ePrints

Rhetorical uses of mathematical harmonics in Philo and Plutarch

Lookup NU author(s): Dr David Creese

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

The branch of harmonic science called 'canonics' is rarely discussed outside specialist literature in Greek antiquity. Two exceptions are discussed in this paper: one reference to the science and another to its practitioners, both in non-specialist texts (Philo of Alexandria, De opificio mundi 96; Plutarch, Quaestiones convivales iii.9). Because both texts contain erroneous claims given under the authority of canonics, the interpretation of these references is problematic. The two passages are discussed and compared in an attempt to account for the errors contained in them, and to expose the rhetorical aims of each author and the methods by which the technical terms and concepts of an ancient science could be made to serve very different ends in a non-scientific context.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Creese D

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A

Year: 2012

Volume: 43

Issue: 2

Pages: 258-269

Print publication date: 20/03/2012

ISSN (print): 0039-3681

ISSN (electronic): 1879-2510

Publisher: Pergamon

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2011.12.020

DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2011.12.020

Altmetrics

Share