Keith Hudson wrote: [snip] > As you've mentioned Gutenberg's printing press yourself, let me confine > myself to this. The notion that "the Chinese are able to print" may well > have been around in Gutenberg's day and perhaps exercised a few minds in a > vague way, but the Chinese technology in which the former descends onto the > recipient material (ceramics or banknote paper, for example) could never > have worked in the case of moveable type because it would have fallen to > pieces after one or two impressions. Gutenberg's brilliance lay in > inverting the process so that the recipient descended onto the otherwise > fragile former. (And it is said that the spark for this came from the wine > press.) You may have read that some persons at Princeton have what appears to be strong evidence that Gutenberg did not do all he was credited with. I forget the details, but it's apparently a pretty "earthshaking" discovery. If I remember correctly, the new hypothesis is that Gutenberg's bible was not printed with type cast from reusable molds, as had always been taken for granted, but rather each letter (e.g., 2 "A"'s...) was cast from a separate mold that had to be destroyed to get the letter out of it. > > Also, because Gutenberg's printing press was used for publishing > information rather than decorating dinner plates, then it must be > considered to be an entirely different grade of innovation from the humdrum > Chinese sort. At bottom, the European culture and civilisation was very > different from the Chinese. I believe the first use of the printing press in Europe was to mass-produce *indulgences* for the Roman Catholic Church (indulgences are chits that you buy to reduce your time in Purgatory, or the time in Puratory for someone you care about.) > > Artefacts don't necessarily move easily from one culture to another even if > the superficial appearance is similar. Another example which > Fernández-Armesto doesn't mention (it's not in the index anyway) is the PC. > Despite its popularity in the West over the last decade, it has simply not > taken off in the same way in Japan! Furthermore, the particular way that > the mobile phone has been used in Japan is totally different from the way > it is usually used in Europe and America (so far, anyway). This is important. What any "thing" "is" is not a metaphysical "external" "given", but is rather, as Kant first indicated and many (but still statistically far too few!) others have elaborated, a thing "is" what it counts for in terms of our interests. (The physical world is the answer space which correlates with our questions about our life.) [snip] -- Someone recently gave me references for a remarkable technological accomplishment of the Hellenistic period: "The Antikythera Mechanism" (I'd been looking for this information for a couple years!): http://www.giant.net.au/users/rupert/kythera/kythera5.htm (Links) http://www.giant.net.au/users/rupert/kythera/kythera3.htm (Derek de Solla Price's 1959 Scientific American essay, incl. illustrations) http://www.math.utsa.edu/ecz/ak.html After reading about this accomplishment of the Hellenistic Greeks, I now speculate that the Talibans' predecessors in the "classical world" did far more damage to humanistic culture than I had previously imagined. Those who believe in eternity destroy human temporeity (AKA "time"). But, as Dr. Francois Rabelais wrote (see end of this email).... "Yours in discourse", and in time.... +\brad mccormick -- Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] 914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ "...For all the ancient philosophers and sages have reckoned two things to be necessary for safe and pleasant travel on the road of wisdom and in the pursuit after knowledge; God's guidance and the company of men.... So, when you philosophers, with God's guidance and in the company of some clear Lantern, give yourselves up to that careful study and investigation which is the proper duty of man -- and it is for this reason that men are called... searchers and discoverers... -- [as men, you] will find the truth of the sage Thales' reply to Amasis, King of the Egyptians. When asked wherein the greatest wisdom lay, Thales replied: 'In time.' For it is time that has discovered, or in due course will discover, all things that lie hidden. [As men, you] will also infallibly find that all men's knowledge, both theirs and their forefathers', is hardly an infinitesimal fraction of all that exists and that they do not know."
