I discuss the human need or drive for meaning （which I call ＂the Human Eros＂） and how this centers on various central or core meanings that become embodied so as to constitute definitive identities--identities of ...I discuss the human need or drive for meaning （which I call ＂the Human Eros＂） and how this centers on various central or core meanings that become embodied so as to constitute definitive identities--identities of self, group, culture, and world. 1 call these ＂mythoi＂ （and not ＂myths＂ insofar as their key feature is their importance and value--＂myth＂ carries with it the distracting association of ＂falsehood,＂ especially ＂unscientific falsehood;＂ science is loaded with its mythoi like everything else.） These mythoi must be embodied experientially and in cultural habits, actions, rituals, i.e., praxeis, in order to renew and reconstitute a sense of meaning and value in existence. That is, mythoi serve the Human Eros. These mythoi employ tropes or cultural types as structural principles. Tropes themselves tend to group in various relational patterns and tensions that I call ＂constellations.＂ Much of the ＂play of signs＂ in cultural creation lies in exploring, clarifying, and even antagonizing these relations as ways of deepening the world of meaning. ＂Play＂ explores possibilities, beginning with given actualities. It may explore relations that remain distant from the core of a culture＇s or individual＇s self-understanding. But it may approach and, at times, directly engage core meanings and values, possibly transforming them.展开更多
文摘I discuss the human need or drive for meaning （which I call ＂the Human Eros＂） and how this centers on various central or core meanings that become embodied so as to constitute definitive identities--identities of self, group, culture, and world. 1 call these ＂mythoi＂ （and not ＂myths＂ insofar as their key feature is their importance and value--＂myth＂ carries with it the distracting association of ＂falsehood,＂ especially ＂unscientific falsehood;＂ science is loaded with its mythoi like everything else.） These mythoi must be embodied experientially and in cultural habits, actions, rituals, i.e., praxeis, in order to renew and reconstitute a sense of meaning and value in existence. That is, mythoi serve the Human Eros. These mythoi employ tropes or cultural types as structural principles. Tropes themselves tend to group in various relational patterns and tensions that I call ＂constellations.＂ Much of the ＂play of signs＂ in cultural creation lies in exploring, clarifying, and even antagonizing these relations as ways of deepening the world of meaning. ＂Play＂ explores possibilities, beginning with given actualities. It may explore relations that remain distant from the core of a culture＇s or individual＇s self-understanding. But it may approach and, at times, directly engage core meanings and values, possibly transforming them.
