Abstract
We argue that the concepts of `human equality' and `inequality' play an important role in the structure of science and philosophy. When the value of `human inequality' predominates, scientific categories are formed in accordance with the principle of `hierarchical differentiation' and concepts remain closely tied to the objects they are referring to. Following Mirowski we define this as the `anthropometric stage' of human thought and development. Contrary, Mirowski's `syndetic stage' refers to societies where the value of `human equality' prevails. Here concepts appear that are universally applicable. However, because of their conventional nature these concepts cannot be `grasped' any longer by human intuition. Between the `anthropometric' and `syndetic' stages, a `lineamentric stage' appears, a period of transition from `human equality' to `human inequality'. Being both a bridge and gap between the two other stages, the `lineamentric' stage contains many contradictions between an `abstract attitude' and `concrete categories'. In this paper we examine the anthropometric, lineamentric and syndetic stages and discuss several examples taken from philosophy, logic, mathematics and physics.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Achterhuis, H.: 1988, Het rijk van de schaarste. Van Thomas Hobbes tot Michel Foucault. Baarn: Ambo.
Aristotle. 1963. The Physics. 2 Vols. London: Heinemann.
Aristotle: 1967. Texte zur Logik. München: Rowohlt.
Aristotle: 1968. The Nichomachean Ethics. London: Heinemann.
Aristotle: 1971. Politik. Zürich und Stuttgart: Artemis.
Aristotle: 1983. Oikonomikos. Köonigstein: Verlag Anton Hain.
Aristotle: 1993. Metaphysik. Stuttgart: Reclam.
Augustin, A.: 1959, La cité de Dieu. Paris: Desclee de Brouwer.
Bacon, F.: [1605] 1951, The Advancement of Learning and New Atlantis. London: Oxford University Press.
Bacon, F.: [1620] 1986, Novum Organom. Paris: Presses Universitaires.
Bartelink, G.J.M.: 1986, Het vroege christendom en de antieke cultuur. Muiderberg: Coutinho.
Bell, E.T.: [1937] 1965, Men of Mathematics. 2 vols. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Bochenski, I.M.: [1956] 1970, Formale Logik. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber.
Brown, P.: 1996, The Rise of Western Christendom, Triumph and Diversity AD 200-1000. Oxford: Blackwell.
Charles, D.: 1991, Teleological Causation in the Physics. In L. Judson (ed.), Aristotle's Physics. A Collection of Essays. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 101–28.
De Ley, H.: 1983, Geschiedenis van de wijsbegeerte der oudheid. Band I Deel I: De Ioniërs, Rijksuniversiteit Gent-Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
De Pater, W. and R. Vergauwen: 1992, Logica: Formeel en Informeel. Universitaire Pers: Leuven.
Descartes, R.: [1637] 1991, Discours de la méthode. Saint-Amand: Editions Gallimard.
Dethier, H.: 1993, Het gezicht en het raadsel. Profielen van Plato tot Derrida. Brussel: VUB-Press.
Farrell, F.B.: 1994, Subjectivity, Realism, and Postmodernism – The Recovery of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Feyerabend, P.: 1975, Against Method. London: NLB.
Finley, M.I. (ed.): 1973, Problèmes de la terre en Grèce ancienne. Paris: Mouton.
Flam, L.: 1952, Plato Descartes Kant. Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Ontwikkeling.
Fukuyama, F.: 1992, The End of History and the Last Man. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Gehlen, A.: [1940, 1972] 1978, Der Mensch. Seine Natur und seine Stellung in der Welt. Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion.
Girard, R.: 1972, La violence et le sacré. Paris: Grasset.
Girard, R.: 1978. Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde. Paris: Grasset.
Girard, R.: 1982. Le bouc émissaire. Paris: Grasset.
Grattan-Guinness, I: 1988, Living Together and Living Apart. On the Interactions between Mathematics and Logics from the French Revolution to the FirstWorld War. South African Journal of Philosophy7(2): 73–82.
Greenberg, M.J.: [1972] 1974, Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries. Development and History. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company.
Grene, M.: 1985, Descartes. Brighton, Sussex: The Harvester Press.
Guthrie, W.K.C.: [1962] 1969, A History of Greek Philosophy. 5 vols.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hanfling, O.: 1981, Logical Positivism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Harrison, C. and P. Woods (eds.): [1992] 1993, Art in Theory 1900–1990. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 123–213.
Heath, T.L. (ed.): [1908] 1956, The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements. New York: Dover Publications.
Jaspers, K.: [1965] 1966, Descartes und die Philosophie. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter.
Kaptein, R. and P. Tijmes: 1986, De ander als model en obstakel. Een inleiding in het werk van René Girard. Kampen: Kok Agora.
Kneale, W. and M. Kneale: [1962] 1968, The Development of Logic. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kuhn, T.S.: [1962] 1973, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kula, W.: 1986, Measures and Man. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Laudan, L.: 1977, Progress and its Problems. Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth. Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Lovejoy, O.: 1978, The Great Chain of Being. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.
Marx, K.: [1867, 1872] 1971, Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Band I: Der Produktionsprozeß des Kapitals. Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein.
Mathijs, E. and B. Mosselmans: 1997, Van herbelevende waarheid naar afgebeelde schoonheid: de versluiering van het oorspronkelijk geweld bij Plato en Aristoteles. In L. Pijnenburg (ed.), Vijandbeelden in de filosofie. Wageningen: Landbouwuniversiteit, 67–71.
Mathijs, E. and B. Mosselmans: 1998, Van Daedalus tot Pygmalion: Kunst en mimesis in het antropometrische stadium, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie60(3): 521–53.
Mathijs, E. and B. Mosselmans: 1999, Art and Science in a Fragmented World: Einstein meets Magritte as a Forum for Communication. In D. Aerts, E. Mathijs and B. Mosselmans (eds.), Science and Art: The Red Book Einstein of Meets Magritte. Dordrecht: Kluwer, xvii–xxiii.
Mathijs, E. and B. Mosselmans: 2000, Mimesis and the Representation of Reality: a Historical Worldview, Foundations of Science5(1): 3–41.
Michel, P.-H.: 1950, De Pythagore à Euclide. Contribution à l'histoire des mathématiques préeuclidiennes. Paris: Les belles lettres.
Mirowski, P.: 1984, Macro Economic Instability and the ‘Natural’ Processes in Early Neoclassical Economics, Journal of Economic History44(2): 345–354.
Mirowski, P.: 1989, More Heat than Light. Economics as Social Physics: Physics as Nature's Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mosselmans, B. and E. Mathijs: 1998a,René Girard, het zondebokmechanismeen het denken van Aristoteles, De Uil van Minerva. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis en Wijsbegeerte van de Cultuur14(3): 179–194.
Mosselmans, B. and E. Mathijs: 1998b. Natuurlijke ongelijkheid en hiërarchische differentiatie in de antropometrische wetenschappen van Aristoteles. In Hoenen, J.F.M. Maarten and M. Schijvenaars (red.), Metamorphose. Acten 20ste Nederlands-Vlaamse Filosofiedag. Nijmegen: Katholieke Universiteit, 299–306.
Mosselmans, B. and E. Mathijs: 1999a. Similarity or Difference: the Case for Interdisciplinarity in Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Art and Aesthetics. In D. Aerts, E. Mathijs and B. Mosselmans (eds.), Science and Art: The Red Book of Einstein Meets Magritte. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 11–20.
Mosselmans, B. and E. Mathijs: 1999b, Jevons's Music Manuscript and the Political Economy of Music, forthcoming in History of Political Economy31: 121–156.
Mosselmans, B. and E. Mathijs: 2000, Science and Philosophy in the Anthropometric Stage, forthcoming in Proceedings of the XX. World Congress of History of Science, Liège.
Muijen, A.S.C.A.: 1988. Inleiding. In: F. Bacon (ed.), Het nieuwe Atlantis. Baarn: Ambo.
Nietzsche, F.: [1889] 1988, Wie die ‘wahre Welt’ endlich zur Fabel wurde. Götzen-Dämmerung oder Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophirt. Kritische Studienausgabe Vol.6. München/Berlin/New York: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag/de Gruyter, 80–81.
Pekary, T.: 1979, Die Wirtschaft der griechisch-römischen Antike. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.
Pelckmans, P. and G. Vanheeswijck (eds.): 1996, René Girard: het labyrint van verlangen. Kapellen-Kampen: Pelckmans-Kok Agora.
Plato.: [1957] 1988, Phaidros. Stuttgart: Reclam.
Plato: 1984, Lysis. Verzameld werk Deel 3, Amsterdam: De Driehoek, 61–103.
Plato: 1987, Parmenides. Stuttgart: Reclam.
Plato: 1991, Politeia. Wat is rechtvaardigheid? Verzameld werk Deel 10. Amsterdam: De Driehoek.
Popper, K.R.: [1963] 1969, Conjectures and Refutations. The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. London: RKP.
Richards, J.L.: 1979, The Reception of a Mathematical Theory: Non-Euclidean Geometry in England, 1868–1883. In B. Barnes and S. Shapin (eds.), Natural Order. Historical Studies of Scientific Culture. Beverly Hills/London: Sage, 143–166.
Röd, W.: 1976, Die Philosophie der Neuzeit 1. Von Francis Bacon bis Spinoza. München: C.H. Beck.
Ruccio, D., J. Graham and J. Amariglio: 1996, The Good, the Bad and the Different: Reflections on Economics and Aesthetic Value. In Klamer, A. (ed.), The Value of Culture. On the Relationship between Economics and Art. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 56–73.
Russell, B.: [1946] 1979, History of Western Philosophy. London: Unwin Paperbacks.
Schurig, V.: 1976, Die Entstehung des Bewußtseins. Frankfurt am Main: Campus-Verlag.
Smith, D.E. and M.L. Latham (eds.): [1637] 1954, The Geometry of René Descartes. With a Facsimile of the First Edition. New York: Dover.
Tijmes, P.: 1995, De romaneske waarheid, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie57: 667–691.
Tijmes, P.: 1996, Sacraliteit en schaarste. De dubbele huishouding van demimese. In P. Pelckmans and G. Vanheeswijck (red.), René Girard. Het labyrinth van het verlangen. Kapellen-Kampen: Pelckmans-Kok Agora, 31–49.
Tijmes, P.: 1997, Repliek, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie59: 102–106.
Toulmin, S.: 1990, Cosmopolis: the Hidden Agenda of Modernity. New York: Free Press.
Trampnell, W.H.: 1988, The Treatment of Christian Doctrine by Philosophers of the Natural Light from Descartes to Berkeley. Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation.
Van Bendegem, J.P.: 1991, Inleiding tot de moderne logica en wetenschapsfilosofie: een terreinverkenning. Brussel: VUB Press.
Van Der Waerden, B.L.: 1979, Die Pythagoreer. Religiöse Bruderschaft und Schule der Wissenschaft. Zürich: Artemis.
Vanheeswijck, G.: 1997. Discussie: De romaneske waarheid bij René Girard, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie59: 89–101.
Vergote, A.: 1996, Rene Girards absolute theorie, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie58: 128–141.
Weyembergh, M.: 1991, Entre politique et technique. Aspects de l'utopisme contemporain. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin.
Whitehead, A.N.: 1925, Science and the Modern World. Utrecht/Antwerpen: Het Spectrum, 140–142. New York: New American Library.
Wittgenstein, L.: [1953] 1967, Philosophische Untersuchungen. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mosselmans, B., Mathijs, E. Human Culture and Science: Equality and Inequality as Foundations of Scientific Thought. Foundations of Science 5, 339–378 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011331321486
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011331321486