Can we Predict the onset of a Philosophical Epoch?
Is there a correlation between common views of existence and morality in art and philosophy? What mytho-poetic preconditions must exist for a philosophical / theory to change the face of morality in a particular time and place and have that change endure and subsist past that regime? Does art come first or philosophy?
Would any philosopher's arguments have as much moral force if they were argued in different times or places? Could a philosopher even come up with their theories unless they are in a certain intellectual climate?
To answer these questions, I have outlined a brief theory below, the genealogy of greco-roman beliefs:
Homeric Era
Aristocracy - rule of the Strong. Many gods to explain that the Good is duty, honor, strength, and virtue as excellence. Heros are venerated. The largest insult is the defacement of a dead enemy, the taking of their women, their possession, their children, and their very memory, if possible. The dead bodies of enemy heros defaced, because the people of that time (despite all of their worshipping of spirits and divinities) know that the only immortality a man truly has is the reputation of him in the memory of those who survive him.
Further, in this time there is no effective system of government due to technological shortcomings - anyone can more easily conjure up an army of formidable warriors, because being a formidable army in this time consists more of raw physical will and strength rather than training and economic resources. And when there is no solid system of government, all men have to judge one another by is their word and their will. With no laws and no powerfully government to enforce them, all a regime has is its heros, and all men have is their reputation. A reputation is what keeps the regime safe - Achilles will save us because he is Achilles. Hence, due to the instability and rareness of true heroes, regimes fall often and tragically.
There is no philosophy per se, there is no need nor leisure time to discover what to do with our lives - there are no options to consider. This is the city of necessity and everyone knows their place and is more or less resigned to their fate. If Homer wrote, or the Trojan War happened, in approximately 1500 BCE (or so I read, although no one knows for sure), then there is about 1000 years of that morality until ancient Athens and I'm assuming this view more or less predominated these kingdoms until that latter time.
Ancient Athens
Democracy - Rule of the Herd. There has been a shift in views of morality, what exists, what is valued ie: The Good and all its relations. Knowledge as Content refines and knowledge as form refines at one point, but only in a tiny, tiny few. The poles become distinct. Everyone is not aware of their place and many try to improve it, or seek to disbelieve that any rational account can be given at all.
The rest are worse off, they are like children (not completely, but partially). There is a growing cancer in their collective virtue, yet it is still venerated and much sought after. The democracy is destroyed from corruption within and enemies without. Yet, 500 years after the first philosophic martyr (Socrates), the platonic pre-conditions of Christianity are born within it (Ancient Greece) and survive philosophically uncontested for another 1000 - 1500 years. So, there is Platonism for 500 years until it morphs into mono-theism (Christianity).
Modernity to Post-modernity
Morality shifts again - into political effectiveness. From one God to no God. All traces of the old regime are swept away despite the attempted "rebirth" of classical ideas. 500 years to formulate with post-modernity at it's end.
Our era.
No gods - except banal physical things and moronic appeals to authority of god-given rights when the majority no longer believe in a God. And whatever succeeds our era will last for another 1000 - 1500 years, if the pattern holds.
This, of course, is highly circumspect and does not include middle eastern views / genealogy or Chinese which may very well usurp us, but what caused the shifts in views or Epochs in Alexandrian culture? What will our shift be? Back to virtue as excellence? Back to humans as "human" as possible, or humans as ape like as possible? Because (as Machiavelli knew) apes are easier to control and predict than humans.
It seems, Philosophy as an endeavor is a self-fulfilling prophecy. A regime only has it if it needs it. It only needs it if it has it. Complicated or consistent rational explanation or questioning was not possible in Homeric times because the a) leisure time to actively pursue it did not exist and the b) technology required to do it (writing, advanced language) did not exist. More importantly, however, it was not required or even desirable. Could Hector really question his place in Troy and its defense? What would have that really meant? He couldn't bare his memory to be spoiled even in the face of Achilles, even knowing what would happen to his wife and child and what is was doing to his father.
Humans did what they did. What they willed to do, because when it comes down to it, a human's will is all that a human has. To Will against the gods is all we can do, for they will win in the end. The lack of effective government and technology merely made this the only dignified option available. Live up to the reputation of your forebears, if possible.
But now that we had philosophy, now we must finish it. Now we exist in spite of nature, not with it. Now we must have the ennobling mytho-poetic accounts AND rational explanation, the rational search, to back it up and underpin it, if this is possible.
...
Would any philosopher's arguments have as much moral force if they were argued in different times or places? Could a philosopher even come up with their theories unless they are in a certain intellectual climate?
To answer these questions, I have outlined a brief theory below, the genealogy of greco-roman beliefs:
Homeric Era
Aristocracy - rule of the Strong. Many gods to explain that the Good is duty, honor, strength, and virtue as excellence. Heros are venerated. The largest insult is the defacement of a dead enemy, the taking of their women, their possession, their children, and their very memory, if possible. The dead bodies of enemy heros defaced, because the people of that time (despite all of their worshipping of spirits and divinities) know that the only immortality a man truly has is the reputation of him in the memory of those who survive him.
Further, in this time there is no effective system of government due to technological shortcomings - anyone can more easily conjure up an army of formidable warriors, because being a formidable army in this time consists more of raw physical will and strength rather than training and economic resources. And when there is no solid system of government, all men have to judge one another by is their word and their will. With no laws and no powerfully government to enforce them, all a regime has is its heros, and all men have is their reputation. A reputation is what keeps the regime safe - Achilles will save us because he is Achilles. Hence, due to the instability and rareness of true heroes, regimes fall often and tragically.
There is no philosophy per se, there is no need nor leisure time to discover what to do with our lives - there are no options to consider. This is the city of necessity and everyone knows their place and is more or less resigned to their fate. If Homer wrote, or the Trojan War happened, in approximately 1500 BCE (or so I read, although no one knows for sure), then there is about 1000 years of that morality until ancient Athens and I'm assuming this view more or less predominated these kingdoms until that latter time.
Ancient Athens
Democracy - Rule of the Herd. There has been a shift in views of morality, what exists, what is valued ie: The Good and all its relations. Knowledge as Content refines and knowledge as form refines at one point, but only in a tiny, tiny few. The poles become distinct. Everyone is not aware of their place and many try to improve it, or seek to disbelieve that any rational account can be given at all.
The rest are worse off, they are like children (not completely, but partially). There is a growing cancer in their collective virtue, yet it is still venerated and much sought after. The democracy is destroyed from corruption within and enemies without. Yet, 500 years after the first philosophic martyr (Socrates), the platonic pre-conditions of Christianity are born within it (Ancient Greece) and survive philosophically uncontested for another 1000 - 1500 years. So, there is Platonism for 500 years until it morphs into mono-theism (Christianity).
Modernity to Post-modernity
Morality shifts again - into political effectiveness. From one God to no God. All traces of the old regime are swept away despite the attempted "rebirth" of classical ideas. 500 years to formulate with post-modernity at it's end.
Our era.
No gods - except banal physical things and moronic appeals to authority of god-given rights when the majority no longer believe in a God. And whatever succeeds our era will last for another 1000 - 1500 years, if the pattern holds.
This, of course, is highly circumspect and does not include middle eastern views / genealogy or Chinese which may very well usurp us, but what caused the shifts in views or Epochs in Alexandrian culture? What will our shift be? Back to virtue as excellence? Back to humans as "human" as possible, or humans as ape like as possible? Because (as Machiavelli knew) apes are easier to control and predict than humans.
It seems, Philosophy as an endeavor is a self-fulfilling prophecy. A regime only has it if it needs it. It only needs it if it has it. Complicated or consistent rational explanation or questioning was not possible in Homeric times because the a) leisure time to actively pursue it did not exist and the b) technology required to do it (writing, advanced language) did not exist. More importantly, however, it was not required or even desirable. Could Hector really question his place in Troy and its defense? What would have that really meant? He couldn't bare his memory to be spoiled even in the face of Achilles, even knowing what would happen to his wife and child and what is was doing to his father.
Humans did what they did. What they willed to do, because when it comes down to it, a human's will is all that a human has. To Will against the gods is all we can do, for they will win in the end. The lack of effective government and technology merely made this the only dignified option available. Live up to the reputation of your forebears, if possible.
But now that we had philosophy, now we must finish it. Now we exist in spite of nature, not with it. Now we must have the ennobling mytho-poetic accounts AND rational explanation, the rational search, to back it up and underpin it, if this is possible.
...
posted by JB @ 8:34 PM
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