Plato, Aristotle, and the double-saeculum pattern

[Odin]

I've been reading The Cave And The Light, Plato Versus Aristotle And The Struggle for The Soul of Western Civilization by Arthur Herman, and I noticed that the themes of the book, the struggle between the intellectual and cultural legacies of Plato and Aristotle match very closely tho the discussions about "Dionysian/Advancement" and "Apollonian/Atonement" saecula.

According to the book the legacy of Plato represents the intuitive, inspirational, mystical, utopian, and dogmatic side of Western culture while Aristotle represents the empirical, logical, and worldly side. This seems to fit the double saeculum. In the Boomer and Romantic Awakenings we both see a revolt against the "crass" Aristotelian "materialism" of the previous saeculum.

One interesting bit I just read that should strike a chord with the Boomers here, where they are talking about the spiritual bankruptcy of Neoclassical art and the failure of the French Revolution:

Quote:What was needed instead was a revolution lead by poets and artists like Shelley and his friends. Then, he believed, humanity would achieve the future Kant had foreseen, a world of perpetual peace and harmony. Mankind would witness the overthrow of intellectual as well as political tyranny and the establishment of the rights of man and - with a nod to Mary Wollstonecraft - the rights of woman. The dream that haunted the Platonic imagination since St. Augustine, of an Eternal City united by love and equality and justice, would be realized with the poets (as opposed to God or the theologians) leading the way.

"DAMN SMELLY HIPPIES!!!"