Valentinus

The problem of learning what you do not know is discussed in the Meno. I remember a class from long ago when the dialectic was argued by some to be a ...

Socrates was killed for talking in public about his ideas. Maybe there was a tradition of training involved that was kept secret. If so, the secret is...

Where am I applying Aristotle's categories to Plato? My previous efforts on this thread were attempts to see them differently. When you say: "Plato mu...

That view is echoed in Plotinus regarding the contemplation of the One. He also used the same theory to explain the creation of the physical world in ...

People who know, do not need the Dialectic. Socrates' rebuke of Glaucon, observing that we can leave that process "unintentionally" and become mere de...

I was the referring to the indefinite identities of the following: I am not having trouble understanding the statement. I don't know who he is boxing ...

I cannot tell who you are shadow boxing with. Gonzales saying: "the form cannot be expressed in language" does not appear to support Socrates' effort ...

Nietzsche talks about Pascal in a number of places. His objection to Christianity has to be related to objections to Pascal as a sort of struggle with...

I always read the Eternal Recurrence as a cancellation of the argument. I imagine Fred suffering sermon after sermon given by his father about death m...

That is an interesting description. I like the Tractatus because it wrestles directly with the reader. A dialogue one can leave at any time. During di...

Are you some kind of god that can advise and condemn as the situation requires?

It seems like you enjoy giving the last word without making any effort to respond to your interlocutors in the terms they introduce. I get enough of t...

I was referring to when Critias related the story of what an Egyptian priest told Solon about ancient Athenians: What is one to make of the "fiction t...

One way to express my uncertainty about interests can be observed at the beginning of the Timaeus. The polity of the Republic, where storytelling is c...

Aristotle often refers to what "what most of us encounter" versus the exceptions. If you need citations, I will provide tomorrow. I will sleep now.

I think I understand the basis of your skepticism. What is unclear to me is how it relates to Aristotle. The guy kept arguing for a shared body of exp...

I am not sure if the matter is resolved through identifying different interests. Your question about the models should stand out there for a while. A ...

Ah, the mirror. Use it for yourself.

But I know what was said by reading it while you stand outside knowing nothing.

It doesn't sound like you read much of the thread you commented upon.

I get it. But there you are, doing other stuff.

I thought I was observing that principle.

I am not a hater. Maybe you are not either. Proof is in the pudding.

So, you want something you personally worked out for yourself to persuade other people on the premise that you have a special relationship to the trut...

Then talk about that. Your conclusions are less interesting than your process.

You wish to speak with a certain authority but bring nothing new to the table. Informing other people how stupid they are is a rhetorical trick develo...

Probably so. Then you will have to demonstrate the difference if you want to bring in something new. And if that is not your intention, why bother?

I hope the questions don't get harder to answer after attempting to meet this one. They probably will, though. The interest in understanding this plac...

Then it becomes something anybody can say anything about. The Tao Te Ching doesn't talk that way.

On the contrary, it is expressed everywhere, as you suggested earlier.

It seems to me that you want to have your cake of the inexplicable and eat it too. If the true Tao cannot be expressed, your ostensive gesture toward ...

The anthropomorphic element is an important criteria to employ when comparing models of the divine. For instance, the creator in Timaeus seems to work...

I think the distinctions Aristotle makes between the sciences makes the question different depending upon what is being sought: Regarding the status o...

That is an interesting way to frame the question, the pain of losing the past. On a personal level, the past is what happened to me and what I can rem...

I don't think the distinction is hard to make. Aristotle goes to a considerable effort to distinguish them himself. But he also insists upon them bein...

Noted. I meant to say getting "free of a condition" is not the only register for understanding or "enlightenment", if you will.

What if your ego does not change size? One would neither have to make it bigger to get somewhere or punish something for it becoming smaller. If that ...

I am not establishing a limit to what can be discussed in the dialogues. My comment was a specific response to a particular statement. If it is not wo...

You have copied and pasted your view once again. I am not arguing one way or the other about your statement. I was talking about how Aristotle uses th...

I was replying to Wayfarer's reference to the meaning of nous as used by Aristotle. There are various ways to understand the text. I merely offer one ...

As the Wiki article goes on to note, the nature of the distinction between nous and "the processing of sensory perception, including the use of imagin...

I am open to arguments for or against this or that point of view. But to propose not reading an author is an odd proposition. How will we know how rig...

Seeing Ecclesiastes and Maimonides: Guide for the Perplexed together reminds me that Spinoza tried to be a bridge between the ancient and the modern. ...

Yes, a good resource. That is where I quote text from.

Yes. They are literally messages in a bottle. Usually, what gets erased stays that way.

In the context of the Dialogue of that name, the idea of recollection was introduced, proposing we are able to understand new things because we alread...

That is a tough measure. But there it is.

I am not sure how the observation relates to your dispute with Fooloso4 but Aristotle did wrestle with distinguishing "cause" from essence in a use of...

That is a difficult element to examine. One cannot claim a universal answer for everybody because what is interesting to some people is boring to othe...

Things that exist don't care what we think about them. That is not to say that our intentions will not change those things. They do all the time. But ...