Science, Politics and Gnosticism: Two Essays

By Eric Voegelin

Eric Voegelin, certainly one of latest prime political theorists and writer of the modern vintage The New technology of Politics, right here contends that yes sleek events, together with Positivism, Hegelianism, Marxism and the "God is useless" circulate, are variations of the Gnostic culture of antiquity. He makes an attempt to unravel the highbrow confusion that has resulted from the dominance of gnostic idea by means of clarifying the excellence among political gnosticism and the philosophy of politics. hugely provocative, this publication is vital studying for college kids of contemporary politics, philosophy, and religion.

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23 during this confession, within which the younger Marx offers his personal angle less than the emblem of Prometheus, the large heritage of the insurrection opposed to God is illuminated way back to the Hellenic production of the emblem. allow us to first make clear the connection among Marx’s reviews and the verse he rates from Aeschylus. Prometheus is riveted to a rock by means of the ocean. lower than at the strip of seashore stands Hermes taking a look up at him. The fettered Prometheus supplies his bitterness unfastened reign. Hermes attempts to calm him and urges moderation. Then, Prometheus crams his impotence and uprising into the road quoted by means of Marx: “In a observe, I hate all of the gods. ”24 however the line isn't a part of a monologue. At this outbreak of hatred the messenger of the gods replies admonishingly: “It seems you've been troubled with out small insanity. ”25 The observe translated right here as “madness” is the Greek nosos which Aeschylus hired as a synonym for nosema. 26 It skill physically or psychological disorder. within the feel of a ailment of the spirit it might suggest hatred of the gods or just being ruled by means of one’s passions. for instance, Plato speaks of the nosema tes adikias, the disease of injustice. 27 the following we contact at the diseased—the pneumopathological—nature of the insurrection that was once mentioned past. And what does Marx say to this statement of the messenger of the gods? He says not anything. somebody who doesn't understand Prometheus certain needs to finish that the quoted “confession” sums up the that means of the tragedy, now not that Aeschylus wanted to symbolize hatred of the gods as insanity. within the distortion of the meant which means into its contrary the suppression of questions may be obvious back on all its degrees: the deception of the reader through setting apart the textual content (the confession looks within the preface to a doctoral dissertation), the notice of the swindle (for we think that Marx had learn the tragedy), and the demonic endurance within the rebel opposed to greater judgment. The soul’s uprising opposed to the order of the cosmos, hatred of the gods, and the insurrection of the Titans will not be, to make sure, unprecedented in Hellenic fable. however the Titanomachia ends with the victory of Jovian justice (dike), and Prometheus is fettered. The progressive reversal of the symbol—the dethronement of the gods, the victory of Prometheus—lies past classical tradition; it's the paintings of gnosticism. no longer until eventually the gnostic riot of the Roman period do Prometheus, Cain, Eve, and the serpent develop into symbols of man’s deliverance from the ability of the tyrannical god of this global. Marx’s confession iterates the reinterpretation of the Prometheus image that may be present in an alchemist textual content of the 3rd century, the treatise of Zosimos at the Letter Omega:Hermes and Zoroaster have acknowledged that the tribe of philosophers is above destiny (heimarmene): they don't have fun within the success it brings, for they grasp their wants; nor are they plagued by the undesirable fortune it sends—if it truly is real that they give the impression of being forward to the top of all their misfortune; nor do they settle for the nice presents that come from it, for they move their lives in immateriality.

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