16. Some might feel the study of myth, and especially the myth of Tolkien, is a path to the power and moral force of our ancestors who drew their life from belief and not knowledge. Although myth is one of the highest forms of abstract and imaginative thought, mathematics is higher, but it lacks the emotions.
--Taum Santoski, circa 1984
Some might feel the study of myth, and especially the myth of Tolkien, is a path to the power and moral force of our ancestors who drew their life from belief and not knowledge. Although myth is one of the highest forms of abstract and imaginative thought, mathematics is higher, but it lacks the emotions.
ReplyDeleteBut this argument assumes as a premise that mythical thinking and mathematical thinking are of the same "class" of thought. Even if they were, it would be debatable as to whether mathematics is "higher". Of course, at this point in the logical discussion, one would need to digress to ask "Higher in what way? What quality is being measured?"
There is also the unquestion premise that our ancestors drew their life "from belief and not from knowledge". How so? What evidence is there that belief trumped knowledge? And belief in what? And how was that belief contrary to knowledge (another unquestioned element in his argument). Knowledge in what?
(*sigh* I would have loved to discuss this with him.)