The Babylonians and the Rational: Analogical Reasoning in Contexts of Rationality

The notion of nature upon which we base our idea of scientific rationality proves anachronistic for the investigation of cuneiform scholarly knowledge and the rationality of cuneiform science. Recent years have seen renewed efforts to edit and publish texts belonging to the cuneiform corpora of divination, astrology, medical-astrology and magic, subjects long consigned to a status on the wrong side of modern dichotomies such as science and nonscience, rational and irrational. This discussion will redress the issue of the anachronistic dichotomy of the natural and the supernatural in the context of cuneiform texts, and place cuneiform scribal knowledge employing analogical reasoning at the center of rationality in Assyro-Babylonian intellectual life.

This lecture is sponsored by The Achelis Foundation.

NOTICE: Admission to the ISAW Lecture Hall closes 10 minutes after the scheduled start time.

There will be a reception folowing the event.

This is a public event.

To RSVP, please email isaw@nyu.edu.