عنوان

Assessing Borrowing

Number

LA108392

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Assessing Borrowing

General Material Designation

[Article]

First Statement of Responsibility

Joseph Azize

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

The history of esoteric currents cannot be intrinsically closed to scholarly research and query. Here, we shall examine just one question: that of methodology in examining the sources of esoteric systems. We shall take but one case study: that of Tobias Churton's recent book-length efforts to "deconstruct" George Ivanovich Gurdjieff and his teaching. Like others before him, he traces diverse aspects of Gurdjieff's teaching to different sources, viewing Gurdjieff as a synthesiser, who disguised his debt to Western Esotericism and presented it as his "Fourth Way". How can such a theory be evaluated? Is it possible to draw up a canon of principles for assessing borrowing? In evaluating borrowing, does the whole of a teaching possess a significance over and above the parts? What is the significance of the phenomenon of borrowing? After noting some results of research on inter-cultural borrowings in ancient mythology, I make suggestions for sound methodology. The history of esoteric currents cannot be intrinsically closed to scholarly research and query. Here, we shall examine just one question: that of methodology in examining the sources of esoteric systems. We shall take but one case study: that of Tobias Churton's recent book-length efforts to "deconstruct" George Ivanovich Gurdjieff and his teaching. Like others before him, he traces diverse aspects of Gurdjieff's teaching to different sources, viewing Gurdjieff as a synthesiser, who disguised his debt to Western Esotericism and presented it as his "Fourth Way". How can such a theory be evaluated? Is it possible to draw up a canon of principles for assessing borrowing? In evaluating borrowing, does the whole of a teaching possess a significance over and above the parts? What is the significance of the phenomenon of borrowing? After noting some results of research on inter-cultural borrowings in ancient mythology, I make suggestions for sound methodology.

Date of Publication

2020

Physical description

1-30

Title

Aries

Volume Number

20/1

International Standard Serial Number

1570-0593

Subject Term

cultural borrowing

Subject Term

esoteric tradition

Subject Term

Fourth Way

Subject Term

gnosticism

Subject Term

Gurdjieff

Subject Term

P.D. Ouspensky

Subject Term

Tobias Churton

Subject Term

Yezidis

Joseph Azize

Call Number

10.1163/15700593-02001001

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y