prometheus complex

is a state of mind never content to passively accept the dictates of authority a state of mind that purposefully plays with fire and that acknowledges that we learn nothing without sometimes being burned in the process.

a state of mind never content to passively accept the dictates of authority a state of mind that purposefully plays with fire and that acknowledges that we learn nothing without sometimes being burned in the process. 'Prometheus complex' as a state of mind never content to passively accept the dictates of authority a state of mind that purposefully plays with fire and that acknowledges that we learn nothing without sometimes being burned in the process. For Bachelard, knowledge is about performance, even transgression it is never enough to simply see someone else manipulate fire. Instead, the observation catalyses a desire to learn, to perform one's own manipulations and to step beyond the boundaries imposed by those from whom we learn. In this way, the manipulation of fire is always comparative defined in opposition to those who claim to know better than we. In Bachelard's words: 'We propose to place together under the name of the Prometheus complex all those tendencies which impel us to know as much as our fathers, more than our fathers, as much as our teachers, more than our teachers' (Bachelard 1964: 14).

prometheus complex, n.All

prometheus complex