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LLOYD, G.E.R., Demystifying Mentalities. Cambridge University Press, 1993. Reprint 1st ed. VIII,174p. Paperback. Ex libris Prof. Horstmanshoff glued to half title. ‘In this study G.E.R. Lloyd explores the rhetoric of discourse in which early Greek scientific concepts were expressed. He begins by questioning the validity of Lévy-Bruhl’s influential concept of ‘mentalities’ as it applies to Greek society. Lloyd argues that the notion is not merely vague and ambiguous, (…) but that it ignores the critical problem of how an observer’s own value-laden categories can significantly distort the interpretation of the actor’s beliefs. Lloyds proceeds to a discussion of Greek medicine as a representative example of the development of Greek science. He focuses on the difficulty of distinguishing clearly between the literal and metaphorical intent of the counterintuitive or paradoxical statements that are frequently found in Greek literature. (…) he points out that Greek science and philosophy developed in the context debate, both intellectual and political, and cannot be understood apart from the adversarial and agonistic elements that were so much a part of Greek life. (…) Lloyd continues his theme in Chapter 2 by arguing that the earliest Greek science deliberately sought to contrast itself with mythical and magical modes of expression in order to define and legitimate itself. (…) In Chapter 3 he examines the way in which the concept of proof was first made explicit in Greek thought. (…) In Chapter 4 Lloyd asks whether the same kinds of factors that were operative in the formation of Greek photo-science are also to be found in ancient Chinese science. This is the least satisfactory chapter of the book. (…) But Lloyd is always provocative, and he ranges widely over Chinese, Vedic as well as classical cultures.’ (GARY B. FERNGREN in Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 1994, pp.437-438). € 20.00 (Antiquarian) ISBN: 9780521366809