Mythos

  • Stonehenge Explained

    Built on the site of an ancient cemetery, Stonehenge was a “monument of remembrance,” he said, and an “expression of unity” that pulled people together in the pursuit of a common endeavor. Yet, he said, “People don’t want it to be that simple as an explanation.” (NY Times 2/17/22) The U.S. Capitol explained 2500 years

    read more

  • Genealogy Part 6: Vervaeke’s “Awakening” Series v. My “Genealogy” Series

    Plato lived at a time when the inner crisis of the traditional Greek polis and the religion intimately bound up with it had become evident, and there seems to be no reason to deny that this had a profound effect on his decision to abandon the public arena to cultivate the wisdom necessary to build

    read more

  • Genealogy Part 4A: Of Salience Landscapes and Metaphysical Imaginaries

    I had been struggling about how to present what I want to say about Western Axiality in a way that might make some sense when I came across this lecture series by the Canadian cognitive scientist John Vervaeke entitled "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis". (His Lecture 10, which is relevant for Posts 4A and 4B

    read more

  • Genealogy Part 3: Axiality and the Socratic Elenchus

    Rather than proceed in some linear fashion with the genealogy of the title, I want to explore first the claim made in Part 2 concerning the legitimacy of knowledge on the vertical–or Wisdom–dimension. Without first having established that, I think it's very difficult to understand why the originary Mythos of the West–Christian Neoplatonism–worked for so

    read more

  • In the meanwhile…

    Yesterday I wrote about what I believe has to happen in the long run if the machines aren't going to win. By the machines winning I mean that we're at a balance point where technological development can go one way or the other: either the machines will serve human needs or humans will come to

    read more