Jacob Klein

Important study focuses on the revival and assimilation of ancient Greek mathematics in the 13th–16th centuries, via Arabic science, and the 16th-century development of symbolic algebra. This brought about the crucial change in the concept of number that made possible modern science — in which the symbolic "form" of a mathematical statement is completely inseparable from its "content" of physical meaning. Includes a translation of Vieta's Introduction to the Analytical Art. 1968 edition. Bibliography.

Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra

The Meno, one of the most widely read of the Platonic dialogues, is seen afresh in this original interpretation that explores the dialogue as a theatrical presentation. Just as Socrates's listeners would have questioned and examined their own thinking in response to the presentation, so, Klein shows, should modern readers become involved in the drama of the dialogue. Klein offers a line-by-line commentary on the text of the Meno itself that animates the characters and conversation and carefully probes each significant turn of the argument. "A major addition to the literature on the Meno and necessary reading for every student of the dialogue."—Alexander Seasonske, Philosophical Review "There exists no other commentary on Meno which is so thorough, sound, and enlightening."—Choice Jacob Klein (1899-1978) was a student of Martin Heidegger and a tutor at St. John's College from 1937 until his death. His other works include Plato's Trilogy: Theaetetus, the Sophist, and the Statesman, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

A Commentary on Plato's Meno

Yitschak Sefati

This volume presents first editions of a variety of cuneiform tablets from the Old Babylonian period belonging to the collection of the late Shlomo Moussaieff. It makes available for the first time three texts representing varying levels of Mesopotamian scribal education. The first is what the authors argue is the most complete copy of the first fifty lines of the standard version of the Sumerian epic Gilgameš and the Bull of Heaven. The second is a hitherto unpublished bilingual (Sumerian-Akkadian) lexical list of unknown provenance, similar to the Proto-Aa syllabary. Each of the 314 entries preserved on this tablet provides a pronunciation gloss, a Sumerian logogram, and an Akkadian translation. A unique feature of this list is that the signs are arranged on the basis of graphic concatenation: each sign contains one of the graphic components of the preceding sign. It also yields a great number of hitherto unknown, synonymous Akkadian translations to the Sumerian logograms. The final chapter contains an edition of two groups of lenticular school tablets, containing thirty-three elementary-level scribal exercises. With this volume, Jacob Klein and Yitschak Sefati preserve and disseminate important artifacts that advance the study of Sumerian literature, Mesopotamian lexicography, and ancient Near Eastern scribal education.

Literary and Scholarly Texts from the Old Babylonian Period

From the Workshop of the Mesopotamian Scribe

The Practice of Commercial [!] Arbitration in Business Disputes

Transcripts of three conversations on liberal education, recorded at a 1977 conference at St. John's College, Santa Fe, are presented. The idea that great books are the best instruments for liberal education is addressed, and it is suggested that great books demonstrate to the student what is possible in the way of inquiry and expression, and that a great book is one that proposes a possible truth. Opinions are voiced regarding whether a book that raises important questions should be included in a curricula, and generally the criteria that are used in determining great books. Attention is directed to the kind of ordering principle that is possible and appropriate for a curriculum of liberal studies, and the question of art and method is raised. The broader issue of the relation of the undergraduate college of liberal arts to the modern university is also addressed, and it is suggested that the student should be taught the habit of inquiring into the foundations of the special disciplines. One view is that each discipline has its own proper methods and that a liberally educated person possesses the methods of the primary disciplines. Another topic of discussion is the purpose of studying works that represent the human figure acting and suffering. It is suggested by the editor that two main educational principles seem to underlie the conversations: the purpose of undergraduate study and the nature of learning. Participants took the position that the proper activity of undergraduate study is liberal education, or general education, and that learning is an activity of the student in which the teacher may be helpful. Liberal education is concerned with the whole range of human knowledge and experience. (SW)

Jacob Klein

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