Bryson of Heraclea
Bryson of Heraclea (Greek: Βρύσων Ἡρακλεώτης, gen.: Βρύσωνος; fl. late 5th-century BCE) was an ancient Greek mathematician and sophist who studied the solving the problems of squaring the circle and calculating pi.
Life and work
Little is known about the life of Bryson; he came from
Pi and squaring the circle
Bryson, along with his contemporary,
Robert Kilwardby on Bryson's syllogism
The 13th-century English philosopher
Bryson's syllogism on the squaring of the circle was of this sort, it is said: In any genus in which one can find a greater and a lesser than something, one can find what is equal; but in the genus of squares one can find a greater and a lesser than a circle; therefore, one can also find a square equal to a circle. This syllogism is sophistical not because the consequence is false, and not because it produces a syllogism on the basis of apparently readily believable things-for it concludes necessarily and on the basis of what is readily believable. Instead, it is called sophistical and contentious [litigiosus] because it is based on common considerations and is dialectical when it should be based on specific considerations and be demonstrative.[11]
Notes
- ^ Platonic Epistles, xiii. 360c
- ^ Athenaeus, xi. ch. 118, 508c-d
- ^ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, 75b4; Sophistical Refutations, 171b16, 172a3
- ^ Aristotle, Rhetoric, 3.2, 1405b6-16
- ^ Diogenes Laërtius, i. 16, vi. 85, ix. 61
- ^ Suda, Pyrrhon, Krates, Theodoros
- ^ Robert Drew Hicks, Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers, page 88. Loeb Classical Library
- ^ Blatner, page 16
- ^ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, 75b37-76a3.
- ^ Robert Kilwardby, De ortu scientiarum, LIII, §512, pp. 272f.
- ^ Robert Kilwardby, De ortu scientiarum, LIII, §512, pp. 273.
References
- Blatner, David. The Joy of Pi. Walker Publishing Company, Inc. New York, 1997.
- Kilwardby, Robert. De ortu scientiarum. Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi IV ed. A.G. Judy. Toronto: PIMS, 1976. Published for the British Academy by the Oxford University Press. (The translation of this quote is found in: N. Kretzmann & E. Stump (eds. & trns.), The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts: Volume 1, Logic and the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989.)
- Philosophy Dictionary definition of Bryson of Heraclea. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 0-486-24073-8.