I'm pleased to meet you, and was touched by your appreciation of my remarks. I too wonder why what seems so simple and straightforward to me seems paradoxical to many others in the pagan community. Even many who are comfortable with polytheism as such, wish nevertheless to draw the line at believing that the Gods of different pantheons are not the same small set. I am totally against this. I even believe that the Greek and Roman Gods are distinct from one another, unless they tell me otherwise.
I think that monotheism has encouraged people to grow lazy about the way in which they think about unity and multiplicity, so that when people approach polytheism, they have in their minds the idea that there are all kinds of problems with it, even though they usually have not evaluated the supposed problems for themselves. Polytheism has few defenders and many detractors, including polite ones who think that they are being helpful or giving the ancients credit for something noble and intellectually progressive when they reshape ancient polytheism in less polytheistic terms.
I could go on at length about the different forms that this takes and the flaws I see in the typical arguments on this subject, but it would run to an absurd length. I will just say that I think the concept of individuality is a very underrated one in the history of thought, and that in my opinion, resolving the pseudo-problems people perceive with a radically polytheistic metaphysics could contribute to debates in other areas, debates about pluralism and relativism in the social sciences, for example.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 10:48 pm (UTC)I think that monotheism has encouraged people to grow lazy about the way in which they think about unity and multiplicity, so that when people approach polytheism, they have in their minds the idea that there are all kinds of problems with it, even though they usually have not evaluated the supposed problems for themselves. Polytheism has few defenders and many detractors, including polite ones who think that they are being helpful or giving the ancients credit for something noble and intellectually progressive when they reshape ancient polytheism in less polytheistic terms.
I could go on at length about the different forms that this takes and the flaws I see in the typical arguments on this subject, but it would run to an absurd length. I will just say that I think the concept of individuality is a very underrated one in the history of thought, and that in my opinion, resolving the pseudo-problems people perceive with a radically polytheistic metaphysics could contribute to debates in other areas, debates about pluralism and relativism in the social sciences, for example.