According to Bela Hamvas, mankind has been pushing an irresolvable
paradox ahead of him: the paradox of
lie. The origin of this paradox
can be traced back to the event of an ancient
intellectual crisis. As
he asserts, in prehistoric times people did not have any conception of
what lie (or liying) was simply beacuse there was no need for them to
differentiate between true and false. The occurance of the first lie,
the `proton pseudos`, can be attributed to certain actions of some
extraordinary individuals in the initials of human culture(s). Hamvas
comes to the daring conclusion that the well-known founders of
religions of various cultures have set up such high
ideals that
although no one would be
able to accomplish them still became part of
humans` world view (Weltanschauung). In fact, with the creation of
the modern intellectual man lie also began its own course, all because
of the inherent irreconcilability between the ideals and everyday-
life practices. If action and expectation, spirit and life, theory and
practice do not meet, then one could only be able to lie.
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