Inventing origins? aetiological thinking in Greek and Roman antiquity

Aetiologies seem to gratify the human desire to understand the origin of a phenomenon. However, as this book demonstrates, aetiologies do not exclusively explore origins. Rather, in inventing origin stories they authorise the present and try to shape the future. This book explores aetiology as a too...

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Bibliographic Details
Corporate Author: Inventing origins: the function of aetiology in antiquity (Conference) (-)
Other Authors: Wessels, Antje, editor (editor), Klooster, Jacqueline, editor
Format: eBook
Language:Inglés
Published: Brill 2022
Series:Euhormos: Greco-Roman Studies in Anchoring Innovation
Subjects:
See on Biblioteca Universitat Ramon Llull:https://discovery.url.edu/permalink/34CSUC_URL/1im36ta/alma991009646933106719
Description
Summary:Aetiologies seem to gratify the human desire to understand the origin of a phenomenon. However, as this book demonstrates, aetiologies do not exclusively explore origins. Rather, in inventing origin stories they authorise the present and try to shape the future. This book explores aetiology as a tool for thinking, and draws attention to the paradoxical structure of origin stories. Aetiologies reduce complex ambivalence and plurality to plainly causal and temporal relations, but at the same time, by casting an anchor into the past, they open doors to progress and innovation.
Physical Description:1 electronic resource (228 p.)
ISBN:9789004500433