On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 11:37 AM, Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
> 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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