Odysseus, hero of practical intelligence : deliberation and signs in Homer's Odyssey / Jeffrey Barnouw.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barnouw, Jeffrey.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Homer. Odyssey.

Homer.

Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character).

Odysseus.

Pragmatism in literature.

Physical Description:

ix, 377 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, [2004]

Summary:

From the Stoics, there follows a psychological tradition leading, through Hobbes and Leibniz, to Peirce and Dewey. These thinkers are drawn on 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:

Part I The Heart of Intelligence: Anticipating Consequences

1 In medias res: Two Critical Passages 7

2 Wily yet Single-Minded 21

3 Recklessness vs. Consideration 37

4 Metis as Thinking Ahead and then Back 53

5 Noos as Purpose in Odysseus and Zeus 65

6 Curiosity, Heroism, and Contentment 75

7 Daring and Enduring (Taking it): tlao, tolmao 85

8 Visceral Thinking: the Dynamics of thumos, phrenes et al. 99

9 Deliberation as a Tumult of Impulse: mermerizo, hormaino 109

Part II The Contest of Philosophies

1 Plato and Chrysippus Claim Homer 121

2 Chrysippus's Conception of Human Motivation 137

3 Discourse and Division Within the Homeric Self 149

4 'Mind' less Pragmatic Odysseus: Snell 163

5 German Pragmatisms: Leibniz and Kant 177

6 German Pragmatisms: Schiller and Schopenhauer 193

7 Allegories of Ideologies 211

8 Homeric Values, Shame and the Assembly 229

9 Homeric Clarity and Psychological Depth 249

Part III Signs and Identity: Cognition and Recognition

1 Reconnaissance and Recognition 259

2 Homer's 'sema' and the Aristotelian and Stoic 'semeion' 277

3 More Shifts in the Foundation of Signs 291

4 Signs in Hobbes's 'Discursion' and 'Prudence' 305

5 The Scar as Sign: Remembering as Discursion 319

6 Like-Minded Penelope Recognizes Her Husband 335

Appendix Writing and Oral Tradition Interact in Homer 347.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [357]-368) and indexes.

ISBN:

076183026X

OCLC:

57469842