Palingenesis(/ˌpælɪnˈdʒɛnəsɪs/;alsopalingenesia) is a concept ofrebirth or re-creation,used in various contexts inphilosophy,theology,politics,andbiology.Its meaning stems fromGreekpalin,meaning 'again', andgenesis,meaning 'birth'.
In biology, it is another word forrecapitulation– the largely discredited hypothesis which talks of the phase in the development of an organism in which its form and structure pass through the changes undergone in the evolution of the species. In political theory, it is a central component ofRoger Griffin's analysis offascismas a fundamentally modernist ideology.[1]In theology, the word may refer toreincarnationor to Christian spiritual rebirth.
Philosophy and theology
editThe wordpalingenesisor ratherpalingenesia(Ancient Greek:παλιγγενεσία) may be traced back to theStoics,[2][3][4][5]who used the term for the continual re-creationof theuniverse.Similarly,PhilodesignatedNoahand his sons as leaders of a renovation or rebirth of the earth,Plutarchspoke of thetransmigration of souls,andCicerofocused on his own return from exile.
In theGospel of Matthew[6]Jesus Christis quoted in Greek (although his historical words most probably would have beenAramaic) using the word "παλιγγενεσία" (palingenesia) to describe theLast Judgmentforeshadowing the event of the regeneration of a new world.[7]
In philosophy it denotes in its broadest sense the theory (e.g. of thePythagoreans) that the human soul does not die with the body but is born again in newincarnations.It is thus the equivalent ofmetempsychosis.The term has a narrower and more specific use in the system ofArthur Schopenhauer,who applied it to his doctrine that the will does not die but manifests itself afresh in new individuals. He thus modified the original metempsychosis doctrine which maintains thereincarnationof the particular soul.
Robert Burton,inThe Anatomy of Melancholy(1628), writes, "The Pythagoreans defend metempsychosis and palingenesia, that souls go from one body to another."
Politics and history
editInAntiquities of the Jews(11.3.9)Josephusused the termpalingenesisfor the national restoration of theJewsin their homeland after theBabylonian exile.The term is commonly used inModern Greekto refer to the rebirth of the Greek nation after theGreek Revolution.Thomas Carlyleused it inSartor Resartus(1833–34), referring to the "Newbirth of Society",a stage in Carlyle'scyclical view of historyas the "burning of a World-Phoenix".[8]
British political theoristRoger Griffinhas coined the termpalingenetic ultranationalismas a core tenet offascism,stressing the notion of fascism as an ideology of rebirth of astateorempirein the image of that which came before it – its ancestral political underpinnings. Examples of this areFascist ItalyandNazi Germany.UnderBenito Mussolini,Italy purported to establish an empire as the second incarnation of theRoman Empire,whileAdolf Hitler's regime purported itself to be the third palingenetic incarnation of the German "Reich" – beginning first with theHoly Roman Empire( "First Reich" ), followed by Bismarck'sGerman Empire( "Second Reich" ) and then Nazi Germany ( "Third Reich" ).
Moreover, Griffin's work on palingenesis in fascism analysed the pre-warfin de siècleWestern society. In doing so he built onFrank Kermode's workThe Sense of an Endingwhich sought to understand the belief in the death of society at the end of the century.[9]
Chilean dictatorAugusto Pinochetexpressed hispost-coupproject in governmentas a national rebirth inspired inDiego Portales,a figure of the early republic:[10]
...[democracy] will be born again purified from the vices and bad habits that ended up destroying our institutions... we are inspired in the Portalian spirit which has fused together the nation...
Science
editIn modern biology (e.g.,Ernst HaeckelandFritz Müller),palingenesishas been used for the exact reproduction of ancestral features by inheritance, as opposed tokenogenesis,in which the inherited characteristics are modified by environment.
It was also applied to the quite different process supposed byKarl Beurlento be the mechanism for hisorthogenetictheory of evolution.[11]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^Griffin, R.Modernism and Fascism(Basingstoke, 2007).
- ^Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta,2.627
- ^The concept is attributed toChrysippusbyLactantius.See: Wolfson, Harry Austryn (1961), "Immortality and Resurrection in the Philosophy of the Church Fathers"; Ferguson, Everett (ed.),Doctrines of Human Nature, Sin, and Salvation in the Early Church;Taylor & Francis, 1993, p. 329.
- ^Michael Lapidge,Stoic Cosmology.Rist, John M. (ed.),The Stoics.Cambridge University Press, 1978, pp. 182–183.
- ^Harrill, J. Albert."Stoic Physics, the Universal Conflagration, and the Eschatological Destruction of the “Ignorant and Unstable” in 2 Peter ".Rasimus, Tuomas; Engberg-Pedersen, Troels; Dunderberg, Ismo (eds.).Stoicism in Early Christianity.Baker Academic, 2010, p. 121.
- ^Matthew 19:28
- ^Matthew 19:28–30
- ^Cowlishaw, Brian (2004). "Palingenesia". In Cumming, Mark (ed.).The Carlyle Encyclopedia.Madison and Teaneck, NJ:Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.p. 366.ISBN978-0-8386-3792-0.
- ^Kermode, F.The Sense of an Ending: Studies in Theory and Fiction.Oxford, 2000.[page needed]
- ^Pinochet's discourse of 11 October 1973.
- ^Levit, Georgy S; Olsson, Lennart (2007). Wisseman, Volker (ed.).Evolution on Rails Mechanisms and Levels of Orthogenesis.Universitätsverlag Göttingen. pp.115–119.ISBN978-3-938616-85-7.
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References
edit
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Palingenesis".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
