5 MNO

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 MNO

 



 Materialism:

The shopping malls are the cathedrals of today and that’s where people go to find themselves.

                                               Martin Palmer-Ranshawe  Costing the Earth BBC Radio 4 18.12.93

 

Belief that only physical things truly exist.    Materialists claim (or promise) to explain every apparent instance of a mental phenomenon as a feature of some physical object.

SEE What’s wrong with education as it is?



 Meaning and meaning-making:

Part A – its central importance in the SunWALK model

Neil Postman: “There is no longer any principle that unifies the school curriculum and furnishes it with meaning.”

John Goodlad: “What students are asked to relate to in school [is] increasingly artificial, cut off from the human experiences subject matter is supposed to reflect.”

Harlan Cleveland: “It is a well-known scandal that our whole educational system is geared more to categorizing and analyzing patches of knowledge that to threading them together.”

    Robert Stevens: “We have lost sight of our responsibility for synthesizing learning.”

 

In the SunWALK model the deconstructing and creating of meaning is seen as the central concern of education.  The context for meaning-making is  (positively) being human, with others here in the world.   Highly meaning-full education is seen as life-enhancing.  Meaninglessness is seen as deadly.  Baudrillard on the other hand says ‘we are gorged with meaning and it is killing us’ (see below.  Which is the true case or are both true in some way?

In SunWALK the student is asked to be concerned with both personal meaning and with various contexts of group meaning, group being anything from friendship groups to global community concerns. 

We deconstruct in reading and in solving set problems.  We construct through expression in creative writing, in dance and drama etc.  Meaning comes as much from activity in relationships, rituals and other interaction as it does from the passive reading of written texts. 

Education that enables ‘rich’ (deep and wide) meaning-making of a positive kind (of course the school and wider society has to decide what is meant by ‘positive’) will enable the student to realize her/his potentialities, contribute to others and avoid such diseases as alienation, boredom and cynicism.  

Meaninglessness kills; positive meaning enriches both the individual and the groups to which s/he belongs.  Meaning creates motivation, or more precisely motivation is generated through activities that are seen as meaning-full – because, over and above the delights of the senses, humans are essentially meaning-making beings.

In SunWALK development of the ability to deconstruct meaning, and to create meaning, is closely concerned with the goal of the development of virtues (higher-order physical, mental and spiritual qualities and abilities).  Ultimately this process can be seen as the raising of consciousness in which we achieve, amongst other things, contentment;

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be

contented with what he would like to have.  Socrates (?)

 

Meaning must come from being and doing, not just having.

Marshall McLuhan gave us the idea that “the medium is the message”.  We (teachers and taught), in being what we are, are the medium. 

Contemporary education and its discourses seems to avoid altogether the importance of being, focused as it always is on (a narrow concept of) doing.  But for concerns such as moral behavior, citizenship and serving the common good development in being is as important as instrumental doing – “we are what we believe and value.”  But action and being go together, each flows from the other.  Probably the biggest lack in the current high-pressured approach to education is the lack of space and time for the realization of being before more activity is demanded.

The levels from which we deconstruct and construct meaning can be seen as more than simply the personal and the cultural/community.  Dr Paul T P Wong talks about the importance of recognizing meaning at seven levels;

1.       Explicit linguistic meanings

2.       Explicit contextual meanings

3.       Implicit cultural meanings

4.       Implicit emotional meanings

5.       Implicit relational meanings

6.       Intended unspoken meanings (hidden agenda)

7.       Unintended unspoken meanings (unconscious motives) http://www.meaning.ca/index.html

 

Dr Wong’s seven levels can be seen as moving between the cultural to the personal.  In SunWALK, for the purposes of educational theory and practice, I find it useful to maintain a sharper distinction between that which is personal and that which is derived from without.  The great challenge for any civilized society is to get well balanced concerns for the individual and concerns for the group. 

 

In SunWALK meaning is seen as deriving from engagement with, and between, Creativity, Caring, Criticality and the fourth ‘C’ in the model, ‘Community’, which includes the cultural.  Below the I WE and IT voices of Creativity, Caring and Criticality lies of course the individual’s level of beliefs and values.

Today concern is expressed that we are less effective that we should be in transmitting important core principles of our cultural heritage – whether it is to the average school child or to immigrants!  In SunWALK the teaching of heritage/s is balanced with concern for the development of the authentic, and autonomous, voice of the individual.  The meaning/s a person makes tell him/her who s/he is.   A low level of meaning-making in education cannot produce authenticity or autonomy in the learner, instead it creates degrees of alienation (the meaning made is that it is meaningless, worthless or foreign).

The nearest I can get to a definition of meaning is;

 

‘Personal or group significance, or interpretation, deriving from either the individual’s or society’s beliefs

and value),derived  from some engagement with another person or thing.’

The significance may have value culturally, scientifically or subjectively and

therefore might be seen as more or less true, or more or less valuable according to context.

 

Part B: Below are some additional thoughts that raise interesting issues about the place of meaning in our lives

           

‘Meaning comes from the shifts of consciousness between being and becoming and involves the affective self i.e. ‘qualities that include beliefs, attitudes, aspirations, values, ethics, interests and feelings’.  (Beane) 1990 Affect in the Curriculum: Toward Democracy, Dignity, and Diversity.

 

Bannister & Fransella (1986) say, concerning Kelly’s fundamental postulate: A person’s processes are psychologically channelised by the ways in which they anticipate events, that the implication is that we are: not so much reacting to the past so much as reaching out .

Everywhere one seeks to produce meaning, to make the world signify, to render it visible. We are not, however, in danger of lacking meaning; quite the contrary, we are gorged with meaning and it is killing us.

Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929), French semiologist. The Ecstasy of Communication, “Seduction, or the Superficial Abyss” (1987).[1]

Perhaps Baudrillard is right at the level of an excess of information coming at us.  There is so little time in education and modern life generally to just be, and to reflect and contemplate/meditate and process what we have taken in.  Above all there is the need for the silence of the contemplative.

“All knowledge is a semiotic affair.”   Umberto Eco  OU programme EH207



 SEMIOTICS – the study of signs  and symbols, esp. the relations between written or spoken signs and their referents in the physical world or the world of ideas                                 Collins Concise Dictionary    p1222

 Vygotsky (1962 p 120) says;

Word meaning is a phenomenon of thought only in so far as thought is embodied in  speech, and of speech only in so far as speech is connected with thought and illumined by it .   It is a phenomenon of verbal thought, or meaningful speech – a union of word and thought.

Frankl, Victor E. (1905- ), Austrian psychotherapist, who developed the concept of logotherapy, the theory that the underlying need of human existence is to find meaning in life. Born in Vienna, Frankl was educated at the University of Vienna. In 1947 he joined the university as a Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry. He was imprisoned (1942-1945) in Nazi concentration camps, and wrote of this in From Death Camp to Existentialism (1959). Perhaps his best-known work is Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy (1962; trans. 1970).

Frankl developed a whole form of psychotherapy around the need to make meaning and the idea of meaning making as being quintessentially human.  I am not aware of anyone applying is thought to the need of re-humanizing education.  The same is even more true of the work and life of Abraham Joshua Heschel.

See also Interpret and Interpretation (hermeneutics)  http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/ij/interpret.html

meaning – What is conveyed or signified by something; its sense or significance. An interpretation. However an artist may intend an artwork to impart meaning, and whatever an artist does to pack a work with meaning, in the end, it is the viewer who creates meaning in each and every image.   http://www.artlex.com

Example aphorisms to indicate points of significance to do with meaning and meaning-making – in relation to the SunWALK model as a whole

Meaning comes from engagement with caring, creativity, criticality and values.

The meaning/s a person makes tell him/her who s/he is.

  

What a person sees depends on what the believe and value and on the meaning they therefore make.

Rich meaning-making leads to authenticity or autonomy (and strong character?).

Meaningless leads to alienation.  

Motivation is generated through activities that are seems as meaning-full.

Meaning comes from the shifts of consciousness between being and becoming.

In making meaning we are reaching out, not back.

Everywhere we seek to produce meaning, we are seeking to make the world signify, to render it visible.  (Baudrillard)

Reality emerges according to the reality that is made.

Consequently we need to combine the inner voice of subjectivity & creativity with past wisdom



 Mechanistic models:    SEE – Cosmology   SEE – What’s wrong with education

 



 Meditation:         SEE -  contemplation, reflection, thinking

Baha’u'llah says there is a sign (from God) in every phenomenon:  the sign of the intellect is contemplation and the sign of contemplation is silence, because it is impossible for a man to do two things at one time – he cannot both speak and meditate.

     It is an axiomatic fact that while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit.  In that state of mind you put certain questions to your spirit and the spirit answers:  the light breaks forth and the reality is revealed.

     You cannot apply the name `man’ to any being void of this faculty of meditation; without it he would be a mere animal, lower than the beasts.

     Through the faculty of meditation man attains to eternal life; through it he receives the breath of the Holy Spirit – the bestowal of the Spirit is given in reflection and meditation.

     The spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened during meditation; through it affairs of which man knew nothing are unfolded before his view.  Through it he receives Divine inspiration, through it he receives heavenly food.

     Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries.  In that state man abstracts himself:  in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves. To illustrate this, think of man as endowed with two kinds of sight; when the power of insight is being used the outward power of vision does not see.

     This faculty of meditation frees man from the animal nature, discerns the reality of things, puts man in touch with God.

     This faculty brings forth from the invisible plane the sciences and arts.  Through the meditative faculty inventions are made possible, colossal undertakings are carried out; through it governments can run smoothly. Through this faculty man enters into the very Kingdom of God.

     Nevertheless some thoughts are useless to man; they are like waves moving in the sea without result.  But if the faculty of meditation is bathed in the inner light and characterized with divine attributes, the results will be confirmed.

     The meditative faculty is akin to the mirror; if you put it before earthly objects it will reflect them.  Therefore if the spirit of man is contemplating earthly subjects he will be informed of these.

     But if you turn the mirror of your spirits heavenwards, the heavenly constellations and the rays of the Sun of Reality will be reflected in your hearts, and the virtues of the Kingdom will be obtained.

     Therefore let us keep this faculty rightly directed – turning it to the heavenly Sun and not to earthly objects – so that we may discover the secrets of the Kingdom, and comprehend the allegories of the Bible and the mysteries of the spirit.

     May we indeed become mirrors reflecting the heavenly realities, and may we become so pure as to reflect the stars of heaven.                    (`Abdu’l-Baha:  Paris Talks*, Pages: 174-177)

“Say; no man can attain his true station except through his justice.   No power can exist except through unity.   No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.”

     “Consultation bestoweth greater awareness and transmuteth conjecture into certitude.   It is a  shining light which, in a dark world, leadeth the way and guideth.   For everything there is and will continue to be a station of perfection and maturity.   The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.”

              Baha’u'llah, Consultation: A Compilation, p.3 Nightingale Books



 Metaphor:

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor—Aristotle.

            Metaphor is seen as the language of the human spirit that enables connection between the material world, in all its glory, and the transcendent spiritual realm.   Without metaphor the spiritual-intellectual world would be meaningless, just as, so we argue, without mythos, logos is meaningless.    Metaphor enables thrilling connection between one soul and another, partly because it excites both sides of the brain, and therefore the heart-mind, and creates a ‘crossover’ from objective knowing and subjective knowing.  

the poet does that through my having my abstract notion and my particular experiences, and his use of metaphor in describing his sensation, imagination and vision created through the birth of a foal.  Good or great poetry is so powerful because it connects ‘the matrix of feeling and knowing in the particular and the general’, of the poet, with ‘the matrix of feeling and knowing in the particular and the general’, of the reader.   I hold the view that where Buber is calling for the I-Thou relationship he is in effect calling for the poetic (and holistic) relationship as I have just described it.

“Metaphors often reveal underlying structures that hold together sets of beliefs about how the world is ordered: love is a fire or life is a journey.” Cameron (1991)

“Barfield elsewhere illustrates the importance of maintaining the tensions in commenting on William Blake’s oft-quoted statement that when he looked at the sun, he did not see as did everybody else, ‘a round thing somewhat like a guinea’, but rather ‘an immeasurable Company of the Heavenly Host crying Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.”  Barfield notes Blake’s insistence on the need for “double vision”, and comments that Blake obsviously did not mean that he was incapable of also seeing the sun as something like a guinea.  Not to be able to see the first, Barfield says, would be the way of madness, but to see only that, and to be incapable fo the second, would be to remain forever stuck at a very low level of meaning at the most”.  Sloane, p.150

“Metaphorical language is possible because of the power of imagination to perceive the more to and more in our ordinary experience.  Recall Barfield’s statement that when words are not merely reduced to labels or logical connections it is their nature to use the material to name the immaterial.  In metaphor, the imaginal capacity of the mind is already at work.  And it must follow, as Barfield argues, that, if words bear an inner meaning, so too must nature and our experience of nature from which words spring.  In the images and perceptions of the imagination, as in the metaphor, the inner meaning of nature begins to become manifest.  Knowledge of the new – Insight-Imagination – is a participation in that inner meaning and significance.  Knowledge as participation means in Barfield’s words that ‘the mind of man is not, as Coleridge put it, ‘a lazy onlooker’ on an external world but itself a structural component of the world it contemplates’. “   Sloane, p.150

“The possibility of this dual use of language is the essence of metaphor.  Metaphor, Barfield says, ‘involves two different tensions’.  There is the ‘tension between two ostensibly incompatible meanings’, the old and the new.  At the same time there is a tension within ourselves between our capacity ‘to experience the incompatibles as a mysterious unity’ and our being able  simultaneously to appreciate that they are incompatible and dual in meaning.  He writes:  ‘Without the former [the recognition of unity in the duality] metaphor is nonsense language, but without the latter [the awareness that there really are present two very different meanings] it is not even language’.”  Sloane, p.150

 



 Methods – in learning:

 



 Mind:

“The mind is in the thrall to the lethargy of custom when it feeds solely on images which itself has taken no active part in producing .”                  

SLOAN 1

Now regarding whether the faculties of the mind and the human soul are one and the same.   These faculties are but the inherent properties of the soul, such as the power of imagination, of thought, of understanding; powers that are essential requisites of the reality of man, even as the solar ray is the inherent property of the sun.  The temple of man is like unto a mirror, his soul is as the sun, and his mental faculties even as the rays that emanate from the source of light.   The ray may cease to fall upon the mirror, but it can in no wise be dissociated from the sun. BWF346

Man has also spiritual powers: imagination, which conceives things; thought, which reflects upon realities; comprehension, which comprehends realities, memory, which retains whatever man imagines, thinks and comprehends.   The intermediary between the five outward powers and the inward powers, is the sense which they possess in common, that is to say, the sense which acts between the outer and inner powers, conveys to the inner powers whatever the outer powers discern.   It is termed the common faculty, because it communicates between the outward and inner powers, and thus is common to the outward and inward powers.

For instance, sight is one of the outer powers, it sees and perceives this flower, and conveys this perception to the inner power – the common faculty – which transmits this perception to the power of imagination, which in its turn conceives and forms this image and transmits it to the power of thought; the power thought  reflects, and having grasped the reality, conveys it to the power of comprehension; the comprehension, when it has comprehended it , delivers the image of the object perceived to the memory, and the memory keeps it in its repository.

The outward powers are five: the power of sight, of hearing, of taste, of smell, and of feeling.

The inner powers are also five: the common faculty, and the powers of imagination, thought, comprehension and memory. BWF318

 



 Model

1. any representation of one phenomena by another e.g. analogy or metaphor

2. any formal representation of a set of relationships

3. a physical or a pictorial of diagrammatic representation (including maps) of a set of relationships

4 computer models ….. simulations

            In a final looser, sense any abstract general concept (e.g. ideal type) or theory may sometimes be referred to as a model

            Models vary in the degree to which they approximate reality…..

            a) the proposal  of new hypotheses…

            b) the simplification of complex reality for analytical purposes by the provision of an unambiguous general concept…..

            c) comparisons between the ‘ideal’ world and the real world…..

            Ultimately no clear-cut distinction exists between the terms ‘model’ and ‘theory’ since both of these terms imply some simplification of reality, necessary in order to achieve generality.

Jary, David/Jary, Julia, (1991),  (Featherstone 1988 p.404) in Dictionary of Sociology, Glasgow: Harper Collins

 



 Modes of experience and engagement;

 



 Moral development;

 



 Moral education:

Hersh, Miller and Fielding (1980) are useful in that they reviewed many programmes of moral education and sought to model the common elements.   They concluded that judgement, caring and action were the three elements that were present in all moral education programmes reviewed and that an act is not moral unless all three elements are involved.   Here the moral is defined as behaviour involving thought (the cognitive, especially judgement), caring (the affective self), will (volition) against a set of higher order values.   I use the term higher order values to distinguish values which are more than personal preferences

 



 Moral sensibility:

 



 Mystery:

Karl Rahner the Jesuit theologian suggests the possibility that there could come a time when even the memory of religion has gone and the word ‘God’ disappeared from the dictionary;

           

And even if this term were ever to be forgotten, even then in the decisive moments of our lives we should still be constantly encompassed by this nameless mystery of our existence…. even supposing  that those realities which we call religions…. Were totally to disappear … the transcendentally inherent in human life is such that (we) would still reach out towards that mystery which lies outside (our) control.

Pp. 19-20 Hay, David with Nye Rebecca (1998),  The Spirit of the Child, London: Fount Paperbacks, HarperCollins Publishers

That my known self will never be more than a little

            clearing in the forest.

            That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into

            the clearing of my know self, and then go back.

            That I must have the courage to let them come and go.

            That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but

            that I will always try to recognize and submit to the

            gods in me and in other men and women.

                        D H Lawrence Corgi Modern Poets in Focus Ed Dannie Abse  p 13 Corgi 1971

            “Its a fairly embarrassing situation to admit that we can’t find 90 per cent of the universe.”

Bruce H  Hargon, astrophysicist (quoted in Guardian Weekend Dec 31st 1994 p24)



 Mystic and Mysticism (as reality  and v.vv.):

Mystic – one who seeks or one who experiences dissolution of ego-self and separateness and feels that is being has merged or become united with Deity, Ultimate Reality, or Nature.

MYSTIC: one who claims to know GOD immediately through a FORM of SPIRITUAL inwardness, as against knowing through sensation or ratiocination, i.e. through logical processes.

From Irving Hexham’s Concise Dictionary of Religion, first published by InterVarsity Press, Carol Stream, USA, 1994, second edition, Regent College Press, Vancouver, 1999 – http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/concise/WORDS-M.html

Mysticism – The school of religion which values the mode of consciousness in which the ego-self is lost and an experience of oneness with ultimate Reality is obtained.   Epistemologically the mystic commonly claims that only through a mystical experience – as opposed to rational or empirical inquiry – can reality be known.

MYSTICISM: the implications of this word are often unclear. In the study of RELIGION it refers to the immediate experience of a SACRED-human relationship, and in particular to the experiences of oneness with a DIVINE or trans-divine BEING or STATE. It is difficult to study and describe because MYSTICS tend to claim that their experience is self-authenticating, and that it cannot be satisfactorily expressed in words.

From Irving Hexham’s Concise Dictionary of Religion, first published by InterVarsity Press, Carol Stream, USA, 1994, second edition, Regent College Press, Vancouver, 1999 – http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/concise/WORDS-M.html

With Platt (2001) we see mysticism as being concerned with the nature of reality, the individual’s struggle to attain a clear vision of reality, and the transformation of consciousness that accompanies such vision.  A good introduction to mysticism, particularly themes that are common to all the great world religions, is to be found at his site: http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/     The themes that he has chosen indicate how he sees mysticism;

There’s a reality beyond the material world:
Which is uncreated.
It pervades everything,
but remains beyond the reach
of human knowledge and understanding.

You approach that reality by:
Distinguishing ego from true self
Understanding the nature of desire
Becoming unattached
Forgetting about preferences
Not working for personal gain
Letting go of thoughts
Redirecting your attention
Being devoted
Being humble
Invoking that reality
Surrendering

That reality approaches you through:
Grace
The teacher

You’re transformed so that you embody that reality by:
Dying and being reborn
Seeing the light
Experiencing union
Experiencing freedom

This is virtually an identical view of reality and cosmology to that of Perennial Philosophy SEE: Philosophy Perennial

“The well known Quaker mystic, and scholarly writer on mysticism, Rufus Jones, …. held that the difference between mystics and others was a relative not an absolute one.   The mystic is one who is aware of experiencing what we all do experience, whether aware of the fact or not.   In mystics unconscious intuition in the sense in which infants and the lower animals are unconscious, that is without introspective judgements, becomes also conscious.   It hardly seems possible that our common human nature could embrace so absolute a difference as that between the presence and the sheer absence of That without which there could, if mysticism is valid, be nothing at all.

The real problem about mysticism for the rationalistic metaphysician is not the givenness but the alleged ineffability of what is given.”

Harthorne , Charles (1981) Woods, Richard, Mysticism and Rationalistic Metaphysics, in, Understanding Mysticism, Its meaning, Its Methodology, London: The Athlone Press

The following is also useful;

The following notes on Mysticism are adapted from Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1999, 38(1): 175-482 175 might be useful.          

Mystics and mysticism have long played important roles in major religions of the East and West, and mysticism is a central topic of concern to those interested in understanding religious experience. Much of the current empirical research has been facilitated by the theoretical formulations of mysticism by philosopher Stace (1960).   Stace (1960: 78-79, 110-11, 131-32) distinguished two related types of mysticism, which he called “introvertive” and “extrovertive.”   Both types share five criteria.

The mystical experience of both types is

1 Noetic -  It is not perceived as mere “subjective” experience nor an “emotional” experience; rather, it is a valid source of knowledge.

2 Ineffable -  It cannot be described in words.

3 Holy It is “religious” but not necessarily related to a particular theology.

4 Characterized by positive affect – It is a profound yet pleasurable experience

5 Paradoxical It defies logic.

Extrovertive mystical experience is also

a) Characterized by an inner subjectivity to all things. In some sense, all things are “alive”.

b) Characterized by a perception of unity in the diversity of things.

Introvertive mystical experience is also

a) Perceived as timeless and spaceless.            

b) One of a “void,” that is, a consciousness devoid of any content or a dissolution of the sense of self.

    

Whether the experience is extrovertive or introvertive, it is generally agreed by scholars that a sense of unity fundamentally characterizes mysticism. The former is an experience of unity in diversity; the latter is an experience of unity without content in what has been called a “pure consciousness event”                                                                                  (Forman 1990: 8; cf. Stace 1960: 85-86)

      Stace’s criteria make it clear that the mysticism under discussion is distinct from what might be labeled paranormal or psychic experiences ……. These phenomena are not included in the conceptual framework of Stace and are also considered, at best, accidental characteristics by influential religious mystics.

Many scholars have also distinguished mysticism proper, as described by Stace, from a numinous experience in which a believer is responding to a perceived “holy other,” sometimes variously named, for example, God, Allah, or Yahweh. Otto’s Idea of the Holy (1917/1958) is considered the classic interpretation of this type of mysticism. The numinous experience tends to have a personal quality to it, in that the believer feels he or she is in communion with the divine being.  Mysticism proper tends to emphasize impersonal experiences such as unity, timelessness, spacelessness, and void.

Myth:

A story or account, by definition involving some element of the supernatural, which is accepted by a community as a satisfactory answer to, or explanation of, some meaningful question or experience.   Historically, myths are held collectively by religious communities, tribes, nations or the like; but a story can perform the same function for an individual, in which case use of the term myth is justifiable.Narrative:

Narrative has been called the primary act of mind.   We dream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan revise, criticise, gossip, learn, hate and love by narrative.



Mythos:



Mythos definitions

Literary Myth:

A narrative in which some characters are superhuman beings who do things that “happen only in stories”; hence, a conventionalized or stylized narrative not fully adapted to plausibility or “realism.”

Mythos

1.   The narrative of a work of literature, considered as the grammar or order of words (literal narrative), plot or “argument” (descriptive narrative), secondary imitation of action (formal narrative), imitation of generic and recurrent action or ritual (archetypal narrative), or imitation of the total conceivable action of an omnipotent god or human society (anagogic narrative).

2.   One of the four archetypal narratives, classified as comic, romantic, tragic, and ironic.

Mythos
A Greek word, referring to the spoken word or speech. It also denotes a tale, story or narrative, different from the historic tale which is called logos and is regarded as verifiable. The narrated events which form a mythic tale are not normally verifiable, their origin is nearly always unknown, and yet they have a claim to truth, which the purely fictitious narrative, for example a novel, lacks.

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-terms/bl-lit-glossary-m.htm

RP Agree with ‘they have a claim to truth’ but would also say that novels, and art generally have similar claims.

 

·    The narrative of a work of literature, considered as the grammar or order of words (literal narrative), plot or “argument” (descriptive narrative), secondary imitation of action (formal narrative), imitation of generic and recurrent action or ritual (archetypal narrative), or imitation of the total conceivable action of an omnipotent god or human society (anagogic narrative). One of the four archetypal narratives, classified as comic, romantic, tragic, and ironic.
www.sil.org/~radneyr/humanities/litcrit/gloss.htm

·    anything delivered by word of mouth, word, speech, conversation, story, tale (esp. poetic tale). logos = thought, reason, word, language, “study of.” Mythology = the study of tales/stories
www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gretaham/Teaching/reference/greekterms.htm

·    A (fictional) history relevant to a particular character, group, or world. For example, in the current Wonder Woman mythos, several Greek goddesses are responsible for the creation of the Amazons.
www.sufferingsappho.com/pbg/glossary.html

·    A Greek word, referring to the spoken word or speech. It also denotes a tale, story or narrative, different from the historic tale which is called logos and is regarded as verifiable. The narrated events which form a mythic tale are not normally verifiable, their origin is nearly always unknown, and yet they have a claim to truth, which the purely fictitious narrative, for example a novel, lacks.
classiclit.about.com/library/bl-terms/bl-lit-glossary-m.htm

·    the story; see praxis and plot.
filmplus.org/thr/dic4.html

·    Mythos (Μύθος) is a Greek beer, the only domestic brand in widespread national distribution. It is a light straw-colored lager with a thick head, and is sometimes compared to a pilsner in taste. The brand was introduced in 1997 by Mythos Brewery Ltd., which also imports other European brands of beer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythos_(beer)

 



 Narrative:   SEE Story

 



 Objectivity Objective knowing:

 

 



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