Why Hermagoras Still Matters: The Fourth Stasis and Interdisciplinarity

Abstract

This paper attempts to revive an ancient idea, Hermagoras's notion of the staseis, emphasizing especially his fourth stasis, that of jurisdiction, which, I contend, is crucial when it comes to answering a class of interesting questions that can be properly addressed only by first addressing the question of intellectual jurisdiction. This class concerns what Thomas Kuhn calls "paradigm change"; in all of these cases, I would contend, four disciplines-philosophy of science, history of science, psychology, and rhetoric-are necessary to any complete explanation.