Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T23:56:44.162Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

X - Seminar from February 16, 1983

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2023

John Garner
Affiliation:
University of West Georgia
María-Constanza Garrido Sierralta
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
Get access

Summary

Ἀναζίμανδρος […] ἀρχὴν […] ϵἴρηκϵ τῶν ὄντων τὸ ἄπϵιρον […], ἐζ ὧν δὲ ἡ γένϵσίς ἐστι τοῖς οὖσι͵ καὶ τὴν ϕθορὰν ϵἰς ταῦτα γίνϵσθαι κατὰ τὸ χρϵών· διδόναι γὰρ αὐτὰ δίκην καὶ τίσιν ἀƛƛήƛοις τῆς ἀδικίας κατὰ τὴν τοῦ χρόνου τάζιν, ποιητικωτέροις οὕτως ὀνoμασιν αὐτὰ ƛέγων (DK 12A9/B1).

Before entering into discussion of this fragment of Anaximander, I would like to remind you of what it is that we’re in the middle of. We spoke about two pairs of significations: chaos and kosmos, on the one hand; hybris and dikē, on the other hand. I told you how they’re similar, in my view. If there isn’t an identity or strict term for term equivalence, there’s certainly a very profound kinship. This kinship is nowhere spoken of as such—unless implicitly in this fragment of Anaximander, at least in the way I interpret it—but it is supported by everything we know about the Greek imaginary grasp of the world.

The explication of this non-rigorous homology drives us to distinguish on the anthropological plane between two levels of the meaning of the pair hybris/dikē. At the most profound level, the opposition itself erases itself to make way for something that is simply chaos, a law of annihilation reigning over the world.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Greek Imaginary
From Homer to Heraclitus, Seminars 1982-1983
, pp. 161 - 178
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×