Archaic Versus Modern - The Language Issue.

One of the reasons why our cognitive processes have altered in time is a result of the language we have used to describe these processes.  This transition in language from "archaic" to "modern" has resulted in a transition in our consciousness which leads to a more materialistic and nihilistic worldview.  In order for us to truly understand who we are, however, it would be necessary to re-establish the archaic understanding of man and uproot the modern understanding.  And to begin to do so would be to examine the language we use to refer to cognition.  Only then once we have made the language transition can we begin to understand how the cognition of pre-modern man differs from our own, but also why our own is far more superficial (and our own today far more superficial than it was even 10 years ago).

One important distinction occurs in the transition from the notion of soul to that of mind.  This occured when Descartes divided the man (note the word "man" here as opposed to the modern "human") into a mind/body dualism whereas before man had been understood as a material being which possessed a soul.  However, while the Platonic and Gnostic understanding maintained that the soul was distinct from the body and composed of etherial stuff, the Christian understanding maintained that the soul was indissolubly linked up with the body and further that the resurrection would be a bodily resurrection.

An important distinction has also occurred in the development of psychology.  In ancient terms, psychology was understood in terms of sin which was supposedly the result of the temptations of Satan or demons.  In the middle ages, this was codified into the notion of Seven Deadly Sins.  In modern times, these notions became therapeutized into psychological neuroses and psychoses, which further developed from the late nineteenth century notions into modern psychological notions of mental illness.

Other distinctions exist in the fact that mental processes were once referred to in terms of subservience and submission which now are explained in terms of anxieties and drives.

These alterations in our language are an indication of the alteration that has taken place in our consciousness and to reclaim the consciousness of pre-modern or indeed even of archaic man it would be necessary to restore his langugage to use.