How will the Promethean myth end?

• Authors: Josef Šmajs
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The author notes that European spiritual culture has provided the world with two great myths: the myth of Jesus Christ and the Promethean myth. These two myths were an early indication of the rise of the hidden predatory spiritual paradigm. As a result of this paradigm (setting), later culture hypertrophically strengthened the human genetic predisposition towards an aggressive adaptive strategy. It is therefore necessary, according to the author, to expose and criticize this predatory paradigm and eventually transform it into a biophilic paradigm. If we want to understand this requirement, we need a higher-order theory, an evolutionary ontological theory of culture. One of the ways of achieving this objective is to weaken and criticize the myth in which the defiant Prometheus acts as an honored civilization hero. In the second part the author briefly introduces his evolutionary-ontological concept of culture. He defends the claim that culture is an artificial system with its own internal information and that two types of order have come into existence within culture in harmony with this information (spiritual culture): 1. strictly information-prescribed structures (specifically the material culture and technology), 2. Spontaneously (through succession) originating structures (especially institutions). If we want to change the orientation of the cultural system, we have to change not only its current information but also its former spiritual setting (paradigm).

Keywords

EN

cultural system; predatory spiritual paradigm; cultural information; two types of cultural order

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 495-506

Dates

published

2013-10-01

online

2013-09-28

Contributors

author

Josef Šmajs

• Masaryk University

References

• [1] Šmajs, J. (2006). Culture. In H. J. Birx (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Anthropology, pp. 636–640. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
• [2] Šmajs, J. (2008). Evolutionary Ontology. Reclaiming the Value of Nature by Transforming Culture. New York and Amsterdam: Rodopi.
• [3] Šmajs, J. (2012). Evoluční ontologie kultury a problém podnikání. [Evolutionary Ontology of Culture and the Issues of Business]. Brno: Masarykova univerzita and Doplněk.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s13374-013-0144-2