Re: [-empyre-] multi-perspectival / cultural hegemony of space

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

Just want to say I agree with John here - Saul Kripke wrote a book,
Meaning and Necessity, in which he discusses possible worlds, and
argues for 'natural kinds' - that water is wet on any possible world,
etc. etc. There are natural properties assigned proper names.

There are signs of 'renaissance' perspective all over the place by the
way - some older Japanese 'aerial' paintings, Pompeiian landscapes,
etc. etc. I think medieval work was dealing with something else, an
ideology of iconography. The very few maps and diagrams I've seen of
cathedral architecture from that period were as much cartesian mapping
as anything we use today -

Alan

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