This post is one in a series on the History of Epistemological Thought . Previously in this series: Introducing Works and Days Much of the Works and Days , like the Theogony , is concerned with outlandish tales about the past. Here we have the myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Ages of Man (Golden...
As I discussed in my last post, Hesiod's Eros (Love) can be thought of as a motive force that brings entities to come together (much like gravity) and to create. Khaos felt Eros , the urge or internal force that made it seek to give birth. And what did it first give birth to? Erebos , or Darkness...
This post is one in a series on the History of Epistemological Thought . Previously in this series: The Epistemology of Divine Poetry . Even though Hesiod pleads "for the Muses told me so" as his chief intellectual justification, a careful reader can glean attempts at non-divine inference in...
This post is one in a series on the History of Epistemological Thought . Previously in this series: Ethics in the Theogony . Now that I've introduced Hesiod's teachings in his Theogony (regarding cosmology , history , human nature , and ethics ), let us consider the grounds upon which he establishes...
This post is one in a series on the History of Epistemological Thought . Previously in this series: The Inspiration of Hesiod . The Theogony is likely the work of poetry which made Hesiod's name. In his later poem Works and Days , Hesiod tells of how he won a prominent prize for poetry, and it is...
This post is one in a series on the History of Epistemological Thought . Previously in this series: Epistemology in (Western) History: From Hesiod to Hoppe . One ancient day, at the foot of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, a lowly shepherd named Hesiod tended his flock. Upon entering a clearing, he found to...