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identical with the thing ítself and cannot be substítuted with another thought. Sameness, though, is without content without a separation. Let us think of the Pelasgian creation myth (I will mention another example later). In the beginning, Eurynome, The Goddess of All Things (same), rose naked from Chaos, but found nothing substantial for her feet to rest upon, and therefore divided the sea from the sky (other), dancing lonely upon its waves. She danced towards the south, and the wind set in motion behind her seemed something new (other) and apart with which to begin a work of creation (new same). Wheeling about, she caught hold of this north wind, rubbed it between her hands, and behold! the great serpent Ophion. Eurynome danced to warm herself, wildly and more wildly, until Ophion, grown lustful, coiled about those divine limbs and was moved to couple with her. Now, the North Wind, who is also called Boreas, fertilizes; which is why mares often turn their hind-quarters to the wind and breed foals without aid of a stallion. So Eurynome was likewise got with child. (Graves 1960. p.18)? This is a very early example of the dialectic of sameness and otherness, and of the fact that the Greeks suspected something that should come as no surprise to us: it is wise to listen to them. The philosophers I discuss, and love did. (Even if there are some who would say that the celebration of Greek culture is latent racism, as they find the exclusion of African and Asian philosophy from the history of European philosophy xenophobic and call it the Eurocentric “whitewashing” of philosophy.’) 2 The Pelasgian Creation Myth (The terms in brackets are my own observations.) 3 Ex. Peter K. J. Park: Africa, Asia, and the History of Philosophy. Racism in the Formation of the Philosophical Canon, 1780-1830. As we shall see, the term “race” had an entirely different meaning in the 18th century than it does today. Of course, in order to understand this, we should not just write but also read, and we have to understand what we read. Whether we like it or not, the history of philosophy, which is tied to the history of European
