Re: [HM] well-known saying

Avinoam Mann (MANN@vms.huji.ac.il)
Tue, 25 May 1999 04:52:47 +0200 (IST)

To me, it sounds like Dedekind is paraphrasing a "well-known" saying of
Plato: 'God geometrizes'. So Dedekind is answering by 'Man arithmetizes'.
Does anybody know if that paraphrase originates with Dedekind, or is it
earlier? And please remind us of the reference for Plato's saying.

-From very hot dry Jerusalem
Avinoam Mann

On Mon, 24 May 1999, Michael Detlefsen wrote:

>
> In the preface to the first edition of Dedekind's WsuwsdZ, he refers to
> the Greek phrase (my transliteration) 'aei ho anthropos arithmetidzei'as
> a well-known (bekannt) saying. I'm a little embarrassed to say, however,
> that it is not so well-known as to be known by me. Could someone please
> tell me who authored this 'well-known' phrase ... and tell me what they
> meant by it. To me it says something like "Man is (or has) always (been)
> 'arithmetizing' or 'numbering' or 'counting'". But that supposed that
> arithmetidzo is a verb, and I can't find an entry for it in my lexicon,
> much less a pointer to the author of the 'well-known' saying.
>