[lit-ideas] Geary's Lectures on Ptolemy
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 16:57:15 EST
Memphis, TN. Memphis Metaphysical Ministry holds its annual conference on
Astronomy Meets Astrology. Invited guest is the President of the Memphis
Metaphysical Ministry, who will lecture on Loeb # 24, Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos.
-- What gave you the idea of the seminar?
-- Well, I think astronomy is overrated.
-- What do you mean?
-- We believe that the Ancients -- or 'Dead White Men' if you must -- had
it _very_ right when they thought Man was the Center of the University.
-- You mean the universe?
-- No, the university of Memphis. It used to be a Normal College, way back.
-- Your point is anthropocentric?
-- Well, no. It's a _moral_ point. Way back, Aristotle, and Ptolemy (the
focus of my lecture) had it all happy and nice and 'comfy' with the Man at the
center of what the Greeks called 'the Kosmos' -- hence cosmetic surgery. But
then comes Galileo Galilei and Kopernikus and change it all -- for worse of
course.
-- What do you mean?
-- Well, it was, as Freud called it the first _narcissitic wound_ that Man
received, and it hasn't recovered from it (yet).
-- So you're proposing a _healing_ from the wound?
-- Exactly, we claim that while it may not be _true_ that Man is the centre
of the universe and the goal of all creation, we believe it was _wrong_ on
the part of Galileo to spread the news otherwise. This has nothing to do with
religion as such, since I'm an atheist.
--Who is he?
-- Oh, he is my amanuensis. He reads books, etc. Hi, JL, what's up?
-- JL: I've got some quotes from the OED on Ptolemy, as you requested. Want
to read them now?
-- No, later
Cheers,
JL
-----
1623 E. CHALONER Sixe Serm. 82
That Ptolomean structure to bee gaz'd vpon.
1656 T. STANLEY Zeno 140 in Hist. Philos. VIII,
Pausanias saith, it was set up in the Gymnasium, called Ptolomæan from the
Founder, not far from the Forum.
1748 B. FRANKLIN Poor Richard in L. W. Labaree Papers of Benjamin Franklin
(1961) III. 249
The Ptolomean System, which prevail'd before Copernicus, suppos'd the Earth
to be fix'd.
1861 F. MAX MÜLLER Lect. Sci. Lang. i. 17
Although the Ptolemæan system was a wrong one, yet even from its eccentric
point of view, laws were discovered determining the true movements of the
heavenly bodies.
1914 Geogr. Jrnl. 44 177
It is doubtful whether he had ever had before him a Ptolemæan production
[sc. a map] except in some amended and augmented form.
1997 Philos. Sci. 64 590
The earth..was considered to be the non-moving center of the Ptolemean
(geocentric) universe.
1647 _R. BOYLE_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-b3.html#r-boyle)
Let. to Hartlib 8 Apr. in T. Birch Life R. Boyle (1744)
76
The dissenting opinions of the Ptolemeans, the Tychonians, the Copernicans.
1702 _R. MORDEN_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-m4.html#r-morden)
Introd. Astron. 6
By this contrivance he avoided the Imputation of that absur'd opinion; of
the Ptolemeans, that the Sun, and with him all the Planets,..were carried
round
the Earth, once a Day.
1784 F. O'GALLAGHER Ess. First Princ. Nature vii. 310
Kepler discovered the properties and law of gravity, by which the objections
of the Ptolemeans were done away.
1983 Isis 74 32
Gilbert..summoned Ptolemeans and Peripatetics to be ‘less terrified if the
earth do move round in a circle’.
Tetrabiblos -- available from Powells.com at $16
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