Plutarch's Science of Natural Problems

A Study with Commentary on Quaestiones Naturales
01. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-94-6270-084-0
Verlag: Leuven University Press

Buch, Englisch, 556 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 1000 g

Reihe: Plutarchea Hypomnemata

The role of natural science in the Roman Imperial Era In his Quaestiones naturales, Plutarch unmistakeably demonstrates a huge interest in the world of natural phenomena. The work of this famous intellectual and philosopher from Chaeronea consists of forty-one natural problems that address a wide variety of questions, sometimes rather peculiar ones, and answers pertaining to ancient Greek physics, including problems related to the fields of zoology, botany, meteorology and their respective subdisciplines. By providing a thorough study of and commentary on this generally neglected text, written by one of the most influential and prolific writers from Antiquity, this book contributes to our better understanding of Plutarch’s natural scientific programme and, the condition and role of ancient natural science in the Roman Imperial Era in general.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Meeusen, Michiel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents
Acknowledgements

Prologue
Plutarch and the history of science: the case of Quaestiones naturales
1. Plato, Plutarch and scientific infancy
2. Date and chronology of Quaestiones naturales: a ‘life’s work’?
3. The value of Plutarch’s natural problems
4. Classical philology and the petrification of science
5. Status quaestionis
6. Note on translations and abbreviations

Introduction
1. Problems, problems, problems (and Aristotelian precedents)

1.1. Quaestiones naturales and the Aristotelian genre and tradition of natural problems
1. Preliminary remarks on Plutarch’s Naturwissenschaft
2. Quaestiones naturales: the work of a Plutarchus Aristotelicus?
3. The genre of problems and the Aristotelian tradition of natural problems
4. Internal organisation of Plutarch’s natural problems (microstructure)
5. Coherent reading in Quaestiones naturales and convivales (macrostructure)
6. The title and its programmatic value 1

1.2. Problems related to Plutarch’s scientific discourse
1. Trifles unworthy of Plutarch? Some remarks on authenticity
2. The rhetoric of scientific discourse according to Plutarch
3. The problem of style
4. The problem of morality
5. A ‘generic’ solution
6. Conclusion and new questions

2. The position of Quaestiones naturales in the corpus Plutarcheum

2.1. Scientific traits in the corpus Plutarcheum
1. Intellectual and literary interest of natural phenomena
2. Cluster analysis in Quaestiones naturales
3. Scientific digressions in the Vitae
4. Indirect references to Quaestiones naturales

2.2. A comparative study of Quaestiones naturales and Quaestiones convivales
1. The level of elocutio
2. The level of dispositio
3. The level of inventio

2.3. Hypomnematic text genetics of Quaestiones naturales and Quaestiones convivales
1. Historicity and fiction in Quaestiones convivales
2. Problems and personal notes
3. Zetetic autonomy in Quaestiones naturales

2.4. Opening up Plutarch’s zetetic archive
1. The issue of publication: problems as functional literature
2. C

Über Autor(innen)

Meeusen, Michiel
Michiel Meeusen is British Academy Postdoctoral Research Associate at King's College London, Department of Classics.