The concern of the inventors of what we today call magical or mythical powers was not factual; the truth of an event was not their primary concern. The motive behind their attempt to explain was the need to place the event under some form of control — and what they placed under the control of a deity the modern scientist places under that of scientific law. Explaining the event in such a way, as the act of a god, placates the fear of being utterly at the mercy of a chaotic unknown acting with complete unreason. Lightning falls because the lightning god wills it — having a reason gives the person a certain measure of control. The lightning god can be propitiated. It was this and not a concern for truth that was behind the first impulse and need for knowledge. Science as refined magic, and man still expanding his horizon of domination and control.
Tag: Knowledge
Wandering Thought # 24
Every good dietitian knows that the task of nourishment is not merely to sustain and conserve the body, but, rather, to make it grow healthier and stronger, suppler and, at the same time, harder, more capable of enduring, of conquering—and so it is with philosophers, those dietitians of knowledge, they whose task is to put flame and hammer to the spirit, to understand it as a stomach and as such nourish it, deepening the soul through joy and injury and giving it back to the world a thousand times richer.
Rooted in Love 