<div>The areas of my expertise are limited to law and philosophy. ;) So I've just about reached the limit of my depth. And my specialization isn't in ancient Greek philosophy, so I can't tell you all that much about aquastors or Paracelsus, but Platonic idealism I can. At the very least, the way I read Wolfe was using Plato is more how Plato was received by the Gnostics and Neoplatonists, who had a decidedly more systematic and mystic bent to their Platonism than what I guess we could call "orthodox" Platonism.</div>
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<div>Lane<br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 6:16 PM, Jordon Flato <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jordonflato@gmail.com">jordonflato@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Lane,<br>Fabulous stuff. Indeed, the etymology of those terms now seems extremely important. It is easy to say now that resurrected Severian is an Eidolon, and that this happens to him in the perfect place in the myth.<br>
<br>And your point about Thecla is taken to heart as well.
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 4:11 PM, Lane Haygood <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lhaygood@gmail.com" target="_blank">lhaygood@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div>The etymology of these words shall help.</div>
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<div>Eidolon is a Greek philosophical term, denoting the abstract reality of an idea. For Plato, these are the universal Forms, the perfect instantiations of a given idea that all particular instances of are imperfect emanations. Aquastor comes from Paracelsus, an entity formed from thought alone. So an Eidolon is a projection from a higher world (the Platonic world of ideals/Yesod) to a lower world (the physical world/Briah). An aquastor would be a created being formed of pure thought (intention).</div>
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<div>It's also important to note that Severian only absorbs some of Thecla's memory and personality, but not her consciousness itself. While these things may be in some way linked to the brain, the sense of identity, the self-consciousness and transcendental unity of apperception, is not, and thus, Severian-as-intentional-being never experiences a disconnect between his death(s) and rebirth(s).</div>
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<div>Lane</div></font>
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