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The Greek way of Mind

Fatalism

• Humans exist outside of the natural and divine matrix• Events are predetermined by Fate• Resignation• Submission• There is no free will because fate cannot be changed• It is God’s will.

Fatalism

• Acteon saw Artemis• There was nothing he could have done…

• Oedipus killed his father• There was nothing he could have done…

• Somebody else won the lottery• There is nothing you can do.

Fatalism

The Gods

NaturalWorld

Humans

Determinism

• The universe operates by a set of natural and unalterable laws of cause and effect.

• Events are the result of other events and circumstances

• Human choices and actions are conditioned by these circumstances

• Free will is an illusion, even for gods.

Determinism

Gods

NaturalWorld

Humans

Responsibility

• Are Fatalism and Determinism not abrogation of responsibility?

• “Its not my fault… it is the will of the gods.”

• If we can praise the divine for good…must we not blame the divine for the bad?

Personalism

• Humans are individuals possessed of free will• Free will means self-determination• But if humans are the agents of their own fates, are they

also responsible for anything that happens to them?

Existential Personalism

Gods

NaturalWorld

Humans

Humanism

• Man is the measure of all things.• Our perception of the natural and the divine are merely

conveniences of our own creation.• We create reality to suit our needs.

Greek Zeitgeist

• Divine law can be known.• If divine law is absolute, the best course is to live within divine

law• Yes, the gods are fickle, but they usually act in accordance with

divine law

Three Maxims

ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝΜΗ∆ΕΝ ΑΓΑΝ

ΕΓΓΥΑ ΠΑΡΑ ∆ ΑΤΑ

• Know yourself• Nothing in Excess

• An oath sworn will be your ruin

Kouros

The Tragic Trilogy

• Hubris• Pride, entitlement, a sense of superiority.

• Ate• Foolishness, recklessness

• Nemesis• Divine retribution

Hubris

Sequences

• “As the old proverb goes, the beginning is half of the whole”

( Plato, Politics 1303b.29)

• “The beginning is more than half of the whole” (Aristotle. Nic. Eth. 1098b)

Inevitable Outcome Sequencing

• If nature functions in patterns and sequences, is the sequence inevitable?

• The snowball effect• Does the avalanche prove the snowball?• Solon: “we must look to the end of all things…”

Passions and Accidents

• Is beauty a metaphor for hybris?• The Greeks celebrated the human body in stories of passions

and accidents.• Passion is not just about lust and pleasure, but also about pain.

Passions and

Accidents

Passions and

Accidents

Prescriptions?

• Does it not seem more likely that the myth cycle and the Dramas that illustrate it, are prescriptions against behaviour that leads to tragedy?

Or… Power Relations

Gods

NaturalWorld

Rulers

Ruled

Questions to Consider

• Do these myths explain power to the powerless?• Do the myths justify that the powerful may act towards the

powerless as the gods act towards them?• Does religion use the divine to establish relations of power

between humans?• Do they tell us anything about the human condition?• Or are they just fun stories?