Geometer, in a Landscape
Embodied Mathematics in Hero’s Dioptra
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20071192 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Courtney Roby (0000-0001-9652-0614, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Pages | 67-88 |
| Publication date | 2018-04-23 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Revolutions and Continuity in Greek Mathematics (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | De Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/9783110565959-004 |
| OpenAlex | W4213261037 |
| ISBN | 9783110565959 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
In this paper, I will use recent work on embodied cognition to analyze the techniques Hero uses to embody the imposition of mathematical constructions on the physical world in his Dioptra, a text on surveying. Hero shifts geometrical objects, and techniques for manipulating them, into the real world by invoking material attributes that purely geometrical objects do not possess. This shift, in turn, demands an innovative restructuring of conceptual categories, triggered by processes that strongly recall Kuhn's work on conceptual incommensurability. Hero rarely refers directly to surveying personnel; rather the surveyor appears as a focalizer of the surveying action: orienting the measurement of the distance from his own side of a river to the opposite bank; precisely sighting the top of a rod to gauge the pitch of a planned tunnel; and so on. The surveyor may be equipped with hands as well as eyes, to discover a screw's pitch haptically, adjust a water-level, or delicately trace the path of a tunnel without disturbing the weighted cords hung along it. Such embodied actors represent a striking alternative to the disembodied 'Helping Hand' described by Fowler and Taisbak as characteristic of mathematics in the Euclidean tradition and shifts into this material domain are often linguistically marked. At the same time, Hero also emphasizes the geometrical techniques his actors employ, maintaining a continuous connection with the mathematical tradition in which he inscribes himself
Aesthetics · Art · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Euclidean geometry · Geometry · HERO · Linguistics · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Computer Science · Historical and Literary Studies · Mathematics · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |