Autonomous Politics: Imaginary and Imagination in Doxology

Abstract

In Homer, the word πόλις seems to simultaneously refer to two aspects of communal living. On the one hand, it signifies the physical space where a community has erected its dwellings, a meaning exemplified in the habitual question posed to every newly arrived traveler: where is your polis and where are your parents? But polis also signifies an imagined community, such as when “the whole city of the Troyans [Τρώων δὲ πόλις] has come out against them fearlessly”. And although these two significations of the concept are usually understood as inseparable sides of a whole, the ancient Greeks did nonetheless leave us with tales of how a polis could be brought along to a new location if necessity called for it. What makes possible the idea of bringing a polis along, even though one is fleeing from its material foundations, is the human ability called φαντᾰσία by the Greeks, signifying not only ‘appearing’ or ‘appearance for consciousness’, but also the more active capabilities of consciousness to ‘re-present’ or ‘creatively imagine’. Phantasia could thus be said to constitute (together with logos) that which, according to Aristotle, makes humans into the foremost among the zōon politikon: while many animals construct communal living quarters (anthills, meerkat burrows, beehives, etc.), only humans supposedly pair (and perhaps even strengthen) their physical protection from the elements and other ­threats with an imagined community.

Cite

APA

Stagnell, A. (2022). Autonomous politics: Imaginary and imagination in doxology. In E. Bengtson, K. Ekeman, M. Gorgis, L. Schou Therkildsen, & A. Stagnell (Eds.), Shadows in the cave: Revisiting Rosengren’s doxology (pp. 277–295). Retorikförlaget. https://doi.org/10.52610/gomx2908

@incollection{stagnell2022autonomous,
  author    = {Stagnell, Alexander},
  title     = {Autonomous Politics: Imaginary and Imagination in Doxology},
  booktitle = {Shadows in the Cave: Revisiting Rosengren's Doxology},
  editor    = {Bengtson, Erik and Ekeman, Karl and Gorgis, Mirey and Schou Therkildsen, Louise and Stagnell, Alexander},
  pages     = {277--295},
  publisher = {Retorikförlaget},
  address   = {Ödåkra},
  year      = {2022},
  doi       = {10.52610/gomx2908}
}