Anaximander and the Architects opens a previously unexplored avenue into
Presocratic philosophy--the technology of monumental architecture. The
evidence, coming directly from sixth century B.C.E. building sites and
bypassing Aristotle, shows how the architects and their projects
supplied their Ionian communities with a sprouting vision of natural
order governed by structural laws. Their technological innovations and
design techniques formed the core of an experimental science and
promoted a rational, not mythopoetical, discourse central to our
understanding of the context in which early Greek philosophy emerged.
Anaximander's prose book and his rationalizing mentality are illuminated
in surprising ways by appeal to the ongoing, extraordinary projects of
the archaic architects and their practical techniques.