AR390 Lecture Notes - Katharevousa, Rationality
Document Summary
Duality between rationality (thinking, assurance/calmness, serenity, human) and irrationality (emotions, chaotic/disruptive, animals) There is something in the human makeup that makes us emotional and thinking creatures. Agon- contest between the two- are we going to me emotional or logical, the struggle. It is often expressed and understood in magic. Greek theatre has a lot of these dualities in them. Magic is consider irrational in greek world, countered by reason. In many stories involving dionysus- irrational character, instructing us how they understand magic. How reason and control does not really work. There is a problem trying to understand this. Both magic and dionysus are always placed outside of civilization. Placing outside of civilization, immediately creates a problem with magic, it becomes something that is excluded from society. It becomes something that cannot be part of the human life, this is why we do not believe, a very greek point of view that we use.