George Allan - The importances of the past: a meditation on the authority of tradition

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title	:	The Importances of the Past : A Meditation On the Authority of Tradition
author	:	Allan, George.
publisher	:	State University of New York Press
isbn10 | asin	:	0887061168
print isbn13	:	9780887061165
ebook isbn13	:	9780585059648
language	:	English
subject	Tradition (Philosophy) , Authority, Values.
publication date	:	1986
lcc	:	B105.T7A44 1986eb
ddc	:	121/.3
subject	:	Tradition (Philosophy) , Authority, Values.

Page iii The Importances of the Past A Meditation On The Authority Of Tradition George Allan State University of New York Press

Page iv Acknowledgements The Marvell Press, London, England, has given permission to reprint the poem "Church Going" by Philip Larkin from his book The Less Deceived (1955). Anne-Ruth Ediger Baehr has given permission to print her poem "The Bridge" from the not-yet-published A Glimpse of Dragonflies. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany 1986 State of University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Allan, George, 1935 The importances of the past. (SUNY series in philosophy) includes index. 1. Tradition (Philosophy) 2. Authority. 3. Values. I. Title. II. Series. B105.T7A44 1985 121'.3 85-2752 ISBN 0-88706-116-8 ISBN 0-88706-117-6 (pbk.)

Page v For my daughter Susan whose loyalty to friends and to ideals is what this book describes

Page vii Contents Preface ix Chapter 1: Common Ground 1 Chapter 2: Holy Ground 13 Chapter 3: Solid Ground 43 Chapter 4: The Historical Past 67 Chapter 5: The Mythic Past 95 Chapter 6: The Eternal Past 125 Chapter 7: The Arthurian Tradition 153 Chapter 8: The Unraveling of Tradition 191 Chapter 9: The End of Tradition 227 Notes 245

Page ix Preface According to the ancient legends, Menelaus needed to learn a truth from Proteus that the sea-god was not about to divulge. Every careful argument, each appeal to emotion, even an attempt to evoke the answer by force of arms, was to no avail. Proteus, wily shape-shifter that he was, had a thousand ploys for avoiding the advances of Menelaus. The outcome of the confrontations was therefore always the same. For all his energy and nobility of purpose, Menelaus was in the end no closer to the truth than in the beginning. But Idothea, the daughter of Proteus, counseled Menelaus to seize hold of her father tightly while he slept, to take him thus by surprise and then to hang on determinedly and patiently no matter what strange shapes Proteus might assume in his efforts to shake loose. And so Proteus is surprised, and he responds by running through his repertoire of shapes, the many masks behind which he hides the truth that Menelaus demands. Proteus becomes a lion, then a dragon, a panther, a giant hog, and in growing desperation becomes first a running brook and next a sturdy oak. At last exhausted, the spectrum of his deceptions having all been tried in vain, Proteus assumes his real form and, his cunning now given way to candor, tells Menelaus the long-sought truth.1 Plato was after the same insight in his notion of the divided line.2 Truth is protean, and if asked directly to reveal itself will offer instead some clever disguise, some beguiling or fearsome surface by means of which it can elude us. But if we grasp hold of the world firmly and allow it to run through its repertoire of possibilities, the truth of things will eventually emerge.

Page x There are basically four shapes, says Plato, in which truth presents itself. One is imagination, another action, a third science, and a fourth dialectic. All four must be experienced by us, each for its own sake and for the totality to which it contributes. But none of these shapes by itself suffices to disclose truth in its totality. Each provides at best a glimpse, a limited perspective, but never the truth whole and complete. Yet if we are patient enough and steadfast enough in our determination, the four shapes will at last collectively yield up their secret. These four kinds of knowing are usually interpreted as composing for Plato an epistemological ladder by which the pilgrim searching after truth might mount up from ignorance to understanding. Imagination, the lowest level of the ladder, is the furthest from truth, whereas dialectic at the top of the ascent brings one into the pure presence of that truth. The earlier stages are to be set aside as the subsequent ones are each in its turn obtained.

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