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Aeschilus Paradox

  Let me insist on the scope of the concept of individuation, for it is fundamental to understand the structure of myth.
 In Agamemnon (verse 757), Aeschilus expresses, paradoxically, what is probably the first register of the social context of the phenomenon of individuation: I have my own mind, separated from the others.[1] The fact that we understand what he is saying is a proof of its falsity, for an isolated mind could not make itself understood.

         1. I cannot think or express my individuation without a language.
          2. Languages are group constructions, never individual.
               Therefore, I cannot think or express my individuation with individual terms.
               But when I think or express my individuation, the group does not articulate my voice.

The paradox is solved if we understand that identities are narrations. My individual body is a narration (just have a look to the narratives of Anima Mundi about the human body, and compare it with those of molecular biology), and the identities of my group and my persona, are narrations.
We can only think individuation in social terms, or, with other words: individual identity is a question of communication and social action.



[1] Verse 757. Aeschilus Tragedies. Harvard-Heineman. London and Cambridge (Mass.) 1983. P.165.

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