Class Summary for 09/17/09

• CHANGE: The final exam will be on Friday, December 18th, from 2pm-2:45pm in our normal meeting place.
• Logos, once again: the power of words to create, i.e. fact, truth, reality.
• Mythos: Myth, story, fanciful.
• One of these is "false", the other is "true".
• Mythology joins the two together, as wikipedia says, "the academic use of the term generally does not refer to truth or falsity."
• Dr. Sexson: "In effect, mythology is true stories."
• The Great Code Cracked!
• Chapter 1 focuses on language.
• Translation
• "langage" (the parts of language that are actually translatable.)
• 3 Stages (Vico)
• Age of Gods - Metaphoric/Hieroglyphic/a god/Heraclitus
• Hieroglyphic age is poetic.
• Little emphasis on separating subject and objects.
• Warrior "boasts" (Genesis 4:23)
• Vow (Judges 11:35)
• All words are concrete, intensely physical.
• Homer: soul, mind, time, courage are embodied.
• Kairos, a crucial moment in time; the "notch in an arrow" (Frye pg. 7)
• Age of Heroes - Metonymic/Hieractic/God/Plato
• Language becomes individualized, words become outward expression of thoughts. Intellect and emotion split.
• Plato is a 2nd phase thinker.
• Words are put for thought, thought is superior to nature.
• Concepts, allegories, commentary.
• Age of "Man" - Ironic Distance between subject and object/Demotic/No God/Locke, Bacon, Hume
• Began in 16th century.
• Fact gathering, language as description of an objective order.
• Extreme 3rd phase thinker dismiss all religious questions; words are words; Deconstruction. (WOO Lit 300)
• Distrusts figurative language consciousness modulates from soul to mind.
• Science takes precedence over faith.
• Kerygma
• The linguistic idiom of the bible does not coincide. (p. 29)
• Poetry keeps the metaphorical use of language alive.
•  Remember, Carl Eats Little Whiny Puppies with Gravy and Asparagus. (Creation, Exodus, Law, Wisdom, Prophecy, Gospel, and Apocalypse)
  
• Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul
•  "True itself is fact," "The truth itself is made" (Vico).
• Finally, a drawing by my 4-year-old-alter-ego, Tommy, representing the ages of language.

P.S., you can view all the class notes if you go to the sidebar, and click categories. All the notes (so far) can be found there.