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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

Jon Miller
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Ontario
Brad Inwood
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

The great covered cisterns of Istanbul were built during the sixth century of the common era. Their roofs are held up by row upon row of stone pillars. Many of these pillars were made specially for the cisterns, but others seem to have been pieced together from whatever broken bits of column were available to the builders: a pediment of one style or period, a capital of another, a shaft from yet a third. The provenance of the parts did not matter. It sufficed that this material from the past served the present purpose.

Architects have other ways of using the past. Consider New York City's old Pennsylvania Station: it was meant to look like a Roman bath, perhaps in order to transfer the grandeur of the ancient empire to the modern railroad company that was displaying its wealth and glory. Or consider some of the post-modern buildings now on display in our cities: Gothic arches atop glass-fronted skyscrapers after Corbusier or Mies, with additional odd bits and pieces of whatever style it amused the architect to incorporate. The elements are meant to recall the past, if only to dismiss it, even while they are intended to function in a striking new structure.

This volume shows that philosophers have as many ways of using the past as architects have. The chapters here assembled were written for a conference on the role of Hellenistic philosophy in the early modern period.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Jon Miller, Queen's University, Ontario, Brad Inwood, University of Toronto
  • Book: Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498275.003
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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Jon Miller, Queen's University, Ontario, Brad Inwood, University of Toronto
  • Book: Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498275.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Jon Miller, Queen's University, Ontario, Brad Inwood, University of Toronto
  • Book: Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498275.003
Available formats
×