pre-emptory

Discussion and questions specific to The Origin of Consciousness; Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind; Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind; The Julian Jaynes Collection; Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, and The Minds of the Bible books.
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conradhakan
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Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:25 am

pre-emptory

Post by conradhakan »

From The Intellectual Consciousness of Greece in The Origin of Consciousness
... the response of Achilles begins in his etor, or what I suggest is a cramp in his guts, where he is in conflict or put into two parts (mermerizo) whether to obey his thumosy the immediate internal sensations of anger, and kill the pre-emptory king or not.
Help me out please. What does "pre-emptory" mean here? Could it be a mistake? Did Jaynes actually mean "peremptory?"
conradhakan
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:25 am

Re: pre-emptory

Post by conradhakan »

Native speakers, please!
conradhakan
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:25 am

Re: pre-emptory

Post by conradhakan »

It pops up here (The Double Brain), too.
"Language, that most urgent and significant of skills, the pre-emptory and exigent ground of social action, the last communicant thread on which life itself in the post-glacial millennia must often have depended!"(Italics mine)
Here is how Merriam Webster defines preemption, the noun form of preemptory (without the hyphen):
1 : the act or right of purchasing before others: as a : the privilege or prerogative formerly enjoyed by the king of buying provisions at an appraised valuation for his household in preference to others b : the prior right belonging among some primitive peoples to persons standing in various family, tribal, or neighborhood relations to purchase property sold or proposed to be sold to a stranger at the price offered by the stranger c : the right of a belligerent to seize and purchase at an appraised price other contraband of war than absolute contraband belonging to a neutral and en route to an enemy in its own territory or on the high seas or in unappropriated territory d : a preemption right or a piece of land occupied under one
2 : a prior seizure or appropriation : a taking possession before others *raises the question of federal preemption of the security field— Report: American Civil Liberties Union* *the agency's preemption of all T power and responsibility— A.G.Harper
Since "pre-emptory" in this sense sounds out of place in the above sentence from The Double Brain, it appears to be safe to assume that Jaynes confused pre-emptory with "peremptory," which, as the same dictionary assures us, means "expressive of urgency or a command" or alternatively, "of an arrogant or imperious nature : HAUGHTY, DICTATORIAL." In these senses, peremptory is synonymous with exigent.

This should leave any conscientious translator of The Origin of Consciousness wondering what to do here: convey Jaynes' intended meaning or stick to the text, a "fascinating" dilemma, as Jaynes himself would have put it. (Spock, too, bless him.)
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