Before Nature: Cuneiform Knowledge And The History Of Science
by Francesca Rochberg /
2017 / English / PDF
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In the modern West, we take for granted that what we call the
“natural world” confronts us all and always has—but
In the modern West, we take for granted that what we call the
“natural world” confronts us all and always has—butBefore
Nature
Before
Nature explores that almost unimaginable time when there was
no such conception of “nature”—no word, reference, or sense for
it.
explores that almost unimaginable time when there was
no such conception of “nature”—no word, reference, or sense for
it.
Before the concept of nature formed over the long history of
European philosophy and science, our ancestors in ancient Assyria
and Babylonia developed an inquiry into the world in a way that
is kindred to our modern science. With
Before the concept of nature formed over the long history of
European philosophy and science, our ancestors in ancient Assyria
and Babylonia developed an inquiry into the world in a way that
is kindred to our modern science. WithBefore Nature
Before Nature,
Francesca Rochberg explores that Assyro-Babylonian knowledge
tradition and shows how it relates to the entire history of
science. From a modern, Western perspective, a world not
conceived somehow within the framework of physical nature is
difficult—if not impossible—to imagine. Yet, as Rochberg lays
out, ancient investigations of regularity and irregularity, norms
and anomalies clearly established an axis of knowledge between
the knower and an intelligible, ordered world. Rochberg is the
first scholar to make a case for how exactly we can understand
cuneiform knowledge, observation, prediction, and explanation in
relation to science—without recourse to later ideas of nature.
Systematically examining the whole of Mesopotamian science with a
distinctive historical and methodological approach,
,
Francesca Rochberg explores that Assyro-Babylonian knowledge
tradition and shows how it relates to the entire history of
science. From a modern, Western perspective, a world not
conceived somehow within the framework of physical nature is
difficult—if not impossible—to imagine. Yet, as Rochberg lays
out, ancient investigations of regularity and irregularity, norms
and anomalies clearly established an axis of knowledge between
the knower and an intelligible, ordered world. Rochberg is the
first scholar to make a case for how exactly we can understand
cuneiform knowledge, observation, prediction, and explanation in
relation to science—without recourse to later ideas of nature.
Systematically examining the whole of Mesopotamian science with a
distinctive historical and methodological approach,Before
Nature
Before
Nature will open up surprising new pathways for studying the
history of science.
will open up surprising new pathways for studying the
history of science.