Dan Müller

The illusionists
@keithfrankish.bsky.social

We shouldn't pretend, in my view, that what Artistotle et al. did was ending the mythical age and getting us into a rational age. They replaced the old myths with new ones, but that's mostly it

I'm aware of that. This particular mytheme wasn't supposed to explain all and any tradition.
I likewise like the Egyptians. A lot of the knowledge that "classical Greek" philosophy built on, came from Egypt.
But I have to object: The egyptians had a particularly diverse set of mythemes

Yes, I also first encountered the term in Lévi-Strauss' writing. Concerning the "creator"-mytheme: The mytheme of a sky-father God creating the world has been around for a while. There was a time when the earth-mother was just as important but when monotheism hit, she lost that status of a goddess.

Haha, I like that a lot! Just for completeness' sake: it isn't a neologism that I coined but rather a technical term: mytheme (myth-eme) is the smallest narrative unity of a myth. It is used predominately in comparative mythology and cultural anthropology.
But I agree: a myth-eme becomes a my-theme!

I've learned so much from our conversations. I am really greatful.
And I'd like to some day welcome you to Osnabrück. I'll make a double cappuccino from self-roasted coffee beans for you and Maria. :)

Over the past two weeks @baristaphilosopher.bsky.social has been on a research visit to Crete to discuss his work with me. He is researching the cognitive science of creativity. It's been a pleasure to host him, and we have had many stimulating conversations about his work and much more.

A picture of the harbour of Heraklion, Crete. Some fishermen are just returning from sea. There are many boats, in the background there is a Venetian fortress.

Sunset over a mountain range. In the foreground: the sea. Photo taken in the old harbour of Heraklion, Crete.

A rainbow above an island with sea in the foreground. The sky to the left is blue with white clouds, to the right the clouds are a dark, almost purplish grey.

The sun rays pierce through the clouds, the ground is wet from the rain showers just minutes before the photo was taken. The rays shine onto a ruin of a building as if it was in some sense sacred.

Crete has been so kind to me during my research stay there. I've learned so much here.

Thank you so much, @keithfrankish.com, for hosting me here and generously spending time with me. I like to think that I'll take a little of your wisdom home. I'll nurish it, so it can grow.

Going from carpenter to actor to philosopher

Moon with clouds, foto taken from the roof of my apartment

Cretan nights
(Dedicated to James Baldwin and Keith Frankish)

An old friend, clad in clouds
In a dance that outwhrils imagination.
Keep on whrling, old friend.
May we never forget the light
You shed at night.

Scene at a beach with the waves lapping in the background. A book, Édouard Glissant's essay "culture and identity: approaches to relational poetics" in the foreground

Archipelagic thought and relational poetics on Cretan shores

But it can (and often does) lead to the sustainment of societal injustices. So it is not just about the individual's musing deep questions. There's much more at stake.

Maybe if you toy around with an idea at high stakes and don't want accountability. Imagine e.g. being an astronomer in the 16th century and your observations suggest something that is in tension with church doctrine but you're so excited that you still want to share it but you also want to live

We need to study philosophy because our deepest beliefs are by necessity philosophical in nature and if we don't philosophy, we are like flies in a fly trapped glued to the beliefs of the culture we've been enculturated with.

This picture shows a coffee sour dough bread

I ruptured my Achilles tendon. But unlike the Greek hero and far more like a Sumerian peasant, I chose to get into baking as long as I can't (metaphorically) work the fields.

Behold this coffee sourdough bread, which is my first (serious) attempt at making bread :)

Life on Earth emerged fast. Far quicker than we thought | Aeon Essays It’s time to rethink how we study life’s origins. It emerged far earlier, and far quicker, than we once thought possible

Life emerged in Hades (sort of) and did so relatively quickly. Fascinating piece by @michael-marshall.bsky.social aeon.co/essays/life-... @aeon.co

Wow, it's incredible that there were archaic oceans covering nearly the whole planet's surface, since this is a mytheme often found in creation myths (such as the earth-diver myth found in native american and native north asian mythologies)

Two honey bees eating an overripe plum that has been dropped by its tree

Feasting while the blue planet cracks open - this could be an allegory. But it need not be.