Hmmm. Measure or master? There could be a musical consideration,,,(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLuW-GBaJ8k&feature=related ) but I like measure. Marsha On Dec 31, 2009, at 6:43 PM, Matt Kundert wrote: > > I ran across something interesting today. I didn't realize this, but > Protagoras' famous aphorism "Man is the measure of all things..." has an > ambiguity in the English (at least for amateurs who only read translations > and dabble in Greek words). > > I'd always assumed that what standardly gets translated as "measure" was > related to the Latin "ratio," and that old saw about how "reason" and > mathematical "measuring" are ancient relations. etc. Well, the Latin "ratio" > is the translation of "logos," which all us amateurs recognize as one of the > more famous Greek words: reason, thought, account, measure, word, etc. > > The Greek word translated as "measure" in Protagoras' aphorism is _not_ > Logos, but > > Metron > > "Metro" in modern Greek is still "measure." However, what I ran across which > made much of what the actual Greek word is was an alternative translation by > Mario Untersteiner (often considered a renegade scholar by respected > Anglophones I've run across), who wrote a book on the Sophists that is almost > impossible to find in English for under $50 (been out of print for half a > century): > > "Man is the master of all experiences..." > > I have no bead on what Greek word (or phrase) "things" or "experiences" > translates. All I can identify is "metron" and "anthropos" (the > gender-neutral "man"). But I imagine "experiences" sounds even better to > Pirsigians, whatever one might think of "measure vs. master." > > Matt > > _________________________________________________________________ > Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free. > http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222985/direct/01/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ _______________________________________________________________________ Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars... Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
