Sigmoid Flexure Mundus Plato

[Terrance]

 Our true Deity is Mechanism...The strong Mechanical character, so
visible in the spiritual pursuits and methods of this age, may be traced
much farther into the condition and prevailing disposition of our
spiritual nature itself. Consider, for
example, the general fashion of Intellect in this era.
 Intellect, the power man has of knowing and believing, is now nearly
 synonymous with Logic, or the mere power of arranging and
communicating.
 Its implement is not Meditation, but Argument. "Cause and effect" is
 almost the only category under which we look at, and work with, all
Nature. 

--Carlyle 




Soc. At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god,
whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to
him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and
calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his
great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus
was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great
city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god
himself
is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions,
desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit
of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several
uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or
disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus
said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they
came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and
give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for
the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor
of an art is not always the best judge of the
utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in
this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love
of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which
they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness
in the learners' souls,
because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the
external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific
which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence,
and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth;
they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they
will appear to be omniscient and will
generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show
of wisdom without the reality. 

	--Phaedrus