The Form/Matter RGM of The Greeks
The Form/Matter motif is not entirely original with Dooyeweerd, but his treatment is exceptional. Nietzsche argued that Greek values from the time of Homer to that of Plato and Aristotle were in a constant state of tension between a volarization of a Dionysian natural orgiastic devotion to the life force, celebrated in the annual Baccanal at Delphi, presided over by that Temple's Oracle through whom Dionysios would communicate in riddles and puzzles of a prophetic but obscure kind. The other Greek volorization turned on the order of the city and its justice achieved by calm thought in accord with an Apollonian devotion situated in the Temple of Athena. Perhaps the best articulation of this side of the bipolar tension of values can be seen in the tragic drama where the Furies are constrained and given a place below the Temple's altar where they can no longer unleash themselves in the historic form of a blood revenge.
Read more about this topic: Religious Ground Motive
Famous quotes containing the words the form, form, matter and/or greeks:
“From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may be reason for a savage’s preferring many kinds of food which the civilized man rejects. The former has the palate of an outdoor man. It takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“Essay writing is perhaps ... the easiest for the author and requires little more than what is called a fluency of words and a vivacity of expression to avoid dullness; but without ... a real foundation of matter ... an essay writer is very apt, like Dogberry in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, to think that if he had the tediousness of a king, he would bestow it all upon his readers.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“Whereas the Greeks gave to will the boundaries of reason, we have come to put the will’s impulse in the very center of reason, which has, as a result, become deadly.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)