Let's play What's My Arche?

This is a long blog filled with music links and pictures - apologies for length. But remember, I'm a writing major: once I start writing, I can't stop.

Let's start with a little trippy electro-rock to get the ball rolling; this is a great song for discussing the arche. (PS, let me know if any of you find a "miracle kaleidoscope superior." Could use one of them.)

In Angels and Demons (the movie), an under-developed professor character runs around Rome solving crime, saving priests, and doing other such things that college professors would neither be asked nor allowed to do. Though it has a terrible script, it serves as a nice pop-culture lead-in to my blog: the conspirators brand each kidnapped priest with one of the four classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water. (The conspirators are planning to destroy the church, and apparently, branding classical elements on kidnapped priests is step one to the destruction of Catholicism.) Since the conspirators say that the "God particle" is anti-matter, which is made of none of these elements, my take on the movie's symbolism was that the four elements represented man's faulty perception of God.

But what if one of the elements was actually a physical manifestation of God (or more accurately, the first principle)? I will investigate which element I would identify as the arche if I had been a prominent philosopher in ancient Greece:

EARTH

[I couldn't possibly pass up a chance to throw MJ's powerful "Earth Song" at you, even if it's not necessarily related.]

So far, I don't think we've studied any philosopher that identifies earth as the arche (first principle). But the "Mother Earth" moniker is thrown around often by the most radical environmentalists and sometimes by the hippy/peacenik crowd (I consider myself one of these - Kucinich for President in '16). But there's not a lot of substantive argument for earth as the arche. In Theogony, Gaia is the first of the protogenoi born out of Chaos, the primordial 'soup.' So Chaos seems like a much more likely arche - but it's not one of the four classical elements.

AIR

"Just as our soul, being air, holds us together and controls us, so do breath and air surround the whole cosmos." - Anaximenes (Curd 14)

[I'm not Christian by name, but I highly recommend this cool Christian song that mentions all the classical elements in the 'person' of God, the one who is "Breathing Life."]

The above Anaximenes quote is an intriguing statement: after all, don't we, especially within the cultural tradition of Christianity, associate the soul with breath (God breathes into man the "breath of life," God "gives to all life, breath, and all things")? A friend once told me that "Air is a god." I don't remember whether he thought it was the only god or just one of many, but he informed me that he quite literally worshiped air. I never witnessed him actually worshiping air, and I'm not sure I know what he meant by that; but I don't doubt that he meant what he said. That all things could be derived from air is fully comprehensible to me. No bodily function seems more spiritual than breathing, and, of course, it's an integral part of several spiritual practices (yoga). It's all around us, but we can't see it; and yet we can't live without it. Very powerful, uncontrollable things happen in the air (tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning). Perfect arche material. Point for Team Air.

FIRE

"Fire will advance and judge and convict all things." - Heraclitus (Curd 38)

[Sorry for all these Christian-penned songs, but I'm picking ambiguous ones...but here's one that says God is a "Consuming Fire."]

First, if you're going to convict all things, it hardly seems worth the effort to judge them. But petty and stupid critiques aside...fire is, in a word, epic! It has all the passion and energy and power of a deity. It's a part of our sun, which gives us the warmth we cannot live without. It destroys without mercy or distinction (convicting all things). It's used to remove all traces of our lives from the earth, for those who choose cremation. It's a gloriously fearsome monster. Because it is both soothing and destructive, its ambiguity, uncontrollable, indefinite nature reminds me of the concept of God. Point for Team Fire.

WATER

"Thales, the founder of this kind of philosophy, declares [the arche] to be water." - Aristotle (Curd 10)

[Now that we're on water, you need to get the "River Song" playing! Or I guess if you hate the Beach Boys and love Freud, you could always stick with Billy Joel's "River of Dreams."]

The above is a real uncharismatic quote, but it's not Thales' fault he's been obscured by time. He actually had a pretty good idea, because, as Aristotle further explains, water is "the substance persisting but changing in its attributes (10)," and that's just ambiguous and powerful enough for me to accept that it could be the first principle. I must admit my most spiritual moments have taken place in conjunction with water - like sitting by the Columbia River, or throwing my feet in the beautiful creek that ran behind my house (both pictured below). I don't know how you Texans do without water.


Is this the best place to take a lunch break or what?


I know I'm very lucky to have access to this in my leisure time.

More than half of my body is water. More than half! That's a nice symbol of divine control if water is indeed the arche. If the flux concept from Heraclitus can be believed, then water is a perfect metaphor for god or the first principle. When I get thirsty, I can't think of anything else except obtaining water; when I want to feel refreshed, renewed or clean, I get me some agua. And I absolutely adore rain to such an extent that I consider it my source of life, renewing and rejuvenating and healing my earth, keeping my state of Washington evergreen (you kinda have to think this way if you live in the Northwest). At this moment, I count nine posters of bodies of water on my wall - so I like water. Two points for Team Water.

So the score is:
Earth - 0
Air - 1
Fire - 1
Water - 2

If anyone has any points for Team Earth, I'd appreciate the input. Also, what's your favorite element for arche (if you have one)?

Too high-minded?

Note: I have failed, in this post, to philosophize without possums. I wonder if it is even possible for me to philosophize without possums?

Having friends who do not enjoy academic learning, I've learned to distance myself from elitism. I simply won't believe that learning in school is better than learning in life. I don't need to know American history to drive a car, and Occam's razor won't help me get a job. Every moment in philosophy class, I walk a tight wire - I love thinking about life, but the moment it becomes more important to me than helping people, I should drop the class.


Occam's razor: won't help me get a job, but might help me shave.

Don't get me wrong: I love learning. I love school, crazy though it may seem. As long as I am academically successful, I will enjoy school. But many people don't. Some are bitter about being unsuccessful in school; some were screwed by the system; some just don't think the knowledge they gain in school is useful to them. And who am I to say they're wrong? In conversation with a truly happy nonintellectual, I found myself in crisis: was college foolish? Am I missing out on great life experiences by furthering my education? It's taken me a long time to convince myself I'm not missing out (more on that in a later blog).

To me, Pythagoras' school rather vividly represents Baylor. A great system founded on high ideas, striving to help individuals achieve their highest potentials through education. I'd say our religion majors are an example of our akousmatoi, and other majors like mine represent the mathematikoi. Most of us are here to get into a business, but the religion majors are here because their Christian values matter more to them than business. They have every right to turn their lives in that direction. But I see a world whose business is business, not values.

We mathematikoi believe things, and we certainly have values. But seeing how the world works, seeing how a possum picks up my trash and uses it to make its life better – that teaches me more than philosophy class. I can't imagine a world where values were all that mattered. To adjust the quote Brittney used in class, I don't think “matters that matter” are all that matter (God, I sound like Heraclitus).


Possums: not often the subject of philosophy class.

I couldn't live in the world without the 'business' of the world. I couldn't live without the love I've experienced, the places I've been, the people I've known and unknown, the joints I shouldn't have smoked, or the trees I've hugged (that last one's a joke - but I do like trees), all things that often go unaddressed in religion and philosophy class. These things don't always “matter,” but pieced together, they make life work – and matter.

I have a burning ambition to simply work and play and be in the world, and thinking about my life holds only a small place in my routine. I suppose you could call me a passive liver; but I don't particularly enjoy the idea of being called an internal organ. So just call me one of the mathematekoi.