About the Book
A metaphoric excavation of the thought of the shadowy Greek philosopher, Leukippus, founder of atomic theory, which forms the basis of our modern age. For Leukippus, humanness was still a part of nature, not standing in contradiction to or superior to the nonhuman world. Humanity lived by the ordinances that ruled all things; ethics was implicit. Law was nourished by natural law. Although removed from the modern conception of the physical sciences, he sought ideas capable of comprehending the world and the mind, of understanding the whole, as well as each individual. The author justifies his synthesis of thought: "Other commentators warn their readers not to see not to see modern implications in ancient speculative theories-perhaps rightly so-but there is a greater danger that, in the midst of calculation, regard for the imagination and the importance of history may suffer, and a dull, philosophical amnesia may turn our efforts in circles." The ideas of Leukippus are still meaningful today, and have implications for morality and politics, even if the terminology and the science do not fit perfectly. The author presents fragments of thought, where a part is monument to the whole thought, conveying the absence, but bringing an exhilarating presence--not really needing more. The broken format contributes a poignancy and quality of modernity that a completely reconstruction would lack. Incomplete passages, whose original context is lost, lend a mysterious quality to the fragments and invite the imagination to fit possibilities to them. The fragments present half of a dialogue that readers are free to enter; they face the same questions raised in the texts: being, time, growth and decay, love and death, language, and thought.
About the Author: A. M. Caratheodory was born at the time of the largest solar eruption ever recorded-a fact he discovered when he became interested in astronomy. After basic schooling in Virginia, he attended the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he studied astrophysics. His work on mathematical models of stars received awards from NSF, NASA, USN, USAF, Goddard Institute, Bausch & Lomb, among others. Dropping out of school as a conscientious objector and peace activist, he was drafted. He enlisted in the Air Force, working as a microwave researcher, satellite track technician, medical corpsman, and janitor. After an honorary discharge, he worked as an observer, research assistant, then research associate in astrophysics for a number of installations, including Cambridge Research Labs, Lunar and Planetary Lab, and Steward Observatory. After three federal budget cuts suggested a change in careers, he worked at a series of jobs that included artist's model, lifeguard, truck driver, dishwasher, gardener, bookstore clerk, library supervisor, gymnastics teacher, printer, book editor, opera set painter, animal hospital attendant, television repairman, auto mechanic's apprentice, and computer engineer. Returning to school, he took courses in anthropology, economics, psychology, biology, and ecology, before finishing his terminal degree in astrophysics. He works as a consultant for an observatory in Chile, where he is also a forest activist in the Beech forests of Tierra del Fuego. Finding that his experience followed Auden's prescription for poets, he has written in poetic, as well as scientific, forms. He has been published in numerous local, regional, and international journals; since 1984, he has worked only on book-length themes. His book Fragments was a finalist in the National Poetry Series for 1994. He continues to work hard to keep to the dictates of Wordsworth and Novalis to be a good poet.
