Alienation is a distinctly modern idea unknown to Greek thought

Evidence

The concept of Entäußerung never appears when Hegel is analysing the thought of the Greeks. For the Greek mind, God is not posed as an unattainable beyond, nor is the relation to God conceived as a split between two ‘sides’. Equally, a Greek god who distanced himself from himself in an ‘appearance for himself’ would be something unimaginable. Alienation is an idea which belongs unquestionably to modern times, and its temporality is that of the finite phenomenal subject. The divine kenosis and philosophical kenosis are for Hegel fundamentally interdependent to the degree that they share one another’s mode of time. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 823

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: why is self-distance from God unimaginable to Greek thought, and what made modernity able to conceive it?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 823
• XREF: connects to: Asianism and Africanism are Greek inventions alien to Middle Eastern thought; Antiquity lacked both full objectivity and full subjectivity in thought — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 697; Hegel’s alienation is a historically specific, modern-Christian concept, not an eternal one — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 916 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Hegel’s alienation is a historically specific, modern-Christian concept, not an eternal one #corroborates (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 916
• Antiquity lacked both full objectivity and full subjectivity in thought #expands (0.78) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 697
• Responsibility as imputability was foreign to Greek thought, not universal #corroborates (0.78)
• Asianism and Africanism are Greek inventions alien to Middle Eastern thought #exemplifies (0.72)
• Medieval Christian anti-Oriental prejudice is unsourced in Greek knowledge #exemplifies (0.72) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 44