Saturday, March 10, 2018

"Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta" or "I refute it thus"

I am reading Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung.  The last time I read it was in high school XX years ago, when the 60's still reverberated and pot (not "weed") was everywhere.  I mention the latter only because Jung's descriptions of his explorations into his unconscious, with objects actually ... moving around him ... was far more emotionally understandable on pot or even acid (not that I knew that but was told by others.)

But Jung acknowledges too the unreality of the unconscious world and so uses the phrase "Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta" to note that his professional challenge was to bring his subjective understanding of his unconscious down to something that actually was useful and would help his troubled patients. 

Looking up Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta it means ""Here is Rhodes, jump here" and is from Aesop's Fables, and according to the Maverick Philosopher, means "put your money where your mouth is."  Prove, in the real world, your theories, and somehow that means something like Johnson's refutation of Berkeley's immaterialism.  




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