On Jacob Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra
Summary
This article memorializes my one sustained attempt to come to grips with metaphysics, the corner of philosophy that asks about being, or existence, or, as some would put it, “reality.” My reading of Klein’s book led me to a tentative sense of closure about the relation between mathematics and physics, the conjunction of which leads to the enormous achievements of modern mathematical physics. One way of characterizing this closure, is to say that mathematical physics provides evidence that Parmenides’ dictum, “Thought and Being are the Same,” is not the statement of a solution but rather that it is the statement of a problem. What is at the basis of the astonishing fit – I am tempted to say ‘harmony’ - between thinking (mathematical physics) and the world it encompasses? In other words, I found it thought provoking that mathematical physics confims Plato’s words in the Sophist, to the effect, that ‘the question is now, has been, and always will be: what is being qua being?’ I do not claim that Klein would have gone along with any of this.
A New Interpretation of the Noble Lie
Plato Journal Volume 21
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Kennington's Descartes and
Eddington's "Two Tables"
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