Notes: Module 1

It is with the writings of the historian Herodotus (in particular, his account of the war between Greece and Persia) that we can see the development of the concept of "historical fact" come into being.

A coniunctio oppositorum: an alchemical term referring to the joining of elemental opposites which in the end produces the philosopher's stone, a mystical element possessing great power. This is sometimes referred to as gold in the recipes of the alchemists. In this case, mythos and Logos join to become mythology -- the rational study of the mysterious and powerful tales of the mythic world. His book New Science in 1725.

Giambattista Vico was an Italian philosopher who is considered to be the founder of the modern philosophy of history.

Module 1 Voc

Mythos: (Greek) Word, saying, story; with the rise of rationalism and scientific thinking it is denigrated to something false or untrue

Logos: (Greek) The Word of Truth; it is the basis for scientific reasoning and rationality; in Christianity, it is associated with the Christ

Herodotus: Greek Historian of the War between Greece and Persia

Giambattista Vico: Italian Renaissance philosopher who thought myths were a precursor to science

Max Müller: German mythologist who said that myths have their basis in the natural world and explain events in nature

J. G. Frazer: British Victorian mythologist who connected myths to social and cultural hierarchies

Sigmund Freud: Austrian psychoanalyst who said myths were primitive versions of explaining human psychology

Carl Jung: Swiss psychologist who said myths and dreams were outward expressions of unconscious archetypes. His books include Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933). and his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1961)

Archetypes: Primal energy templates through which the life force speaks or manifests

Claude Levi-Strauss: French structuralist anthropologist who said that myths were a way of resolving basic