#gnothi seauton

[mobymartin]

Mosaic from a funerary area depicting a human skeleton reclined on a symposium couch, he is pointing out a the motto of the Delphic Oracle "Gnothi seauton" (know yourself), 3rsd century AD, Baths of Diocletian Museum, Rome.

[lesewut]

γνῶθι σεαυτόν ("Know thyself!")

Sijakovic, Bogoljub “The Presence of Transendece- Essays on Facing the Other through Holiness, History and Text.” Published 2013 in Los Angeles by Sebastian Press, Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in collaboration with The Institute for Theological Research of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University in Belgrade.

As the title emphasizes, the book deals with "the presence of transcendence", the absence of which is so acutely felt throughout the rest of our world, that often seems disoriented and senseless. In Sijakovic's philosophical-theological conception, history plays a very important role.

As a relatively sceptical person, I often find revealing argumentations in countries of the world, that define history as a part of suffering (in Western Europe history is thought in terms of making -> Historical Achievements), like we can find in the Balkan (14th Chapter: A Critique of Balkanistic Discourse: Constribution to the phenomenology of Balkan "Otherness") . History and the interpretation is a huge and exciting topic, sometimes it is almost forgotten, how long past historical events are still instrumentalized and influencing our live :

"History is the battleground of our existence. It is that dimension of reality that demands our constant attending because it is both an indispensible constituent of our identity and a playground of virtually unlimited possibilities for deciption. Those who are powerful write the narratives that fill our history books. They "explain" to the rest of us all the "whats" and "whys" in history."

With the help of theology and philosophy, it is possible to reconstruct the past instructively. Beside sorting the facts and offering appropriate accounts, we need to know ourselves and our "nature" , to learn how to react and respond adequately, as we have a responsibility on the interpretation, as it can advance to identification. However, the philosophical aspiration to comprehend the "reality" as a whole, is a very ancient idea. Historical science is complex and there is no object of history completely independet from historical knowledge (T. Litt: "The theory of historical knowledge is simultaneously the theory of historical reality, vice versa." Cf. "Geschichtswissenschaften und Geschichtsphilosophie"). Also the concept of history decided what is to be an object of history, which is again determined by the conceptualization of history, especially by the major interpretative concepts, such as "longue durée" (Braudel) ; "episteme" (Foucault) "unsurpassable horizon" (Satre) ; "Paradigm" (Kuhn). There are many other concepts of interpretation of historical "facts" (there is no objective history, it is always about our understanding and explaining), interesting is also the theory of Nietzsche, who uses the perspectivists approach to history in order to stand against both the positivsts ideal of objectivity and the teleological historical constructs of Hegel ("Weltgeist") and Eduard von Hartmann.

Requirements for the Historian are also compared and interlinked with the social power (my recommendation by Popper: "The Open Society"): History of humanity is the history of the political power. And also Foucault connects the narrative of the Historian with the ritual of power, as those terms are congenital for a long time, the history of the mighty is tying people legally to power, the speech of the power that establishes order. "It is the fascination generated by the glory of reknowned people and deeds: The light of law and the radiance of glory are the functional principles of history [Foucault "Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the College de France, 1977 - 78]. Both law and glory issue forth from power, and power issues forth from war. Also an important role of historical science is the formation of the identity of a given community, so it cannot be "over-valued" (in the sense of national identity).

So what is true and correct? It is very difficult, as historical knowledge is always a self-knowing and in the historical science, the self-understanding of man is manifested:

"The ends that he follows and the image of himself are discerned by man in the mirror of history. That mirror is held for us, as she calls us to memory and remembrance (Burkard Liebsch "Probeleme einer genealogischen Kritik der Erinnerung: Anmerkungen zu Hegel, Nietzsche und Foucault") , by the muse Clio whose mother is the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne. He who memorizes and remembers- he knows himself."

So it is just logical, that Sijakovic is also highlighting: “The Anthropological meaning of self-knowledge: Toward the Apollonian precept "Know Thyself!"

But also other cornerstones of Sijakovics view are presented, like the confrontation of the human-being in any forms of communication and continuing processing aims at truth and authenticity, which will never end in accomplishment. But maybe in a less aggressive world?

Just a little throw-in, because very informative are also Sijakovics speculations of the “Metaphysics of Light” the theories about “The Paradigmatic and Tautegoric Nature of Poetry”

[mel-men]

~ FN{OI ~AYTON ~

GNOTHI SEAUTON

Know thyself

ERKENNE DICH SELBST

02-22

By MelMen

[a-path-by-the-moon]

[drondskaath]

Akantha | Gnothi Seauton | 2020

Greek Black Metal

https://hiswounds.bandcamp.com/album/akantha-gnothi-seauton

[spockvarietyhour]

[heraclito71]

Cuando Sócrates preguntó al Oráculo de Delfos cuál es el conocimiento más elevado al que un hombre puede aspirar, recibió como respuesta: "conócete a ti mismo" (que en griego clásico es gnóthi seautón, y en latín, el aforismo se presenta como nosce te ipsum). Y el oráculo le dijo: "te advirto quien quira que fueres, oh, tú que deseas sondear los arcanos de la naturaleza, que sino encuentras dentro de ti mismo lo que buscas, tampoco podrás hallarlo fuera. Si tú ignoras las excelencias de tu propia casa, ¿cómo pretendes encontrar otras excelencias?. En ti se halla oculto el tesoro de los tesoros. Oh, hombre, conócete a ti mismo y conocerás a los dioses y al universo del que formas parte".

En el frontispicio del oráculo de Delfos decía muy claro: "gnóthi seautón", conócete a ti mismo. Pero había otras dos inscripciones igualmente importantes, una era "nada en exceso", y la otra la letra "E", cuyo significado merece ser tratado por separado dada su importancia.

Los visionarios de los Upanishad también ofrecieron esta verdad a la humanidad que está atrapada en el maya, o en este mundo fenoménico, y que por tanto, sufre, llora y lucha. Para ellos era "atmanam viddhi", conócete a ti mismo. Pero para poder conocerse, decían, primero tiene uno que descubrirse. ¿Qué es el auto-descubrimiento? El auto-descubrimiento es la realización de Dios, según ellos.

Lo cierto es que la finalidad de nuestra vida es ser nosotros mismos, y eso implica conocernos a nosotros mismo. ¿Qué buscamos desde la noche inmemorial de los tiempos? Paz, felicidad, amor, dicha, bienestar y bien. Sin embargo, la búsqueda de todas estas cosas es inútil porque esto está implicitamente contenido dentro de ti, es decir, buscamos fuera de nosotros aquello que ya está dentro de nosotros.

Entonces, para ser nostros mismos primero debemos conocernos a nosotros mismos. ¿Y exactamente qué significa conocerse a sí mismo? Conocerse a sí mismo significa dos cosas: conocer lo que somos, que es lo que otros llaman el despertar de la consciencia, y la otra, para mí la más importante por ser el método más representativo de occidente, conocer lo que no somos.

A muchos les da por meterse a ese mundillo de cosas esotericas, las pirámides y el cuerpo astral, para desarrollar su esencia, pero muchas veces lo hacen sin un verdadero método de autoconocimiento, y por si acaso, terminan desarrollando otras cosas, pero no su esencia. Por eso, creo que occidente ofrece lo mejor para occidente. Sólo es cuestión de redescubrirlo, darle una oportunidad. Y más importante aún: darte a ti mismo la oportunidad de ser quien eres.

[kataskellomai]

tired: too gay to function

wired: sweet mother i cannot weave, for slender aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl