When we are talking about a literary figure in the dialogues, it is safe to assume that they serve as a conduit for Plato’s views. But when we are dea...
I think China is already trying to do that and it will only stop if the international community takes concerted action to stop it. The European Union ...
Aristotle says that Plato posits Forms for qualities, but not for artifacts. He says that Plato at Phaedo (100d) affirms that a beautiful thing exists...
Well, we’ll just have to disagree then. The way I see it, the word “good” can have many different meanings on many different levels. It can refer to a...
Well, I think I have made myself clear on what I believe Plato’s framework to be. But here is another example in connection with the Forms: (A). Sensi...
The Telegraph may not be perfect, but I doubt that Nature is much better. The truth can only be discovered if there is an ongoing inquiry into the fac...
My concern is establishing the truth. When a person is acting suspiciously, it is the duty of the police to investigate them and the same applies to s...
Correct. Rittenhouse may or may not have acted in self-defense (though this seems to have been the case). But it is beyond dispute that the guys he sh...
This may be one possible way of looking at it. Unfortunately, the matter isn’t quite as straightforward as it seems. It is entirely possible that Plat...
Well, it isn’t my fault that papers choose to employ laymen to write articles. Besides, it isn’t just the Telegraph, there are lots of other sources l...
Having reached the very source of cognition, the philosopher truly sees everything in the right light. This does not necessarily render him omniscient...
1. It still seems to amount to evidence that research on bat viruses was done at the Wuhan lab. 2. The Laos virus may not be "close enough" in its nat...
Culture, religion, and philosophy in the Roman Empire, especially in the East, were heavily Hellenized. This is why key Platonic concepts like “the in...
It looks like the Chinese lab origins of the Corona virus may have finally been uncovered. Apparently, leaked emails between EcoHealth Alliance and US...
Good point. I agree that Plato is not to everyone’s liking. But there is no harm in trying to understand him on his own terms even if we don’t agree w...
Early Christians understood Plato well because they were Platonists. All educated citizens of the Roman Empire, especially in the East, spoke Greek an...
Plato's dialogues reflect philosophical problems discussed in the Academy. This can be seen, for example, from the way Forms are dealt with as if ever...
If the Platonic tradition is an "off-shoot", then surely so are the Aristotelian and Christian Platonist traditions which, of course, are different fr...
Correct. As far as I am aware, Heraclitus believes in an immortal soul. So, presumably, the soul is the changeless element in the midst of a changing ...
This seems to be the whole point of the dialogue. Platonic texts are traditionally interpreted on several levels of meaning, (1) literal (logos), (2) ...
The passage may be explicit, but I think you misinterpret or misread it. If (a) “what Love wants is not beauty, as you think” and (b) “Love wants the ...
I think I see what you are trying to say. However, I see it differently. The reflection may not be a true representation in a scientific sense, but it...
Sure. It is difficult to tell what Heraclitus taught exactly. But if everything is in constant flux, then the flux itself qua flux must remain the sam...
Correct. It’s amazing how the “findings” of modern science were already anticipated thousands of years ago. The only problem with Atomism is that, tho...
One way of looking at it is that there were two forms of Heracliteanism. The "extreme" one held that everything was in flux in every way, which meant ...
Personally, I think that the Parmenides is one of Plato’s most interesting dialogues and it has held a central position in the Platonic tradition from...
Fingers are part of the hand (or extensions of the palm). The multitude of individual intelligences are part of the Supreme Intelligence or extensions...
Very simple. Take the example of the five fingers of one hand. They are different extensions of the same one hand. Different intelligences are product...
I don’t find that “awareness and consciousness is more compatible with Many than with One” at all. On the contrary, my common sense and intuition is t...
You are absolutely right. Capitalism can have its negative sides, too. No system is perfect. But unless we revert to pre-capitalist or pre-industrial ...
You could be right. However, if Plato thinks it is “sophistry”, why would he write a whole dialogue on it? Why would Aristotle say that for Plato the ...
They are described and named by us, humans, when we want to logically analyze reality. Reality itself does not do that because if it is aware of itsel...
Yes. Seen to be good, brought into existence, caused to be, etc. by the same one Reality that acts as efficient, material, formal, and final causes. T...
I don't think anyone knows, to be honest. I'm guessing it refers to an entity that is unaffected by time? This reminds me of the comparison with a mag...
Being full human beings is one aspect of it. But we need human beings in the first place. Overpopulation does not refer to the number of people in one...
Time is the background or context in which human experience takes place. If God is eternal, then his experience cannot relate to time in the same way ...
"Final cause" simply means the purpose for which something is caused. The same thing can logically function as efficient cause, material cause, formal...
Good point. But I think the crucial question is who it is that experiences time. God's experience of time may be (totally) different from human experi...
But it isn't necessarily impossible. The way I see it, in Plato’s metaphysics everything is secondary to intelligence and knowledge which presupposes ...
Not only that, but if I agree too much with you, people might start imagining me in a ten-gallon Stetson hat and cowboy boots made in El Paso, or some...
As already stated, the word “the One” (to Hen) can have many meanings. Aristotle himself points this out at the very beginning of Book 10. The way I s...
I think the universe would be quite able to do things that are beyond our human understanding even without it being a living entity. Though it possibl...
We are talking about 4th-century BC. I don't think we can apply modern standards to Ancient Greece. Besides, Plato is using logical argumentation and ...
If political science teaches that we must not call countries what they call themselves, then why should anyone "acknowledge the Democratic People's Re...
I think the main reason for this was cultural and political. Socialism was seen by some in the West as “acceptable” whereas communism – due to the Eas...
Yeah, apparently I am full of surprises, or so I am told! :grin: I can't say I agree with everything you say, but I think you are making some valid po...
Well, he also says that Aristotle was a Platonist. However, this needs to be understood in the right context. What Gerson is talking about is what he ...
I am not ignoring it. I am simply making the point that we cannot automatically dismiss all the statements made in the dialogues or elsewhere on the g...
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