What Did the Romans Know?: An Inquiry into Science and Worldmaking

290 Pages·2012·3.999 MB·English

by  Daryn Lehoux

what did the romans know?

what did the romans know?
an inquiry into science
and worldmaking
daryn lehoux
the university of chicago press
chicago and london
daryn lehoux is professor of classics at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2012 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2012.
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978-0-226-47114-3 (cloth)
isbn- 10: 0-226-47114-4 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Lehoux, Daryn, 1968–
What did the Romans know? : an inquiry into science and worldmaking /
Daryn Lehoux.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn- 13: 978-0-226-47114-3 (cloth : alkaline paper)
isbn- 10: 0-226-47114-4 (cloth : alkaline paper)
1. Science, Ancient. 2. Science—History. I. Title.
q124.95.l44 2012
930.1—dc23
2011029349
o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/ niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
This book is dedicated to my daughters Zoë and Mari,
one of whom, at the age of six, asked if there were any magnets
in the house “that we don’t need anymore.”
She’d heard me talking with colleagues and
wanted to try something . . .

contents
Acknowledgments xi
1. The Web of Knowledge 1
A Roman World 4
A Roman World 8
Knowing Nature in the Roman Context 10
Overview 17
2. Nature, Gods, and Governance 21
Divinity and Divination 22
Roman Virtues 25
Nature and the Legitimation of the Republic 30
A Ciceronian Contradiction? 34
Knowledge of Nature and Virtuous Action 37
Fabulae versus Learned Observation 42
Conclusion 45
3. Law in Nature, Nature in Law 47
Laws of Nature 49
Natural Laws 57
Human and Divine Governance 59
Is a “Law of Nature” Even Possible in Antiquity? 61
Divinity, Redux 72
Conclusion 74
vii
viii contents
4. Epistemology and Judicial Rhetoric 77
Theory- Ladenness and Observation 79
Observations as Models 83
Observational Selectivity 90
Examination of Witnesses 93
The Natural Authority of Morals 98
Declamation and Certainty 102
5. The Embeddedness of Seeing 106
Doubts about Vision 107
Mechanisms of Seeing in Antiquity 111
The Eyes as Organs 116
Not Every Black Box Is a Camera Obscura 121
Epistemologies of Seeing 125
The Centrality of Experience 129
6. The Trouble with Taxa 133
Knowledge Claims and Context- Dependence 136
Unproblematic Facticity 140
Problems with Experience 142
The Lab Section of the Chapter 147
The Question of Worlds 149
Epilogue 151
7. The Long Reach of Ontology 155
Four Kinds of Justifi cation for Prediction 159
Predictability and Determinism 167
Physical Solutions to Determinism 169
The Cascading Effect 174
8. Dreams of a Final Theory 176
Explaining the Cosmos 176
Orbs, Souls, Laws 181
Numbers in Nature 188
Harmony and Empiricism 193
Conclusion 198
contents ix
9. Of Miracles and Mistaken Theories 200
History as a Problem for Realism 204
Quantum Magnum PI? 206
Can We Avoid the Problems History Poses? 209
First Strategy: We Have Something They Didn’t 209
Second Strategy: The Curate’s Egg 218
Other Ways Out 220
10. Worlds Given, Worlds Made 224
What’s in a World? 224
Kuhn’s World 226
What Good Is Relativism? 229
Coherence 233
Truth and Meaning 236
Realism, Coherence, and History 238
11. Conclusion 243
Appendix: Lemma to the Mirror Problem 247
Reference List 251
Index 269