SPANISH VERSION HERE A devastating plague dominates Thebes. Sophocles (Oedipus Rex, first intervention of the chorus, vv. 158-215) has its people call on the gods: First we call on Athena, deathless daughter of Zeus, / and Artemis, earth upholder, […] / and Phoebus [Apollo], the far shooter, / come to us now […] / Our…
Author: polymorph
On Science, Economy, Politics, and Thought
The number of publications dealing with the embodied nature of all knowledge and, therefore, with the latter’s sensual roots, has increased exponentially over the past two decades. Simultaneously, a so-called “affective turn” seems to be gaining momentum in the panorama of contemporary thought. All this is very remarkable of course, as the relation between mind…
What Socialism Owes to the Tupinamba
In 1550 the Tupinamba travelled to France to take part as French allies in the Royal Entry Festival of Henri II in Rouen. A few years later, in 1562, they visited Rouen again, invited by Charles IX. Montaigne wrote extensively on them in Chapter 31 of his First Book of Essays, published in 1580. This…
Cosmogenesis and the Capturing of the Invisible
As Paul Klee writes, a good painting puts into effect a process of cosmogenesis. Everything starts with “chaos,” or with a “grey point.” Chaos is the origin of all visible things, and all colours are contained in it. Colours form the world of any painting. Chaos, then, is the unlimited flow of invisible possibilities –…
On Extramodern Stateless Societies
Let’s begin with a few axioms and theses: Axiom 1. Freedom and servitude are opposite notions. Axiom 2. Instead, servitude and domination are complementary notions. Axiom 3. Domination and servitude establish social inequality. Thesis 1. All forms of state entail some sort of domination and servitude, hence inequality. Therefore, they restric freedom. Thesis 2. Freedom…
Post-Nihilist Meanderings on the Shores of Mythology, Tragedy, Poetry, and Enigma
It wasn’t long. It only lasted four hundred years. But the beautiful thing is that we can assist to its birth and death. The beautiful thing and the sad thing. It first surfaces in Homer’s Iliad, and it dies with Aristotle, in Aristotle. Strangely, we can presence both events. Yet we can only understand the…
Oedipus Rex
Duplicity. “When Oedipus speaks he sometimes says something other than or even the opposite of what he thinks he is saying.” Yet “the ambiguity of what he says does not reflect a duplicity in his character, which is perfectly consistent, but, more profoundly, the duality of his being. He is double. He is himself a…
Walking in Beauty: Philosophy & Eros
In his Letters II and VII, Plato argues that the insights of philosophy “cannot be put into words like other subjects can be.” They are so simple that they appear to be laughable to those who do not take part in the philosophical life or way of living, as it is only through the latter…
Chaosmosis and the Feminine Cosmos
The coming of the Cosmos into being is not only a present-day scientific concern, but also a recurring object of thought. From the Babylonian Enuma Elish and numerous indigenous cosmogonies to the Big Bang theory in contemporary physics and Félix Guattari’s concept of Chamosmosis – to only mention a few examples – it has never…
Pure Thought at the Speed of Light
It is possible to distinguish among two major linguistic functions: one denotative, the other one poetic. We have already touched upon the latter when talking about gods, heroes, and mortal things. The denotative is likewise essential to any living, as by naming things we manage to identify them. And this, moreover, is the basis on…