Rome

Burning Rome: cuellar / Jose Maria Cuellar

Rome is the vibrant capital of Italy which has a long and complicated history, dating back to the 8^th century BCE.

Pre-Christian Rome fell in the 5^th century to Germanic invaders. In the 6^th century it became an important center for the Christian Church, with Vatican City on the West bank of the Tiber river.

In 1871 Rome became the capital of modern Italy.

When it was the center of the old Roman Empire, Rome was a symbol of worldly power and also of the cruel persecution of the early Christians. Ironically, the center for the persecution of Christians was to become the center for Christianity and later, as the Protestant revolution arose, for Catholicism.

The historian Arnold Toynbee and several others note that as soon as the Christian Romans gained power, they began persecuting individuals just as the pagan Romans had previously persecuted Christians.

Toynbee believes it was mostly power – and the greed and arrogance that often goes with it – that was responsible for this exceedingly cruel behavior among human beings.

» Acts of the Apostles, Aeneas, Aeneid, Caesar (Julius), Church Fathers,  Mythic Inflation, Romulus and Remus, Vestal Virgin

+ Add / Edit / Opinion

Renaissance

Planisphaerium Ptolemaicum siue machina orbium mundi ex hypothesi Ptolemaica in plano disposita: Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL / http://maps.bpl.org

A term that literally means “rebirth,” the Renaissance brought on a flowering of the arts, early scientific inquiry, literature and scholarship.

It took place in Europe from the 14th to 16th centuries, as the cultural and economic grip of the Christian Church began to weaken.

Instead of mankind following the dictates of authoritarian personalities and their organizational structures, beauty and truth became sought after in fresh new ways.

Because the clergy no longer had a stranglehold on learning, scholarly languages (like Latin, Hebrew and Greek) and all the ideological power that can go along with that, any person with means and abilities was free to ask new questions and try to find meaningful answers.

Some were punished severely for their new found freedoms, as those with power rarely enjoy those who challenge their authoritarian mindsets and related regimes. Others distanced themselves or entirely renounced authoritarian structures so as to minimize any repercussions.

And yet others like Erasmus Desiderius knew how to find balance and equilibrium among competing political forces.

It’s not for us to say whose approach was right or wrong. Each had their own way, just as today some are called to blend in and others to stand out. » Fortuna, Medieval, Scholarship

+ Add / Edit / Opinion

Raga

Raga (Sanskrit = color, tone)

Raga in the Evening: Akira ASKR / AKIRA Asakura

In Indian classical music, a raga is the totality of a set pattern of notes acting as a template that provides a structure for improvisation. When improvising on a raga, the performer is free to change the pitch, volume, tone, timbre, tempo and number of notes but must always begin and end on the same note, as stipulated by the particular raga.

Although ragas are regarded as vehicles for spiritual meditation, they also recall, in an abstract and condensed form, epic stories and actual events from Indian history–e.g. the archetypal motif of arriving home after a lengthy war and finding that one’s lover has died.

Accordingly, many see the raga as a tool for transcendence; for others it is also sublimely emotional.

» Mantra, Orpheus

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion

Descartes, René

Descartes Coffee, Chicago: Larry Miller

Descartes, René (1596-1650)

French lawyer, philosopher and mathematician often hailed as the father of modern philosophy.

While serving in the Bavarian army he devised an ambitious scheme for unifying truth with a rationalistic model based on mathematics, physics and morality as implicated through medicine.

As a philosopher Descartes questioned so many issues that he’s known for his ‘method of doubt,’ outlined in Discours de la Méthode (1637), the Meditationes de prima Philosophia (1641) and the Principia Philosophiae (1644).

Descartes made a fundamental distinction between mind and matter, the latter to include the body. The philosopher Gilbert Ryle said, somewhat pejoratively, that for Descartes the mind is like a “ghost in the machine,” the machine representing the body.

Descartes is probably best known for arguing that the very act of thinking proves one’s existence: cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am). His next question, not unlike that of solipsism, was: “how do I know that the outside world truly exists?”

He was not the first to look at things this way. Thomas Leahey notes that

St. Augustine [354–430 CE] had said, “If I am deceived, I exist,” and Parmenides [515-445 BCE] had said, “For it is the same thing to think and to be.”¹

Descartes’ answer to the problem of truth seeming to be only inside oneself involved God. For Descartes, God exists by necessity. God must exist in order to be perfect. A perfect God also by necessity is Good. And a God that is Good would not deceive his creatures into believing in an outside world if no such thing existed.

Often lampooned by contemporary hack professors for saying the pineal gland mediates among body, mind and soul, we’d do well to remember that this was an innovative attempt on the part of Descartes to explain the relation between body and spirit and arguably a rational choice given the medical knowledge of his day.

In mathematics Descartes developed algebra and contributed to major innovations in geometry.

—

¹Leahey, Thomas H. A History of Psychology, Prentice Hall, 1980, p. 92.

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion

Sophists

Ancient Olympia, Greece: cdnbusiness

Sophists

Independent Greek public speakers of the 5th century BCE, teaching for a fee about politics, philosophy and rhetoric.

Protagoras is usually regarded as the first with Gorgias being another prominent sophist. Wikipedia also lists Prodicus, Hippias, Thrasymachus, Lycophron, Callicles, Antiphon, and Cratylus.

Plato portrays them in his dialogues as foils for the sober, sound argumentation of Socrates.

In the most general sense sophists are usually depicted as denying the existence of ultimate reality and morality in favor of worldly pleasures derived from the senses.

Likewise, they’re often said to reject the Greek gods and advocate the perfection of humanity.

In actual fact, there is no single school of Sophist thought. Plato’s response to the leading Sophists is as complex as are their various positions. Although generally slighted by Plato, the sophists were highly intelligent, contributing to knowledge about linguistics, drama and a prototypical form of applied sociology.

On the Web:

• Video touching on some of the topics that the ancient Greeks debated, topics that carried on to the Middles Ages and to today.

» Baudrillard (Jean, A.)

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion

Sargon

King Sargon II and a Dignatary by Sharon Mollerus

Sargon

The Star Trek franchise arguably has created a modern myth by recasting elements of ancient history, myth and legend in an optimistic, socially progressive future.

Depth psychologists and cultural theorists say that the use of ancient history in storytelling sets off a subconscious resonance, giving a story charm and numinous allure.

Sargon is a good example of this.

In the original Star Trek TV show Sargon is a forceful and intelligent mind residing in a glowing orb who abducts Captain Kirk and plans to inhabit his body.

This fictional Sargon is named after two actual, ancient Sargons. Sargon I was a Babylonian king (2400 BCE). Sargon II was an Assyrian king (around 700 BCE). Both were successful militarists.

On the Web:

Add more, report errors or voice your opinion by commenting

Saint-Simon, Comte Henri de

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon

Saint-Simon, Comte Henri de (1760-1825)

Aristocrat and founder of French socialism, placed in jail during the French Revolution.

Saint-Simon’s writings remain influential in sociology. He had particular impact on the political views of Auguste Comte (1798 – 1857), especially with regard to progress.

Comte in turn influenced Emile Durkheim, one of the founding fathers of Sociology.

Saint-Simon reacted against the brutality of the French Revolution and advocated a society where science and technology would guide the workings of religion and politics.

His work included a belief in God but he wanted to strip away the dogmas of both Protestant and Catholic Christianity to get to the core of Jesus’ message as he saw it. He was particularly interested in the plight of the poor, believing that theory and practice should go hand in hand to elevate all peoples to the highest possible good.

Unfortunately he squandered his money and lived out his last days in severe poverty.

Tumba de Saint Simon by Cosmovisión / Juan Luis Sotillo

Add more, report errors or voice your opinion by commenting

Tokugawa

Tokugawa Ieyasu by jpellgen

Tokugawa

A powerful military family in medieval Japan which held power from 1600-1867.

Under Tokugawa rule society was legitimized with Confucian hierarchical ideals. Social classes were ranked in status with warriors holding the highest position, followed by farmers, then workers and, last, merchants.

This is an interesting variant to the Hindu Caste system. » Confucius, Confucianism

On the Web:

• “This documentary of Tokugawa Ieyasu was made using real pictures of the actual Samurai involved, and their Crests, set to The Lonely Shepard. There was one factual error in the movie, that of course beeing that Oda Nobunaga was not from peasant stock as implied, but that subtitle had been meant Hideyoshi, Toyotomi. Enjoy” (StaggerLeee)

Add more, fix errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion by commenting

Walker, Barbara G.

Goddess/Mortal

Originally uploaded by Elizabeth K

Walker, Barbara G. (1930- )

Feminist writer on mythology, religion and spirituality.

Her Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, although of debatable accuracy in certain places, offers a compensatory perspective to not only chauvinist religious teachings but also to thinkers who tend to ignore Christianity’s ugly past.

From the standpoint of psycho-history, past atrocities tend to reemerge in novel, equally frightening forms as long as the underlying psychological dynamics remain unconscious.

While some contemporary researchers emphasize visible influences and conscious instead of unconscious motivation in their study of mankind, Thomas A Kohut says

Because it is not possible to comprehend people without dealing with the psychological, historians, including those critical of psychohistory, have always written about it, even if they have rarely acknowledged the fact.

Thomas A. Kohut, “Psychohistory as History,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 91, No. 2 (Apr., 1986: 336-354), p. 352.

In the 1970’s Walker worked on a telephone hotline for battered women and pregnant teenagers. This spurred an interest in feminism and perhaps contributed to her unique perspective on myth, religion and spirituality.

To this Rose White adds:

[Walker made] enormous contributions to female intellectual empowerment through her many collections of knitted stitch patterns. Of course her work benefited all knitters, not just women, but at the time she was writing, nearly all knitters were women.

The point of view which guided her to collect and produce her anthologies of stitch patterns was this: Crafters should not be beholden to crappy commercial garment designs, but should have the means to create their own original works. She has been an inspiration to multiple generations of knitters, and these books are still in print 40 years later. » See in context

And Mary Treherne comments about sex-role stereotypes and religion in general:

A change in the psycho-sexual paradigm of human nature, and the whole ‘chemistry’ of human relationship is taking place with a wholly new interpretation of the moral teachings of Christ, one that threatens to bring down the whole of ‘christian’ history and tradition and a lot more besides. To be truly free is to be free for an ignorance within human nature itself.

Anyone able to free themselves of their prejudices, who is interested in real progress that history has thus far denied us, should check out: http://www.energon.org.uk » See in context

» Diana, Goddess vs. goddess, Neo-Paganism, Persephone, Torture, Witch, Witches Hammer, Inquisitions

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion by posting a comment

Voltaire

Voltaire at Madame Tussauds in London

Originally uploaded by mharrsch

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Psuedonym of French satirist François-Marie Arouet, regarded as the harbinger of the Enlightenment.

His work Candide sharply criticizes the philosopher Leibniz’s view that God created the best of all possible worlds.

In that work the character Dr. Pangloss is a mouthpiece for the Leibnizian view; Pangloss clings to this positive philosophical outlook despite horrendous personal sufferings.

Voltaire himself was a deist, believing in God but only in terms of natural, observable laws. He once said “heaven is where I am.”

He deplored fanaticism, especially that of the masses. In fact, he writes at length about the merits of polite society in contrast to the laboring classes.

There is always, within a nation, a people that has no contact with polite society, which does not belong to the age, which is inaccessible to the progress of reason and over whom fanaticism maintains its atrocious hold…It is not the laborer one should educate, but the good bourgeois, the tradesman.¹

A bumper sticker thought by Voltaire

Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez

Although Voltaire distrusted the notion of democracy, favoring rule of the enlightened monarch, his satirical political letters earned him a beating and imprisonment for eleven months in the Bastille.

Finding favor, however, with Mme de Pompadour he became historiographer to Louis XV and continued to write voluminously to several notables, rising to become one of the most prominent figures in Europe.

—

¹ Cited in Norman Hampson, The Enlightenment (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976, p. 160).

» Candide, Deism, Juvenal, Gottfried, Wilhelm, Parallel Universes

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion by posting a comment