mysterbey

Bardaisan's son Harmonius received his education in Athens, a hotbed of intellectual pursuit and learning. True to his name, he became an accomplished composer, and on return to Edessa he set his father's writings to catchy tunes. Bardaisan and his followers would spend rowdy evenings drinking wine and singing these songs. By day they would go hunting, with Bardaisan's unparalleled archery skills on full display. Bardaisan taught that God had not created the world ex nihilo, but had simply shuffled the pre-existing elements (water, earth, fire and light) into a specific order. With each new generation, the elements merged into an increasingly purer form, and thus procreation was encouraged. Moreover, it seemed that the world had been created to be enjoyed by humankind.

Bardaisan's ideas were at odds with the Marcionites, a black-clad vegan sect who practiced abstinence. They believed that the material world lay sandwiched between a good God and an evil God. The body was considered evil and tainted, and thus sexual intercourse was forbidden, as was the consumption of meat. Not surprisingly, the two sects were is stark contrast to each other, and competition for adherents was fierce. I know which side I would join.

I have enrolled in the following two subjects for Semester 3:

PHI110: Philosophy, Morality & Society

The first focus of this unit is 'Morality and the good life' which reflects the nature of happiness, with particular reference to Aristotle and later ancient philosophers. In the second section, students focus on 'Morality and Objectivity'. What is the status of moral principles? Does morality depend on religion? Is morality relative to cultures and societies? The third section of the unit, 'Morality, Justice and Rights', considers Kant and the universality of reason, utilitarianism and animal rights, Justice, Immigration and Refugees.

PLT120: Introduction to Global Politics

This unit will firstly introduce students to the broad discipline of International Relations (IR). We analyse the key historical developments since World War II, and the dominant IR theories that have shaped the world in which we live. Second, the unit will critically examine the central concepts of IR, such as, what is meant by the terms "anarchy, power, sovereignty and globalisation"? Finally, the unit will engage the students on contemporary international issues, such as the question of human rights, the 'war on terror' and environmental and economic sustainability.

I have been reading Claude Lévi-Strauss' Myth And Meaning. I like this passage from the introduction;

Each of us is a kind of crossroads where things happen. The crossroads is purely passive; something happens there. A different thing, equally valid, happens elsewhere. There is no choice, it is just a matter of chance.

The first chapter, 'The Meeting of Myth and Science', discusses how science had to, by necessity, strive to divorce itself from religion between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And that now, science is coming around to engage in a wider discourse which could be seen to incorporate the concerns of mythology. He also discusses his take on structuralism; about finding the links of meaning between modes of expression.

The second chapter, ''Primitive' Thinking and the 'Civilized' Mind'', discusses ways of conceiving the mindset of 'primitive' peoples, and disperses the myth the 'civilized' mind is more, well, civilized.

...myth is unsuccessful in giving man more material power over the environment. However, it gives man, very importantly, the illusion that he can understand the universe and that he does understand the universe. It is, of course, only an illusion.

I read chapter 12 of R. P. Winnington-Ingram's Euripides And Dionysus: An Interpretation of the Bacchae, which spends most of it's time on what The Bacchae isn't about, more-so than what is is. but is does say;

The play deals largely with the quality, value and implications of Dionysiac experience, which, when organised and consequently enhanced, creates a political problem. but which exists as an element in individual human experience.