And you thought I was making it up
Jan 20th, 2010 by Micah Tillman | 3 Comments |
You remember last post? The one where I said that many people hold to a “bizarre ontology” that claims, “The separate individuals you see are really just manifestations of the group, which is the reality that lies behind them and acts through them (and upon whom you act through the individuals you see)”?
Remember that one?
Okay, now, you thought I was just making it up, right? That I drew this silly little picture to illustrate the ontology out of the fevered ravings of my own book-mad mind?
Well, you were wrong. Pretty much wrong anyway. Partially wrong, at least. Not wholly correct, on any account, even if there was some truth to what you were saying.
Remember Hobbes? Not the tiger, but the guy he was named after? Thomas Hobbes? Leviathan?
Remember Leviathan‘s “frontispiece” by Abraham Bosse?
If you don’t, here it is:
(Thanks to Wikimedia Commons for the image.)
Click on the image (which will pull up the image in a new tab, and then click on the image in that tab) to see a larger version.
Look at what the Sovereign is made of — he who, for Hobbes, is the “representative” of the people.
Hobbe’s view and the “bizarre ontology” belong to the same family of bizarre ontologies. The difference is that the bizarre ontology I have in mind takes an action by any member of the “body” to be an action of the whole, and therefore any action upon any member of the “body” to be an action upon the whole.
Hobbes, on the other hand, focused more on the idea that the action of the Sovereign Representative was the action of all. (The bizarre ontology I have in mind treats every member of the body as being a kind of sovereign representative.)
Hey Micah, Not sure I understand all of this but how does this relate or not to Paul’s use of body in I Corinthians. Is that not a body that is a whole and all parts are necessary? Though I guess if the eye wants the whole body to be an eye that doesn’t work.
There’s lots of “body” stuff in 1 Corinthians, interestingly enough. Becoming one body with another person through sex (something I don’t think most people take seriously). Partaking of the body of Christ through Eucharist (something more people take seriously). Being members of the body of Christ (something a lot of people take seriously).
What I think is especially interesting is when people try to apply Pauline metaphors for the church to the state. In whose body do they think we’re participating when we’re participating in the “body politic”? Who is the Head of the body politic? What is the Spirit that gives life to the body politic?
Anyway, I don’t think that’s answering your question, though. Let me know if what I’m missing. :-)
[...] So, to prove that I hadn’t just made up the Bizarre Ontology — but rather that it was something that people actually believe — I used the “frontispiece” from Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. [...]