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Thank you for the many cites. I fear I may have taken my query a bit off-track with the word "stochastic". In physics (and finance too) it refers to systems that adhere to statistical rules, which is to say, probabilistic properties of populations. And that's the bit that seems to me anathema to Platonism and its reflection of macrocosm and microcosm--the patterns of the entire universe in each individual soul. Stochastic processes care nothing about the fates of individuals; they give odds for groups (and the smart money's on those odds). So much for meaning; in our stochastic universe it is wholly epiphenomenal. Anyway, I can't but think that this new epistemology counted for one or more nails in Platonism's coffin, but I've got no smoking gun, just mixed metaphors. Ken Perlow Khem Caigan wrote: > Ken Perlow doth schreibble : >> > <SNIPS> >> It was the discovery of a stochastic universe, which not only accepted >> but mathematically defined the concept of randomness--anathema to >> Platonism. > > " Technai share a special characteristic, which Ptolemy > pointed to when he described astrology as a stochastic > techne. " > > ~ from : > > /The Rehabilitation of Wretched Subjects/ > by Liba Taub > > in: > > *Early Science and Medicine*, > Vol. 2, No. 1 (1997), pages 74-87. > > *Astrology as a Stochastic Art* > by Dorian Greenbaum > Warburg Institute > > Abstract > > The dictionary definition of 'stochastic' relates > it to conjecture, a kind of informed guessing. > > Modern connotation of 'stochastic' finds it linked > to statistics, probability and random values. But > the roots of this word show interesting connections > to both the art of aiming, and to divination: a > stochastes is a diviner. > > The verb from which 'stochastic' comes, stochazomai, > means to aim or shoot at, and so implies the art > of archery. Stochastic arts in the ancient world > included both medicine and rhetoric. > > Can we classify astrology as a stochastic art? > > This paper will explore astrology as an art of > aiming and conjecture, and look at evidence of > stochastic ways of thinking by ancient astrologers. > http://tinyurl.com/25s4a4n > > [ forthcoming :'Arrows, Aiming and Divination: > Astrology as a Stochastic Art', in : > *Divination – Perspectives for a New Millennium*, > ed. Patrick Curry, London (Ashgate) ] > > " The Tropical Points of the Zodiacal Year > and the Paranatellonta in Manilius' *Astronomica* " > by Wolfgang Hübner > > Abstract > > The three different values given by Manilius for > the equinoxes and solstices (8°, 10° and 1°, i.e. > 0°) are critical for the placement of the extra- > zodiacal constellations on the ecliptic in Book 5: > The Arrow at Libra 8° (the autumnal equinox) signifies > the 'stochastic art' of both archers and astrologers. > > ( .PDF ) http://tinyurl.com/22vk5yf > > See also : > > *The Astrological Origin of Islamic Geomancy* > by Wim van Binsbergen ( .PDF ) > http://tinyurl.com/36kpvf8 > > *Rhetoric, Science, & Magic* > *in Seventeenth-Century England* > by Ryan J. Stark, 2009. > ( Preview @GoogleBooks ) > http://tinyurl.com/39bv3mt > > Cors in Manu Domine, > > > ~ Khem Caigan > <[log in to unmask]> > > "Heat and Moisture are Active to Generation; > Cold and Dryness are Passive, in and to each Thing; > Fire and Air, Active by Elementation; > Water and Earth, Passive to Generation." > > *Of the Division of Chaos* > -Dr. Simon Forman