Some linguicists (see footnote 13 below) avoid all semantic and psychological criteria in their analyses and believe that such criteria play no part, or at least need not play one, in the theoretical foundation of phonemics;

Take, Shepherd, take a Plant of ſtubborn Oak; / And labour him with many a ſturdy ſtroke: / Or with hard Stones, demoliſh from afar / His haughty Creſt, the feat of all the War.

That records Plutarch’s view of engineering, not Arkhimedes’. Plutarch is also wrong: Arkhimedes ‘deigned’ to write a work On sphere-making (which is lost), and The Method (which was rediscovered in 1906). Arkhimedes developed some of his mathematics using a mechanical method, based on the lever principle, by which he could discover mathematical results, which he then set about proving. Moreover, it is highly significant that Arkhimedes wrote about his method.

[T]he plaintiff re-sold the said one hundred and sixty-five bags of Russian and German wool so remaining unaccepted by the defendants and unpaid for by them, by public sale, at and for a much less sum, to wit, the sum of 2000l. less than the sum so agreed to be paid by the defendants for the same; […]