[lbo-talk] Blue Dogs cashing in

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Wed Aug 5 08:37:10 PDT 2009


Chris Doss wrote:
> This thread was pretty much well and truly ended by Michael Pollak (go Michael), but upon reflection (and having reread Book 1 of the Illiad) I'm dubious that the notion that the individual's choices are important is something particular to capitalist ideology.

I have to say that's an odd reading of the Illiad. In fact, the representation of people in the Illiad illustrates my point: the concept of personhood in a given time and place is a social accomplishment, not an immutable component of human nature. Bruno Snell is good on this:

"According to his [Homer's] view—and there could be no other for him—a man's action or perception is determined by the divine forces operative in the world; it is a reaction of his physical organs to a stimulus, and this stimulus is itself grasped as a personal act. Any new situation is likely to be the result of stimuli, and the source of new stimuli in its turn."

--Snell, The Discovery of Mind, p. 43.

(The heroes of the Iliad are about as far from free-willed individuals who makes autonomous decisions as you can get!)

Miles



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