Shakespeare Explained

[stilltrucking]

Shakespeare Explained
September 1997
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy,

--Hamlet, Act I, v, 166-7

"Your philosophy" (where "your" does not refer to Horatio personally, but is used as an impersonal pronoun) is, in this case, what we would now call "science." (The word "science" did not come to be used in its modern sense till the nineteenth century.)

These two lines have been used for three and a half centuries to beat down what has been conceived to be scientific dogmatism and have usually been so used by mystics of one sort or another.

Nevertheless, scientists are perfectly aware of the truth of these lines--without it there would, in fact, be no need for scientific research--and search humbly for just those things that might as yet be undreamed of. It is the mystics who, for their part, do not search but think they "know"--by revelation, intuition, or other non-rational fashion--and it is they who are usually the arrogant ones.

-- Guide to Shakespeare
Isaac Asimov
http://www.humanistsofutah.org/1997/sha ... ained.html

[joel]

Which makes some of the heretic-scientist/natural philosopher-mystics who lived (and were sometimes burned at the stake) such interesting characters in the century leading up to Shakespeare's work...
Giordano Bruno,
Gallileo Gallilei,
John Dee,
Leonardo da Vinci (with or without a code).

And we think we're so advanced these days, spiritually and scientifically.

[stilltrucking]

The Influence of Thucydides in the Modern World
The Father of Political Realism Plays a Key Role in Current Balance of Power Theories
By Alexander Kemos
Thucydides, the Ancient Greek historian of the fifth century B.C., is not only the father of scientific history, but also of political "realism," the school of thought which posits that interstate relations are based on might rather than right.

http://www.hri.org/por/thucydides.html



I am lost in the ozone somewhere between the Hebrews with their historical religion and the Greeks with their scientific history.. We still have the same nervous system. And the priestly class has learned how to manipulate it even better with the help of miraculous technologies.

I suppose I am getting off the subject.

I watch too much TV. I go from PBS to The Christian Broadcasting Network.

I am a mess.


"You're Living In America
At The End Of The Millennium

You're Living In America
Leave Your Conscience At The Tone

And When You're Livinging In America
At The End Of The Millennium
You're What You Own"

RENT…Mark

[mnaz]

To sum it up...

The ozone is fucked, might makes right, and the mystics are the arrogant ones.

These are indeed dangerous times of data proliferation....

Just say no. At least for today.

And Shakespeare? He had a way with words. He invented a few of them.