From myth to reason?
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (GB) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780198152347 |
| Open Library | OL18435369W |
| Total publications | 6 |
| Coverage period | 1999 - 1999 |
| Language | EN |
"It has often been asserted that Greek civilization underwent a transition from myth to reason. But what does such an assertion mean? And how much truth is there in it? Were the Greeks special in having evolved 'our' sort of reason, or is that a mirage?" "In this book, some of the world's leading experts on ancient Greek myth, religion, philosophy, and history reconsider these fundamental issues." "This wide-ranging but coherent exploration of a theme should prove of value to scholars and graduate students in the fields of Hellenic studies, ancient philosophy, ancient history, anthropology, and sociology."--Jacket.
Myth, History, and Dialectic in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus-Critias
Among the dichotomies which the dichotomic theme of this volume inevitably generates is the opposition–all too easily posited–between the rational and the irrational. For the present paper I have taken a theme, the mythology of technology, which seems to bridge that opposition. Whatever Plato might have thought and said about it, technélars was, for most of antiquity, a procedure about which rational discourse was the rule. It is not surprising t…
What is a Muthos for Plato?
‘We cannot tell (nor could Plato himself have told) where the figure or myth ends and the philosophical truth begins.’This comment of Benjamin Jowett’s on the Timaeus encapsulates the problem which I shall be considering in this paper: what constitutes muthos for Plato, and how far can we speak of Platonic myth as something separable from Platonic philosophy?I shall begin by summarizing the discussion of myth in Republic book 2, where the questio…
Myth, History, and Dialectic in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus-Critias
The purpose of this paper is to explore, with the help of one central example, some aspects of the interplay between the notions of muthos, centred on the sense of the ‘fictional’, and logos, or whatever term might be used to denote the opposed category of the non-fictional, in Plato. My example is one that Penelope Murray also refers to in her contribution to the present volume: the construction of the ideal city of the Republic, and what seemst…
From Logos to Mythos
Some readers, perhaps, will be startled by my title. And under-standably: after all, they will long have been familiar with the idea that the development of mankind as a whole has tended to follow a trajectory leading from Mythos to Logos, and will have learned that a development of this sort not only took place in ancient Greece but has also been one of the most important parts of the legacy of the Classical world to Western civilization. Such a…
Rationalization and Disenchantment in Ancient Greece
Every attempt at periodization in history carries the danger of dividing the flow of time into a strict before and after. Naturally, we would all claim to be aware of this problem, but experience teaches that it is hard to escape such easy categorizations. In any case, a certain truth can hardly be denied to important distinctions such as that represented by the concept of the Renaissance or, even more clearly, that of the Enlightenment. The oppo…
From Myth to Reason
It has often been asserted that Greek civilization underwent a transition from myth to reason. But what does such an assertion mean? And how much truth is there in it? Were the Greeks special in having evolved our sort of reason, or is that a mirage? In this book, some of the world's leading experts on ancient Greek myth, religion, philosophy, and history reconsider these fundamental issues. Among the problems they explore are: the history of the…
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Myth, History, and Dialectic in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus-Critias
Among the dichotomies which the dichotomic theme of this volume inevitably generates is the opposition–all too easily posited–between the rational and the irrational. For the present paper I have taken a theme, the mythology of technology, which seems to bridge that opposition. Whatever Plato might have thought and said about it, technélars was, for most of antiquity, a procedure about which rational discourse was the rule. It is not surprising t…
What is a Muthos for Plato?
‘We cannot tell (nor could Plato himself have told) where the figure or myth ends and the philosophical truth begins.’This comment of Benjamin Jowett’s on the Timaeus encapsulates the problem which I shall be considering in this paper: what constitutes muthos for Plato, and how far can we speak of Platonic myth as something separable from Platonic philosophy?I shall begin by summarizing the discussion of myth in Republic book 2, where the questio…
Myth, History, and Dialectic in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus-Critias
The purpose of this paper is to explore, with the help of one central example, some aspects of the interplay between the notions of muthos, centred on the sense of the ‘fictional’, and logos, or whatever term might be used to denote the opposed category of the non-fictional, in Plato. My example is one that Penelope Murray also refers to in her contribution to the present volume: the construction of the ideal city of the Republic, and what seemst…
From Logos to Mythos
Some readers, perhaps, will be startled by my title. And under-standably: after all, they will long have been familiar with the idea that the development of mankind as a whole has tended to follow a trajectory leading from Mythos to Logos, and will have learned that a development of this sort not only took place in ancient Greece but has also been one of the most important parts of the legacy of the Classical world to Western civilization. Such a…
Rationalization and Disenchantment in Ancient Greece
Every attempt at periodization in history carries the danger of dividing the flow of time into a strict before and after. Naturally, we would all claim to be aware of this problem, but experience teaches that it is hard to escape such easy categorizations. In any case, a certain truth can hardly be denied to important distinctions such as that represented by the concept of the Renaissance or, even more clearly, that of the Enlightenment. The oppo…
From Myth to Reason
It has often been asserted that Greek civilization underwent a transition from myth to reason. But what does such an assertion mean? And how much truth is there in it? Were the Greeks special in having evolved our sort of reason, or is that a mirage? In this book, some of the world's leading experts on ancient Greek myth, religion, philosophy, and history reconsider these fundamental issues. Among the problems they explore are: the history of the…