Giorgio Buccellati
Buccellati 2013 Origini
“Alle origini della politica”,
Milano: Jaca Book
[English translation, At the Origins of Politics, London: Routledge, forth.]
Back to top: Giorgio Buccellati 2013 Origini
Excerpts from Buccellati 2013 Origini
NOTE: The notes in square brackets and in smaller font are by the author of this excerpts page.
Back to top: Giorgio Buccellati 2013 Origini
Origins and perception of the absolute
| Origins and perception of the absolute | 3.6 | And it is in this perspective [i.e., that of the notions of control, predictability, and causality] that we should also see the development of religious attitudes. If we think of religion as the institutional codification of the intuitions derived from spirituality, the perspective of control assumes particular relevance. The predictability inherent in psychological processes that I have just described could extend itself ad infinitum, and therefore, precisely, to the "comprehension" of not just finite and concrete reality but also of a reality hidden and operative, operative as far as it is seen as the ultimate source of limits. This is the absolute. The same perspective of control is extended to this, thus fully amplified in every other aspect of life. The absolute itself comes to be subject to the lens of predictability, to the ideology of control. The rich and very variegated polytheistic spirituality that developed in Mesopotamia in the historic period finds its origin in this rich prehistoric humus. |