Valentinus

The idea of different agencies is strongly influenced by Gnostic concepts. Some of their creation stories involve the interaction of separate agents w...

Thank you for the suggestions. Theaetetus is of great interest to me.

I was referring to Plato. He is unique in gathering a record of dialogues with different "schools" of thought as actual discussions. The approach of A...

Agreed. It is a difficult matter to explore because who else did/does this sort of thing? The unique quality is exposing oneself to argument, no matte...

Well, I brought it up because myths were being discussed and there is a dialogue devoted to them. I read the dialogues as conversations between themse...

The relationship between "universals and particulars" is mixed up with different ways we have talked about them over a long time. What strikes me abou...

Looking at the matter through Timaeus, the identification of oneself as a soul in the sense of being the person you are after death is in tension with...

I learned a lot. The absence of Plato in the discussion is very strange set against the work to make the dialogues a report of what Socrates said. The...

We have our lives. It includes varying levels of suffering compared to other people who are alive. And we struggle with ourselves. I have no idea what...

I meant a good EQ and a good IQ struggle with each other sometimes. Not mutually exclusive categories.

Well, I have been in an lot of situations where people were relying upon their EQ to trump the group running on their IQ. Both skills need preparation...

And you are on your own.

You were challenged to explain your point of view as expressed by your comment. You expressed the thought that you were not understood by way of the r...

You aren't being challenged upon what you actually said. I like to see some recognition that what I asserted was understood by any who would object.

Leave it be. There is no wrestler on the other side.

Regarding pity, Nietzsche argued it was a form of contempt when expressed in certain registers. The idea has certainly been used in a condescending fa...

It is not only likely but something expressly directed against the immediate ancestors of the Nazis: In the Genealogy of Morals, he says:

Well, Nietzsche hated Nazis along with "Christianity." See the Genealogy of Morals for details.

The dialogue of Cratylus approaches your question from a particular point of view. Cratylus claims names are natural entities while Socrates argues th...

Maybe he will come back and tell us.

Terrapin Station brought me up to speed about many different kinds of arguments that I was not aware of before he made them. On the other hand, there ...

The hatred of logos is a big part of this dialogue. At the beginning of Phaedo, there is a proposal that that the trial would be played out again amon...

Perhaps that is the case. On the other hand, the dialogue begins with Socrates trying "bodily" music composition to satisfy what his daemon might be r...

It would seem that no amount of deference to the gods will free Socrates of the "hatred for logos" that sees him as the corruption of youth.

In 85B, Socrates likens himself to the followers of Apollo but speaks for himself at the same time.

The text includes an unnamed authority after the reference to Apollo.

Plato brings an intimacy that is special to the dialogues. A chance to be there when they were.

As a side note, Nietzsche argued for a version of this in his doctrine of Eternal Recurrence. So, arguing for the infinity rejected by others. Also a ...

One reason the role of Cebes is odd is because Plato is not there. Which is pretty strange given that we would not know Socrates without Plato.

I don't know what my perception means for myself. I had certain interests when I started here, they have changed. I reacted in certain ways when I sta...

The focus you bring to what Cebes agrees to despite the inconsistencies between the particular arguments is interesting. Cebes also changes the subjec...

In regards to the Enneads by Plotinus, that book is an ordering of reality in relationship to the One. It is a system that attempts to be consistent t...

That release on the last day of his life is important. The inclusion of Xanthippe gives sharp relief to her charge that one last party is planned with...

Yes, especially in the contrast with the "bodily" perceptions, ??????? is used. As a matter of expression in Greek, the use of "???" to nous and logos...

Your approach of comparing one kind of super simplicity with another is interesting. The survival of the "fittest" has been presented as adapting to t...

The perspective reminds me of a self-dense axiom. Try not to offend people. Sometimes you have to push buttons. But don't do it without regret and unc...

I agree that good reading involves "being able to step inside the viewpoint of the author as far as that is possible." But I don't subscribe to making...

In our encounters regarding books we both have read, what counts as a "person's own thoughts" shows up in the different representations of what was sa...

I am not sure what you mean by a "reconsideration. " But the words go like this: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy h...

Well, the text written by Marx was addressed in your other thread, particularly by boethius. The critics of Marx you assembled are only interested in ...

There is some light. There is a lot of darkness.

Can one prove that against the other arguments for empirical observations? Sounds arbitrary.

Then quote the parts you take issue with. I don't see the point in objecting to an argument nobody is arguing with except yourself. Or if there are th...

One of the elements that appeal strongly to me in Aristotle's De Anima is the way either we can talk about our experience of being organisms or not. M...

Presuming that God creates the world, there is presumably an intended shape to the circle of life and death we encounter. So worship is in search for ...

There is a lot of tension between "social aspects of existence and self actualization." I didn't mean to emphasize the "social" so much as to say that...

When the shoulders go high, I go low.

Very well, then. Adieu.

I like the national challenge. We do have Johnny Cash singing to prisoners. Walt Whitman and the future rappers. The odd relationship between Thoreau'...

One of the elements that has always appealed to me with Maslow's approach is the way that the less one becomes driven by what is lacking, the more one...