Ecumene
The ecumene is a geographical concept to indicate the whole of the grounds anthropized are (inhabited or exploited by the Homme). The modern meaning of the word generally relates to the whole Humanité but the word had more targeted significances, in particular at more remote periods: ancient Greek ground ( Terra cognita = known grounds), Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire…
In fact, the ecumene has a reality vaster than the simple whole of the inhabited grounds, the term includes/understands also the relation of the man to inhabited space, a kind of including to the Karl Jaspers which would attack the geography. Because the concept of ecumene cannot be detached from an ontological reflection, if the human being is created with its temporality as Bergson showed it, it is also created with its spatiality, its vision personal of the space which it adapts. Thus the ecumene is detached from the simple geography to enter of full foot philosophy to be it, as stuck to show it Augustin Berque in his work.
Etymology
" οἰκουμένη" verb " οἰκω" (" I habite"). The word shares this etymology with the words ecology and economy .
The chart of the ecumene
By astronomical observations and measurements, Ératostène managed to measure the terrestrial sphere partially and to draw up the chart of its known inhabited part at the time. For Ératostène, and as before him Aristote thought it, the ecumene was a gigantic island, surrounded by a single Océan, on the surface of a spherical Ground .
The layout of the plane chart of the world, remote ancestor of our Geography, was done according to two orthogonal axes: the metric description (correspondent with our modern Latitude) and the periegetic description (the Longitude). The metric description , relatively precise, consisted in tracing the Méridien Méroé with Thulé, over a length of 30.000 stages. The periegetic description was much less precise, being pressed only on heteroclite materials (testimonys of tours). The chart of Ératostène was supplemented by a topographic description and remarks on the human activity and the economy.
The ecumene occupied only one quarter of the surface of the terrestrial sphere, extending from the Pillars of Hercules in the west with the columns of Alexandre in the east, on a distance from approximately 120 to 180 °.
The terrestrial sphere
Towards 220 av. J. - C., Ératostène described the terrestrial sphere in five parallel zones: the heat wave , band centered on the equator, two polar icecaps , with each poles, and two moderate zones , ranging between the heat wave and the polar icecaps.
Philosophical use
The Ecumene indicating the civilized world, it is possible that (too much) a long time the occident cut out the ecumene of philosophy by excluding some the Indian Philosophie, the Chinese Philosophie and the Japanese Philosophie. One finds this use of the concept at Bernard Stevens, which for its part takes it again with Augustin Berque.
Note
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