Odysseus, Hero of Practical Intelligence: Deliberation and Signs in Homer's OdysseyIn dramatic representations and narrative reports of inner deliberation the Odyssey displays the workings of the human mind and its hero's practical intelligence, epitomized by anticipating consequences and controlling his actions accordingly. Once his hope of returning home as husband, father and king is renewed on Calypso's isle, Odysseus shows a consistent will to focus on this purpose and subordinate other impulses to it. His fabled cleverness is now fully engaged in a gradually emerging plan, as he thinks back from that final goal through a network of means to achieve it. He relies on "signs"--inferences in the form "if this, then that" as defined by the Stoic Chrysippus--and the nature of his intelligence is thematically underscored through contrast with others' recklessness, that is, failure to heed signs or reckon consequences. In Homeric deliberation, the mind is torn between competing options or intentions, not between "reason" and "desire." The lack of distinct opposing faculties and hierarchical organization in the Homeric mind, far from archaic simplicity, prefigures the psychology of Chrysippus, who cites deliberation scenes from the Odyssey against Plato's hierarchical tri-partite model. From the Stoics, there follows a psychological tradition leading through Hobbes and Leibniz, to Peirce and Dewey. These thinkers are drawn upon to show the significance of the conception of "thinking" first articulated in the Odyssey. Homer's work inaugurates an approach that has provoked philosophical conflict persisting into the present, and opposition to pragmatism and Pragmatism can be discerned in prominent critiques of Homer and his hero which are analyzed and countered in this study. |
Contents
I | 1 |
II | 7 |
III | 21 |
IV | 37 |
V | 53 |
VI | 65 |
VII | 75 |
VIII | 85 |
XIV | 163 |
XV | 177 |
XVI | 193 |
XVII | 211 |
XVIII | 229 |
XIX | 249 |
XX | 259 |
XXI | 277 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles action Adam Parry Adkins Aigisthos anticipation Aristotle Athene Barnouw called Calypso character Chrysippus cites cognition conatus conception consciousness consequences considered context decision deliberation determined Dialectic of Enlightenment disguise divine emotion enduring epic ethical Eumaeos Eurycleia Eurylochos faculty feeling gods Greek heart hero heroic Hobbes Homer human idea identity Iliad impulse inner intellectual interpretation Ithaca Kant Kantian Leibniz Long and Sedley means Menelaos mētis mind moral motivation nature noein noos Odysseus Odysseus's one's oral passage passion Penelope perceive Phaeacians phantasia philosophical phrenes Plato poem poet Polyphemos pondering Poseidon practical intelligence pragmatic present Propositional Perception psychology purpose reason recklessness recognition recognize reflects relation representation response says scar scene Schiller seems sēma semata semeiotic sense shows signify simply Snell soul speech Stobaeus Stoic suggests suitors Telemachos tells things thinking thought thumos Tiresias tradition translation understanding University Press verb Whitman words World of Odysseus Zeus