Apollodorus

Not a bad explanation. And interesting OP, too. But do we do that before or after we learn how to drink, how to be a farmer, and how to be a bad emper...

I have on occasion asked myself that question when it appeared that others were flagging my posts. But I've never flagged moderators and I doubt that ...

I agree that in some countries government and state are more or less the same thing. The ruling Communist Party of China, in any case, that has been i...

Correct. You need to start from a general principle that you then apply on a case-to-case basis to particular situations as evaluated on their own mer...

Good question. I can't think of any particular study that would give you a definitive answer. However, it seems to me that intelligence, consciousness...

Of course, the oligarchs did have their share of blame. Boris Berezovsky’s story is quite instructive in this regard. Berezovsky was a prominent busin...

I agree that Westerners, and perhaps people in general, tend to pick the easy bits and ignore the discipline and the hard work. But personally, I have...

Well, the fact that one guy is "principled", doesn't really show that a party, government, or state is not motivated by the desire to acquire or maint...

I agree. But I think Socrates' problem was not so much aggravating the youth as was annoying the old :smile:

You are probably right there. I think what tends to happen in so-called "liberal democracies" is that politicians come to power on certain promises th...

Yes, but it doesn’t follow that the state has no desire to stay in power. What you are saying seems to refer more to particular political parties and ...

However, what is the precise origin and aim of the state's desires? The state is supposed to represent the desires of the people. But it may only pret...

I think it is quite funny how liberalism started as a project initiated by the emerging commercial classes for the purpose of restricting the power of...

Well, doing what is good for oneself and for others is the general idea. What this means in practice remains to be determined in each particular insta...

I'm not sure mansions are a particularly big problem. If Michael Jackson and Jeffrey Epstein can have one, why not Putin? But I agree that something w...

Viveka in the Greek tradition is diakrisis. In Plato’s Sophist it is compared to the acts of “sifting”, “straining”, “winnowing” and “separating” and ...

I'll have to look up the exact reference. I think The Shadow Party by Horowitz and Poe has quite a bit on what went on with Russia’s privatization. Bu...

The Rockefellers and their associates from banking and industry had been dealing with the Soviets from inception, from the early years of the revoluti...

Correct. At 92c Socrates makes fun of Simmias by pointing out that his previous statement to the effect that soul pre-exists the body does not work in...

Well, Koroljov was part of a Soviet team dispatched to Germany to recover rocket technology in September 1945, a whole year before Operation Osoaviakh...

I think at individual level there are many, including conflicting goals depending on the part of the world you happen to live, like getting a better j...

The Soviets may have put the first man in space, but we must no forget how they got there. Aside from being provided with technological know-how by th...

I'm not saying capitalism is perfect so I don't need to defend it. The onus is on socialists to show that socialism is better than capitalism. And tha...

Well, he may well have been someone’s hose nozzle as most politicians are. After all, politics is about power and power is where the money is. However...

Good point. Simmias’ theory of the soul as harmony is just a materialist proposition with a “Pythagorean” twist. It seemingly resembles the view attri...

Correct. Not "different account" but different perspective. In the Phaedo, Socrates' objection is that the soul is non-composite in the sense of "not ...

I'm afraid it looks like Fooloso4 is totally unaware of the fact that the discussion is not about Pythagoras or Philolaus but about Simmias. In the Ph...

The short answer would have sufficed. But I guess two answers are better than none. And so long as Ivanka doesn't know more than we do, everything is ...

The dialogue under discussion is Phaedo. Simmias makes no mention of proportions in his argument in this dialogue. Simmias' argument is that the soul ...

Could you explain "matters"? And do you mean you support or oppose the taboo?

The Republic is a different dialogue with different arguments. There is no mention of proportions in Simmias' argument in the Phaedo. Pythagoras does ...

Are you implying that Ivanka knows something that we don't? :smile:

I think that's an interesting point that also raises the question of "inbreeding" that is often cited as a reason for objecting to incest. But suppose...

Absolutely correct. I think that it is imperative not to make things up or insert things into the dialogue that are not there. The fact is that Simmia...

I quite agree with that. I think destructiveness is the key to understanding evil. The world we live in seems to be characterized by a certain order. ...

1. Simmias claims that the soul is a composite thing like the harmony or attunement of a lyre: And: 2. Socrates reminds Simmias of his argument: 3. So...

1. Republic 531c is part of a criticism of Pythagoreans and musicians. 2. Simmias does not use the word harmonia in the sense of musical harmony but i...

Absolutely. It is imperative to understand that there is no point using English words like “harmonious” to analyze a dialogue when they make no sense ...

I agree that Russia is largely ruled by oligarchs, but only with permission from the state. And the Russian state is not socialist and has not been si...

Of course there is no transition to communism, because communism as described by Marx, Engels, and Lenin, does not and can not exist in the real world...

I think you are being taken for a ride. There is no "Form of Harmony". The terms “harmonious body” or “harmonious” anything do not occur in the dialog...

Good point. There is a very obvious agenda behind straw men like "Form of Harmony". 1. To being with, the Ancient Greek word harmonia is not the same ...

Good post. But I wouldn't say that China is "communist in name only". The basic ideology of China’s Communist Party is Marxism-Leninism laced with “Xi...

I think that the question as to what or who causes the body is an interesting one. As related in the Timaeus, in the beginning God created the World a...

The body here is thought of as consisting of the four elements: The elements and their properties were represented by a diagram with one square inscri...

The truth of the matter is that there is no interest, desire, or intent to grasp the issue. Socrates in the dialogue explains how things come to be fr...

Correct. And nor must we forget that the dialogue's author is Plato who uses his Theory of Recollection to establish the validity of his Theory of For...

I don't think this is really true. Socrates is not a skeptic. He certainly uses logic to demonstrate established beliefs such as immortality, reincarn...

Yes, Hochschild makes a good point. However, authors like Strauss are a different matter. Strauss is not a trained classicist. He studied al-Farabi an...

Socrates advances several arguments against Simmias’ harmony analogy. One of them is that the soul pre-existing the body, it cannot be compared to the...