| Alphanumeric Cosmology from Greek Into Arabic: The Idea of Stoicheia Through the Medieval Mediterranean Contributor(s): Acevedo, Juan (Author) |
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ISBN: 316159245X ISBN-13: 9783161592454 Publisher: Mohr Siebeck OUR PRICE: $112.10 Product Type: Paperback Published: July 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Epistemology - Philosophy | Religious |
| Physical Information: 351 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Juan Acevedo embarks on a semantic journey to track the origin and adventures of the Greek term stoicheion, which for at least eighteen centuries, from Pythagoras to Fibonacci, simultaneously meant "element", "letter", and "numeral". Focusing on this triple meaning and on how it was translated and interpreted in Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic - especially in key texts of the Abrahamic faiths- a metaphysical study takes shape. With touches of alchemy and theology, it reveals how a shared fundamental alphanumeric cosmology underlay many basic paradigms of science and faith around the Mediterranean until the advent of the Indo-Arabic numerals broke the "marriage" of letter and numeral. Careful readings of Plato, Philolaos, Nicomachus and Philo, of Genesis and the Sefer Yetsira, of the Qur'an, the Ikhwan al-Safa', and Ibn 'Arabi are all woven together into a synthesis full of implications for many disciplines. |