Katalepsis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Katalepsis is a term that originally refers to the Stoic philosophers and was to them, a landmark ideological premise regarding one's state of mind as it relates to grasping fundamental philosophical concepts. The Greek Skeptics (who of course chose the Stoics as their natural philosophical opposites) debated much of what the Stoics eschewed regarding the human mind and one's methods of understanding greater meanings. In reading this article [1] about the Skeptics, one can catch a few objective references to the origin of the word katalepsis.
Informally in modern times, it means that one has reached a state of complete understanding (regarding all things, almost literally "beyond" everything). It is also referred to extensively in the book "Darwin's Blade" by Dan Simmons, first in the context of a Vietnam era sniper (the protagonist in his earlier life) who reaches a complete killing state without conscious hindrance [albeit out of complete and proper/morally approved necessity. Essentially without negative moral or social connotation]. From then on, the author's subsequent use of the term implies that modern humans [specifically the main characters] can reach this "state of katalepsis" in any given critical situation, especially those that require mental or spiritual fortitude.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
