheel, Revisited: Cosmic Wheel and Axle, Cosmic Tree, and Axis Mundi6. Anaximander’s Cosmic Picture: Reconstructing the Seasonal Sundial for the Archaeologist’s InvestigationsA. The Doxographical ReportsB. The Scholarly Debates over the Text and its InterpretationC. Reconstructing the Sundial for the Archaeologist’s ExplorationsD. Objecting Arguments and SummaryPart II. Archaeology and the Metaphysical Foundations of an Historical Narrative About the Origins of Philosophy 7. The Problems: Archaeology and the Origins of PhilosophyA. The Problem of Philosophical Rationality and Cultural ContextB. The Problem of Archaeology and Greek Philosophy8. What Is the Archaeologist’s Theoretical Frame When Inferring Ideas from Artifacts? A Short Historical Overview of Theoretical ArchaeologyA. How Is Archaeology Relevant to a Philosopher’s Mentality?B. A Synoptic Overview of Archaeological TheoryC. Postprocessual or Interpretative ArchaeologyD. Some Conclusions About Archaeological Interpretation9. The Interpretative Meaning of an Object: Grounding Historical Narratives in Lived ExperienceA. The Imaginative Meaning of an ArtifactB. Hermeneutic and Pragmatic InterpretationsB.1. Digging for Meaning: Hermeneutic Play, Interpretation and Archaeology: What is a thing?B.2. Pragmatic Interpretations: From Material Context to Imagining ThoughtC. Philosophical Strategies for Making Sense of the "Real"C.1. Quine and Davidson: The Indeterminacy of Translation and Radical InterpretationC.2. Putnam’s Internal Realism or Historical RealismC.3. Searle’s Empirical Realism and Social Construction of Reality10. The Embodied Ground of Abstract and Speculative ThoughtA. The Matter of Mind: An Archaeological Approach to Ancient ThoughtB. John Dewey and William James on the Context of ConsciousnessC. Thinking Through Metaphor and the Body of Knowledge11. Archaeology and Future Research in Ancient Philosophy: The Two MethodsA. The Method of DiscoveryB. The Method of Exposition12. The Application of Archaeology to Ancient Philosophy: Metaphysical Foundations and Historical NarrativesA. The Realism in Narrative AccountsB. The Hopelessness of Metaphysical RealismC. Crafting a Case for "Experiential Realism": The Argument of Part IID. The Presence of the Past and the Problem of the Supracelestial ThesisNotesBibliographyIndex

"This book, and Hahn's enterprise over the years, may be called courageous, as it intends to lay bare lines of investigation that have hardly been explored before, if at all. It is also courageous in its effort to row up the stream of a historic study of ancient philosophy by choosing explicitly to place the ancient thinkers in their historical and social contexts." — Aestimatio