The One Where No One Should Ever Say "Moist Things"

These philosophers were an interesting read. When they discuss things that would now be considered more in the realm of a natural science like physics, they often sound primitive. But that’s a simple judgement to make when speaking as a modern, educated individual two-thousand plus years later. One can only imagine what those who come thousands of years after us may think of our “modern science”. With this in mind, placing oneself in the mindset and time of these philosophers, the conclusions that they come to are actually very impressive. If I was starting from scratch with little to no prior knowledge of the natural world, I would like to think that I’m clever enough to think of theories like the aer which “gives rise to the other things in the cosmos” (Curd 19) or the foundational nature of water in regards to "moist things" (Curd 15), but in actuality those fundamental questions would not even come to my mind. The inquisitive nature of these early philosophers is, to me, their most interesting quality. Looking past their answers to the questions they pose, the very fact that they think to ask them is astounding.

The most interesting facet of the reading, which spoke to the historian in me, was the fact that the pseudo-historian (and I say that with love) of the time/region, Apollodorus, calculated a man’s date of birth from his “acme”, or greatest achievement, assuming he was forty at that time (Curd 13). As with most sources, particularly those coming from the classical period and before, one must be wary of their reliability in dating, but this in particular struck me as so odd. Not only does Apollodorus’ method seem to be not in the least bit sensible or scientific, but it also seems utterly random. Why would one assume that forty was the ripe age for achieving great things? Does this reflect something about the region/time, when individuals generally became active in public life, etc.? Or perhaps it just reflects a certain laziness or attempt at uniformity? Whatever the reason it kind of makes me twitch.