Mythopoetics

  I thought it was rather curious that one of the few Greek kings of the Iliad that returns home alive, the blond Menelaus, was killed by Eric Bana at the doors of sacred Troy as a prelude to the war. The version, indubitably unsuitable for the rapsodos of the Mycenaean courts –which sang the myth to the heirs of the Atreidai- would have surprised greatly Homer for -as Borges noticed- Paris and Hellene are but a footnote to the epic. Hollywood’s versions of classical myths have always produced the condescending smile of theorists of culture and historians. To Adorno and Horkheimer [ Dialectic of Enlightenment ], culture industry was a form of mass deception. However, in order to have a deception we need to have a real thing which is being supplanted, and in relation to the Iliad (and myth in general) there is not such a thing. Besides the fact that on the big screen we are only seeing Brad Pitt and never Achilles (Hollywood actors are always themselves, in opposition to what trage...

A concept like this, entertained by mainstream physics, is problematic even as a metaphor, for it is postulating some sort of   sacred text  for reality (R). Beyond the obvious paradoxes -like the one that says that the set of postulates which conforms the theory would contain itself as a postulate- such Pythagorean proposal mistakes the model for the modelled thing. Theories are conceptual models, at best, consistent with their own principles, but not necessarily with our basic intuitions and conceptions (Lebenswelt). An example of this is the mathematical discipline of Analysis, whose foundations sustain the edifice of physics. The difference between the original and the model, something purportedly solved by the traditional platonic appeal to the imperfection of the human sphere in relation to the sphere of the gods, has been expressed in contemporary epistemology as the asymptotic approximation of our science to truth (or reality). But in relation to TE, their suppo...

The obvious linguistic dimension of myth  is not exempt from philosophical problems. The first approximation to the relation between language and myth would make us think that the latter is a species of the former, for there are communicative forms, like a political constitution, or a mathematical reasoning , that, in principle, do not create scenarios with categories  of traditional myths . However, if we examine a political constitution in more detail, we can see scenarios that in a direct or derived manner make reference to mythological settings. Thus, for instance, in the Constitution of Athens , [1] underlying the comments of Aristotle  concerning the administrative proceedings of democracy  itself and the laws, we find concepts such as those of Diké , justice , or Eunomía , order, that appear in Hesiod ’s poem as the consorts of Zeus , [2] addressing to a specific mythological world. In fact, the poems of Solon  that appear in the Aristotelian ...

   La neurociencia afectiva muestra que las congregaciones humanas son fuentes de opiáceos internos para el individuo. Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus , dice el viejo dogma de la Iglesia Católica, fuera de la Iglesia no hay salvación , o salud, u opio. La misma Iglesia se encargó siempre de que el adagio se cumpliera al pie de la letra, quitando la salud a cualquiera que la contradijera. El grupo es sacrosanto, cualquier mono lo sabe, pero no el grupo rival. Naciones e Iglesias ceden hoy bajo el peso de las comunidades virtuales en nuestra nueva Edad Media. Estas luchas de poder entre señores feudales (corporaciones) y reyes (naciones) son mediadas por la nueva Ecclesia Cibernáutica que tiene la última palabra sobre masallases al controlar la memoria colectiva. Agotado por las recurrentes metafísicas de la ley universal, echo de menos una vida mejor que nunca hubo, una Atenas que no mate o exilie por no creer en los dioses, un mundo capaz de vivir sin la superstición del dinero,...

According to Kant the concept of genius has only validity in the artistic realm, not in the scientific. We can reach the immaculate intellectual heights of Saint Einstein of Princeton [he uses the example of another father of the Church of Geniuses (Saint Newton), although it works for our purposes] by simply reasoning orderly and hard enough, but we could never reach the heights of the artistic geniuses, for they are nature’s voice transmitting a transcendental message. Today we have extended the adjective not only to scientists, but also to race horses, as Robert Musil noticed in his wonderful book. Life is intelligence (adaptation and overcoming   of problems) as much in the bacteria as in our more complex symbolic creations. The narrative of the genius is no more that the modern myth to justify priestly beliefs of social stratification, old schemes in new disguises. In order to maintain the ideal of arête (excellence) (we are symbolic creatures and need a continuous pro...

According to Putnam’s Platonic ontology, reality is not a part of human mind, rather the human mind is a part -and a small part at that- of reality . [1] It is fascinating to see how the ancient proclamations of a universal and transcendental law keep still all their strength in our society. Ontological assumptions cannot be discussed in terms of formal logic, for they are the very grounds of any possible discussion. Concepts such as whole , part , reality , are pre-valued in our acritical Lebenswelt knowledge, and even at a more basic neurophysiological level. It is obvious that we are a small piece within a huge scenario, but the cosmos is not something independent of our thinking: if it were we could not place ourselves in any relation to it. When we read Putnam’s words, we confound the experience of our life in an historical community (with a given scientific knowledge) with the concept of reality, as he himself does. In fact, such a proposal pretends to be a declaration of soun...

  Suppose for a second that we were to prove that mystic visions and religious revelations are just a question of neurotransmitter imbalances. Could our social order withstand such a postulate? Taken literally, it would mean that the narratives of our past are invalid to justify Kings , Churches and all traditional political orders, together with their claims of rights and properties. But would this mean that our history is just the expression of a mistake, that our existence as species is the grandiloquent and violent narrative of an error?  We do not need a nihilist answer to this question. We could neither construct a meaningful present denying the new realm of experience provided by the modern myth of science.   There is a rather vast neuroscientific literature that links high levels of dopamine with religious experience.