Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
In the latest Dawkins thread, I said that mythos is 'the alphabet' of mythology, now I want to explain that. Logos and mythos were the Greek names for the two primary modes of human thought. To define my terms, allow me to borrow the words of Karen Armstrong.
From The Case For God: What Religion Really Means, Introduction:
Thoughts?
From The Case For God: What Religion Really Means, Introduction:
In most pre-modern cultures, there were two recognized methods of thinking, speaking, and acquiring knowledge. The Greeks called the mythos and logos. Both were essential and neither was considered superior to the other; they were not in conflict but complementary. Each had its own sphere of competence and it was considered unwise to mix the two. Logos ('reason') was the pragmatic mode of thought that enabled people to function effectively int he world. It had, therefore, to correspond accurately to external reality. People have always needed logos to make an efficient weapon, organize their societies or plan an expedition. Logos was forward-looking, continually on the lookout for new ways of controlling the environment, improving old insights or inventing something fresh. Logos was essential to the survival of our species. But it had its limitations: it could not assuage human grief or find ultimate meaning in life's struggles. For that, people turned to mythos or 'myth."
Today we live in a society of logos and myth has fallen into disrepute. In popular parlance, a 'myth' is something that is not true. But in the past, myth was not self-indulgent fantasy; rather, like logos, it helped people to live creatively in our confusing world, though in a different way.... When a myth described heroes threading their way through labyrinths... these were not understood as primarily factual stories. They were designed to help people negotiate the obscure regions of the psyche, which are difficult to access but which profoundly influence our thought and behavior. People had to enter the warren of their own minds and fight their personal demons. When Freud and Jung began to chart their scientific search for the soul, they instinctively turned to these ancient myths. A myth was never intended as an accurate account of a historical event; it was something that had in some sense happened once but that also happens all the time.
Armstrong hits the nail on the head: mythos has been forgotten. Logos dominates, and we've lost a priceless birthright. Worse, we've kept its handmaidens, its vehicles. We still tell the stories... but we no longer know what they mean.Today we live in a society of logos and myth has fallen into disrepute. In popular parlance, a 'myth' is something that is not true. But in the past, myth was not self-indulgent fantasy; rather, like logos, it helped people to live creatively in our confusing world, though in a different way.... When a myth described heroes threading their way through labyrinths... these were not understood as primarily factual stories. They were designed to help people negotiate the obscure regions of the psyche, which are difficult to access but which profoundly influence our thought and behavior. People had to enter the warren of their own minds and fight their personal demons. When Freud and Jung began to chart their scientific search for the soul, they instinctively turned to these ancient myths. A myth was never intended as an accurate account of a historical event; it was something that had in some sense happened once but that also happens all the time.
Thoughts?
Most people were likewise too busy to ponder why apples fell down, does that render Newton irrelevant?