I Kill, Therefore I Am: War and Killing as Structures of Human Spirit

Authors

  • Stefan Sonderling University of South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2413-3086/1951

Keywords:

Heraclitus, Aristotle, Nietzsche, war, polemos, Hegel, immortals, killing, consciousness, noble-savage

Abstract

This article uncovers the function of war and killing as the primary and primordial formative structure of human spirituality and religious experience. Tracing the representations of war in texts of philosophers and social thinkers from ancient Greece to the present, reveals a tradition of thought that considers war as the defining characteristic of humanity and as the foundation for constructing human and divine identities. While war is a social and collective activity, at its core are the actions of fighting and killing that are forms of interpersonal engagement. It is this interpersonal engagement that many thinkers imagine as being the source of human consciousness, identity and meaning; as Heraclitus put it: war creates both men and gods, making mortals immortal and immortals mortal.

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Author Biography

Stefan Sonderling, University of South Africa

Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication Science, University of South Africa

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Published

2018-03-14

How to Cite

Sonderling, Stefan. 2018. “I Kill, Therefore I Am: War and Killing As Structures of Human Spirit”. Phronimon 19:17 pages. https://doi.org/10.25159/2413-3086/1951.

Issue

Section

Research Articles
Received 2016-11-25
Accepted 2017-01-11
Published 2018-03-14