PANDEMONIUM BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS.
Merida, Venezuela, 1999. COPYRIGHT: Franz J. T. Lee.
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HISTORY OF WISDOM VII
The Fragment of Anaximander
A Retrocognitive Reminder
As we stated before, we have to depend heavily on "officially" preserved philosophic data; we do not know what exactly the Milesian philosophers "really thought" or what they "really meant". At any event, it is not even decisive what they really expounded; as part of the ideological superstructure, they have been censured; just as "unfavourable" passages of the "Holy Bible" were time and again reproved, in order to serve ruling class interests; similarly, across the ages, philosophic fragments were either "lost" or were interpreted in a way which best suited the ideological interests of various dominant "historic" forces. For example, during the Dark Ages, Psyche, Anánke, Apeiron, Logos, Nous, Summum Bonum, Form, all were baptized as the feudalist, absolutist Christian Roman Catholic God, Our Father Almighty. Anything "spiritual" became "divine". This practice has continued until modern times; across the globe, today still, unnecessarily, students of philosophy have to wreck their brains with these ideological products of dogmatic censorship. "Freedom of Thought" and "Freedom of Speech", when they clash directly with economic exploitation and political domination, simply magically transform themselves into modern chimeras and phantasmagorias. Yeah! In each ruling epoch, the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling classes.
Ancient "Wein, Weib und Gesang"!!
In addition to this, traduttore traditore played havoc with original texts. From "bad" to "worse", there are many Old Greek words, like "komos", which nobody has the foggiest notion what they should denote, probably expressing either things or relations which are non-existent in our modern times or which could detonate the monolithic Apeiron or Hen Kai Pan. Some "experts" associate the above term with an extinct social intercourse, with a specific jolly happening. In this case, certainly the ancient Greeks would have encountered a similar embarrassing situation, if they had to translate the German "Wein, Weib und Gesang". How would they know that it is a patrian, masculine nocturnal procession of semi-intoxicated elitist youth, frolicking along the streets, in "Romeo and Juliet" style, singing, boozing and dancing in front of the moonlit windows of their sweethearts, of their beloved "Fräulein". For sure, this is not exactly the pendant to the Greek concept "komos"; but it indicates what problems "out-siders' would have with some of our trialogical transcepts.
Furthermore, as reminder, we do not claim "intellectual property rights", we are not interested in "correct" translations and interpretations; in fact, anybody can believe whatever she or he wants to, also everybody should enjoy the consequences of her or his convictions. For us, who or what is "right" or "wrong" is completely irrelevant. Who or what is neither "right" nor "wrong", certainly interests us. We state what we think; who likes it or does not like it, that is not our problem, that is not our "business"; but "who still have ears to hear, let them hear us!"
De facto,
we can only analyse that what we can comprehend, can envisage;
epistemologically, we can only understand that what we
know; and
logically, in accordance with the above, we are able to interpret
any philosophic trilemma which may present itself to us. Any other method,
learning by rote, in parrot fashion, will definitely end up in academic
disaster and social mayhem. In this sane, healthy, philosophic "spirit",
we will now continue with our philosophic deliberations. Furthermore, real
science a n d true philosophy are not only hic et nunc
appearances, that quickly become "obsolete" as "time flies by" -- this
generally happens with ideology; rather,
e contrario,
they are transhistoric relations that transcend formal-logical spatial
and temporal limitations; as we have seen already, this is surely also
valid for the Milesians.
The Strange Ways of Anánke
Now, we will just
take a philosophic glance at the most important fragment
of Anaximander,
from "On Nature".
"Out of Necessity
(Anánke), into that from
which things
come-into-existence, they pass
away, for they
make reparation and satisfaction
to one another
for their injustice, according to
the order of
time."
(Our Free Translation)
"Woraus aber die
Dinge ihr Entstehen haben,
dahin geht auch
ihr Vergehen nach der
Notwendigkeit,
denn sie zahlen einander Strafe
und Buße
für ihre Ruchlosigkeit nach der
festgesetzten
Zeit."
(Ernst Bloch, Gesamtausgabe,
Band 12,
Zwischenwelten in
der Philosophiegeschichte,
edition suhrkamp,
Frankfurt am Main,
1977, S. 23)
Firstly, who or what is anánke ?
In Plato's Symposium (195C, 197 B), Anánke appears as a Divinity of Fate, as a Schicksalsgöttin, as a Goddess of Fortune. Sometimes she is also called Adrásteia, (Plato, Phaedros 248 C; Plotin, Enn. III 2, 13. A.), die Unentrinnbare, the Inescapable.
According to Homer and Hesiod, but also Archilochos, in mythological times, the Greeks feared Fate, the wrath of their gods, but they were also victims of "bad fortune", of their own mortal impotence; they feared Death, the Moira, the Daemon, Anánke. In philosophic times, in Ionia and elsewhere, Fate, Anánke, acquired a more updated connotation. Now, with hybris, with pride (Hochmut), the Greeks could determine their lives themselves, in spite of the fangs of Fate. Thanks to Anaximander, feminine Anánke was transformed into Masculine Necessity; the Cosmic Order, which was guaranteed by Zeus, directly from Olympus, now also included individual fates. The contradiction "Fateful Necessity -- Human Free Will" entered the scene of philosophy.
Hence, in Milesian
times, Anánke had already acquired masculine, deterministic, necessary,
Patrian features. To interpret the above
preserved fragment
is well-nigh impossible, because every original ancient Greek word had
a specific philosophic meaning, which today we can just intelligently guess
or deduce logically. From "bad" to "worse", "Anánke" not only meant
fate, a divine force, necessity; it also included other meanings
like "a strict, generally accepted, behaviour pattern", "according to habit",
"to custom", etc.
Furthermore, reading the text above, "according to the order of time", "nach der festgesetzten Zeit", does not simply mean "according to history", in a modern sense. This phrase has a cosmogonic, mythological tone; it comes from the Olympus, from where Father Chronos spoke, ordered and ordained. The main clause, the philosophic gist of this fragment, is hard to explain. The German philosopher, Ernst Bloch, attempted to interpret its meaning, and according to him, in the Apeiron, in the process of Being-Becoming, the things, in their individual agon (strife), file themselves away, slough themselves off, and this occurs, according to the "order of time", according to the ordinances of Chronos. However, what is decisive, is that the things do not pay reparation or make satisfaction to the Apeiron or to Chronos, but rather to one another, to themselves. This is a kind of self-sacrifice for their own coming-into-being; this sounds very Hegelian.
Of course, now the term in the text, "for their injustice", acquires another connotation. "Injustice" is determined by agon, by Strife, by War. Things move, strive, are in conflict, in contradiction. Later this virulent concept will come up again in the philosophy of Heracleitus, even in the Political Theory of Thomas Hobbes. In the Apeiron, in Becoming-Being, the things are in permanent violent strife with one another, they are at war, they battle for and against the location where they find themselves according to the order of time. In this way, they permanently generate "new wars", they launch geographic, geocentric imperialism. Of course, in the final battle, they get rid of their contradictions, they become pacified, peaceful with themselves, one with themselves. Already in this fragment we can trace the basics of the future Hegelian objectivist dialectical logics.
Dialectics of Anaximander
In simple terms, this philosophic "crossroad", from feminine mythology to masculine philosophy, this dialectics, can be interpreted as follows:
The "new" special
existence form of a developing phainómenon, thing or appearance,
forms a contradiction to (and with) its "old" original existence form,
in the bosom of Father Apeiron, originally, previously, in the womb of
Gaia, the Great Mother. But contradiction should not be, formal logics
should reign. Any contradiction must be resolved, be absolved. The future
Patria cannot permit contradiction, hence things, beings, human beings,
must make reparation and satisfaction (for their contradictory "sins"),
because only the Apeiron, only Chaos, only the One Infinite Principle
Itself is Justice, is rest, is rest in peace, is world peace. Contradiction,
Motion, is Injustice! Later we will encounter this Cosmic Justice again
in the Philosophy of Heracleitus of Ephesus.
NEXT:
Anaximenes of Miletus
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