Ptolemy's PhilosophyPub Date : 2018-10-16DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691179582.003.0007
Jacqueline Feke
{"title":"Mathematizing the Human Soul","authors":"Jacqueline Feke","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691179582.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691179582.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter investigates the development of Ptolemy's psychological theory from On the Kritêrion to the Harmonics. It argues that Ptolemy composed the former before the latter, and that comparison of the two texts reveals Ptolemy's move from a less to a more restrictive model of the soul. This move follows from Ptolemy's effort to mathematize the soul, to analyze its parts and species in concordance with mathematical, specifically harmonic, ratios. When Ptolemy mathematized the soul he sought to improve his account of the soul's structure, to make it epistemically sound. This endeavor to improve and mathematize his psychology resulted in discernible incongruities between On the Kritêrion and the Harmonics.","PeriodicalId":363823,"journal":{"name":"Ptolemy's Philosophy","volume":"307 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132315313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ptolemy's PhilosophyPub Date : 2018-10-16DOI: 10.23943/PRINCETON/9780691179582.003.0003
Jacqueline Feke
{"title":"Knowledge or Conjecture","authors":"Jacqueline Feke","doi":"10.23943/PRINCETON/9780691179582.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/PRINCETON/9780691179582.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter shows how Ptolemy blends an Aristotelian form of empiricism with a Platonic concern for distinguishing knowledge and opinion, and thereby produces a new and subversive epistemology where mathematics is the only science that generates knowledge rather than conjecture. He argues that philosophers will never reach consensus on the nature of physical and theological objects, because these fields of inquiry are, on their own, conjectural. Mathematics, on the other hand, yields sure and incontrovertible knowledge, and its contributions to physics and theology are epistemically efficacious. Mathematics enables a good guess at the nature of the Prime Mover, and it reveals the nature of physical objects. In this way, Ptolemy bolsters the value of mathematics and co-opts the fields of inquiry traditionally studied by philosophers for mathematicians.","PeriodicalId":363823,"journal":{"name":"Ptolemy's Philosophy","volume":"88 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114052904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Astrology and Cosmology","authors":"Jacqueline Feke","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv346n94.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv346n94.12","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter argues that Ptolemy maintains the epistemology and scientific method that he articulates in Almagest 1.1 and applies in the Harmonics in his studies of astrology and cosmology in the Tetrabiblos and Planetary Hypotheses. Both Ptolemy's astrology and his cosmology rely on astronomy. Indeed, Ptolemy suggests that their very study depends on an antecedent and complete examination of the stars' movements and configurations. The conclusions astrology and cosmology put forward, however, remain conjectural, and Ptolemy remarks in both the Tetrabiblos and Planetary Hypotheses on the conjectural nature of astrology, cosmology, and physics in general. Nevertheless, by placing his astrology and cosmology on an astronomical foundation, Ptolemy endeavours to produce the best guesses possible of the physical characteristics of aethereal bodies and the physical effects they have on the sublunary realm.","PeriodicalId":363823,"journal":{"name":"Ptolemy's Philosophy","volume":"80 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124446914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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