Archimedes’ legacy for early modern science: Historical-philosophical reflections

Abstract

The paper presents some reflections concerned with Archimedes’ legacy for the development of physico-mathematics in early modernity. First, I introduce Netz’s main themes concerned with the achievements of two generations of Greek mathematicians in their context, including some comparisons with contemporary non-Greek mathematical cultures. My paper, then, points out the necessary conditions for the historical transmission of Archimedes’ legacy on the one hand, and more generally for the mobility of bodies of knowledge on the other hand. In particular, I elaborate my perception of such transformations while focusing on four parameters for their analysis: (a) Transformations of the objects of knowledge through the gaze, the touch, as well as through linguistic or manual representations; (b) Transformations following a change in the boundaries between domains of knowledge; (c) Transformations related to the authority of particular carriers of knowledge and (d), Tansformations related to the place of knowledge.