From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Wed Nov 14 2001 - 07:55:50 MST
Forward with permission from Remi. --Amara
From: "remi sussan" <rsussan@yahoo.com>
To: <amara@amara.com>
Subject: Re: French culture and extropianism (was Re: Hello)
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 14:58:53 +0100
Hello Amara,
I reply to you privately because I'm no more subscribed to the extropian
list, but continue to browse the archives frequently. As you mentioned one
my intellectual heroes, I couldn't resist :)..
Vernant is great. He wrote with Marcel Detienne a book which, IMHO, is
extremely interesting for people interested in transhumanism, about the
goddess Metis (Metis ou Les ruses de l'intelligence). as you probably know,
Greek viewed knowledge as a very abstract thing, and discarded strongly any
practical application; contrary to Romans, they despised technology. But
Metis is a kind of "underground" goddess, associated with "tekne" and all
kinds of practical tricks, and, because of Greek repulsion toward this
aspect of thought, appears as very ambiguous to them. Odysseus, for instance
is a "metisian hero", but Odysseus, although being well-known, is much less
exemplary of the "hero" than Hercules or Achilles.
Of course, it would be interesting to see in Metis a "Goddess",i.e. a
mythological role model, for philosophies involved in technology...
As for Vernant teaching French politicians, I cannot tell you, but I seem to
remember he had been involved politically in his youth (leftist), so perhaps
he continues to have some contacts...
Jacqueline de Romilly is one of the most famous historian of Greece in
France, but I don't know a lot about her (although I have probably one of
her books on my shelves, but who knows...;)
Remi
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