Ciceronianus

I don't know that he was anti-religion. Perhaps he was. All we have to judge him by are writings made decades after his death. As to those, they were ...

Yes. I just have fond memories of the '60s and the pre-disco '70s, though I was too young to be an actual hippie.

They're not radical priests. The Berrigan Brothers were, and the one that got the guy who sang "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" out of jail and o...

Ah. As opposed to the literalism which resulted when the early Church through Councils and otherwise tossed out what's been called the Apocrypha, or w...

If that's so, there would be no need to make reference to "the way" or "the life." They become mere surplusage as we lawyers would say; irrelevant and...

It's interesting you choose to quote from John. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." 14.6. It strikes...

Well, not entirely so, I fear. I think the methods of analytic philosophy and OLP are useful and will remain with us as long as efforts are made to sp...

I agree, but admit to antipathy towards particular religions, especially the Abrahamic versions, which I think are especially exclusive and intolerant...

Yes, I understand, and in retrospect think you're correct. It was an expression of surprise, frankly; one better made in casual conversation than here...

I quite understand that you'd rather not be an advocate for the claims that were made about Christianity. There's no reason to be concerned about that...

A discussion of the contributions of the Christian religion to Enlightenment values and the rights of individuals--especially those of women--seems to...

No, not ironic. Impervious to irony, it seems. But I would think it should still be obvious. I think your comments regarding Christianity (which some ...

You seem an intrusive, prickly, sanctimonious sort. But I hope you're not.

I'm hopeful you're being ironic, but fear you're not. But I don't want to derail this thread. I couldn't help but take note of these remarkable statem...

My reference to being frightened and confused was a reference to an old Saturday Night Live skit involving the "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer," a character ...

I'd try to avoid changing or adopting law based on what people think themselves to be, however strongly and genuinely, myself. But I'm old, and your w...

The Stoics would say that what disturbs us are not things, but our judgments about them (to paraphrase Epictetus). That would apply not only to possib...

The penalty is a part of the law, though; it wouldn't exist but for the law. So, the fear is engendered by the law. It seems to me you're saying, then...

If you're making some claim to the effect that "the law must be changed" or "the law is ineffective" many would agree with you. If you're making some ...

Frankly, I may misunderstand you, but I wonder if your pronouncements (there doesn't seem to be another word for them, though "proclamations" come to ...

Is the weather determinative of human conduct?

Making laws is something we do. Homo juridicus, or something like that. Maybe homo legistoris? Regardless, we won't stop making laws because they're "...

Much broader, in fact. Of course, if we define "mystic" as an initiate into the mysteries, there were one hell of a lot of mystics back then. There we...

Those of Eleusis, by my understanding. Eleusis was quite handy to those in Athens; not far away at all, relatively speaking. But being an initiate did...

Dewey and other pragmatists (e.g. George Herbert Mead), proposed that philosophy should be applied to the resolution of social problems. I don't know ...

Now that would be an "anemic" response, as in lacking substance. (Merriam Webster Online)

How thoughtful and kind of you to refrain from doing so! But what an interesting, and revealing, word to choose. "Anemic" as in lacking force, vitalit...

Yes, but the pragmatist/quietist approach would certainly include among philosophy's purposes the application of its tools to itself. And if reason, c...

The pragmatist in me thinks that philosophy should be devoted to the clarification of ideas and the application of critical intelligence to the resolu...

He "doubted" what he unquestioningly interacted with every moment of his life. Do you think he doubted the food he ate was food? Or that the paper he ...

This serves to emphasize the wisdom of the greatest of sages, Popeye the Sailor Man. "I am what I am" he proclaimed, dispensing with "that" as a mere ...

A remarkably perceptive fellow, then, after all. That's a far more interesting perspective, I must say. I may be thinking too much of the American exp...

Far too long ago to remember well, really. I recall that we were forced to read Plato's Republic and Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions wh...

I'm unfamiliar with him, but I suspect this is another example of the technophobia we see in some philosophers. Just a guess, really. I also guess tha...

You would think this should be obvious, but it isn't, even to some lawyers. O.W. Holmes, Jr. famously noted that we have courts of law, not courts of ...

I can't stop myself from asking if Chomskybot will participate. Sorry.

I mentioned it because it deals with Plato's friendship with Dion and the events in Syracuse.

Thanks for the reference. Sidebar, though relevant--ever read May Renault's The Mask of Apollo? I think her Alexander-worship is excessive, and she tr...

Whatever was he doing in Syracuse, then? Better to say he never succeeded in making it useful.

I like this. Well said. As I've said, I'm listening to the book mentioned in the OP. There's a good deal left to listen to. I think its persuasively m...

This charming slogan, which also graced the gate into Auschwitz (part of what Heidi called the "self-annihilation of the Jews" when referring to the H...

Well, one must read or listen. It seems that the author believes that to be the case. Thus far, the focus has been on Heidi's weird obsession with Vol...

I'm listening to Heidegger in Ruins. It's interesting to learn that he's become something of a hero among far-right groups in Europe.

The law is the law, and nothing more (or less) than that. It imposes no moral obligations. B is under no moral (or legal, for that matter) obligation ...

I can't help but wonder what other subjects taught in institutions of higher education would be subject to similar criticisms. I suspect there are sev...

Well, it may cause a problem or two for antinatalists. Would it still be wrong to procreate in all cases if, ultimately, eternal bliss will result? Yo...

Perhaps the Native American practice of "counting coup" would work here.

According to Polybius they fought naked, at least in part, because they didn't want their clothes to be caught in the brambles. So perhaps their conce...

The idea that acceptance of death results in freedom or least is freeing is ancient. You see it in Lucretius, Epicurus, Seneca and others. But I think...

Thanks for the reference. As for Heidi, I have only this to say, or rather say again: Notorious Nazi Heidegger (Whom Hitler had made all-a-quiver) Tri...