Overview

Ever since Thales fell into the well, popular imagination has pictured philosophers as abstracted from everyday reality. Materia Philosophiae: The Material Dimensions of Ancient Philosophy counters that view. Philosophy in ancient Greece grew out of and remained closely connected to the material realities around it—difficulties of travel, reliance on cumbersome scrolls, learning acquired literally at the foot of a master; but also the spread of coinage, contemporaneous achievements in technology and engineering, and contact with everyday household objects. By resituating philosophers in their material contexts, Materia Philosophiae opens research avenues that have not previously been explored in a single volume.

Full Product Details

Author:   William Wians ,  Robert Hahn
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   9
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.60cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9789004694415

ISBN 10:   9004694412
Pages:   482
Publication Date:   06 November 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Contents List of Figures Abbreviations Notes on Contributors Philosophical Argument and Material Realities An Introduction  William Wians and Robert Hahn Part 1 Philosophers and Technologies  1 Material Modular Thinking, Substance Monism, and the Origins of Greek Philosophy Architecture, Gnomon, Coinage, and the Felting of Wool  Robert Hahn  2 Placing the Ionian Περι Φυσεως Ιστορια in Context The Role of Sea Trade, Colonization, Navigation and Analogies from Manufacturing Crafts (Τεχναι) in the Birth of Greek Science  Andrei Lebedev 3 Greek Ships, Seamanship and Cosmology  Andrew Gregory  4 The Gods and the Machine Ancient Automata and Divine Causation  Sylvia Berryman Part 2 Thinking with Objects  5 Using a Household Artefact as an Epistemological Tool The Clepsydra in Anaxagoras, Aristotle’s de Caelo, and Empedocles  Nathasja Roggo-van Luijn 6 The Metaphysics of the Coin-Image  Richard Seaford 7 Anaximenes and the Millstone  Dirk L. Couprie  8 Weaving the Double Square An (Im-)Material Contribution to Early Greek Mathematics  Ellen Harlizius-Klück and Giovanni Fanfani Part 3 Philosophical Media and Their Messages 9 The Limited Relevance of Writing in Early Greek Philosophy and Science  Harold Tarrant  10 Metadiscourse The Fabric of Early Greek Philosophical Prose  Gaston Javier Basile  11 Materiality and Philosophy The Ancient Greek and Chinese Experiences Compared  G.E.R. Lloyd Part 4 Philosophy and Ancient Embodiment 12 Thales and the Measure of Wisdom  Philip Thibodeau 13 New Insights into Pythagorean Women’s Material Philosophy  Bella Vivante 14 Xenophanes the Sophist? Material Realities and Philosophical Innovation  William Wians Index

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Author Information

William Wians (Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Merrimack College) teaches at Boston College. Edited collections include Logos and Muthos: Philosophical Essays in Greek Literature; Logoi and Muthoi: Further Essays in Greek Literature; and Reading Aristotle: Argument and Exposition, with Ronald Polansky. Robert Hahn is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Publications include Anaximander and the Architects; Archaeology and the Origins of Philosophy; and The Metaphysics of the Pythagorean Theorem. He was recently honored as Outstanding Researcher by his university. Contributors are: Robert Hahn, Andrei Lebedev, Andrew Gregory, Sylvia Berryman, Nathasja Roggo-van Luijn, Richard Seaford, Dirk L. Couprie, Ellen Harlizius-Klück and Giovanni Fanfani, Harold Tarrant, Gastón Javier Basile, Geoffrey Lloyd, Philip Thibodeau, Bella Vivante, William Wians.

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