Ciceronianus

The four horsemen are primarily polemicists. Hitchens wrote very well, on a number of things; the others I haven't read much. They say nothing new abo...

The chess player who plays the white pieces moves a pawn first quite often. It's common, in fact. There's nothing rash about doing so, and nobody play...

No, as that would exclude Dewey. I don't think he can be said to be in the Analytical tradition. And, it would exclude most philosophers in the Wester...

I think "how" there is something may be an answerable question but one to be resolved, if at all, by science rather than by philosophy. "Why" can't ev...

Thank you.

Ah (or is it AHHHH?), the philosophy of orgasms. "For a good time, call....." La petite mort sums it up well enough, if it must be addressed at all in...

Yes, I see. That's interesting. What's that quote from?

I don't think this constitutes wondering that there are things in the world, which seems more along the lines of "wondering why there is something rat...

I've read Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and The Birth of Tragedy, I recall. I may have read The Genealogy of Morals and Twilight of the Idols; th...

Why, and when, would we wonder that things are in the world? What else would be "in the world"? What would we expect to be the case if there were no t...

He certainly isn't tedious or dry, which is to his credit, but neither are poets or prophets, or passionate critics of our lives. I don't think of the...

It seems to me that Freddie the Frenzied had a unique style and way of thinking which was declarative rather than reflective, or analytic. He's righte...

I don't think Frantic Freddie was a philosopher. I think he was an insightful, interesting, passionate critic of art and culture, who never had the pa...

Well, get to it then.

It's simple really. From the standpoint of a lawyer or judge, a woman is, of course, whatever the law in question says a woman is, just as a man, or a...

Speak for yourself. I'm sure many won't accept that the universe doesn't care whether or not we exist, but it's a far more reasonable conclusion than ...

I wish Bugs Bunny had been there, to speak for me.

If I recall correctly, Lewis was maintaining that Jesus must be either God or a lunatic based on the assumption that he declared he was God. According...

Here's Marcus Tullius Cicero on Julius Caesar: "When I notice how carefully arranged his hair is and when I watch him adjusting the parting with one f...

My suspicion is that parents don't actually want their children to learn anything, or be told anything, beyond what the parents already know and belie...

I can't help but put myself in the place of a lawyer for a school district in Florida, asked to render an opinion regarding how a school district may ...

Yes. Not expressly, no. I doubt anything a parent or the legislature can do will prevent students from discussing these topics. But what happens if st...

It will inspire fear in teachers and school districts, no doubt about it. I'm hopeful it's vagueness will be its downfall, though.

It will certainly encourage lawsuits. The vagueness of the law is such that it isn't clear what would constitute a frivolous action, though.

Ah, the beguiling, one might even say idealized, view that philosophy consists of the contemplation of those matters which have nothing to do with, bu...

Then what's to be gained by considering it?

The one bearing the words "Arbeit Macht Frei"? Perhaps that was another doorstep, though, and the project of other Nazis. Fol de rol!

The summary is fine. I don't mock it.

Not that remarkable, either .

Seems obvious enough. So much for Heidegger, then.

That's not funny at all. It must be me, then. Incapable of understanding him, I must await a revelation, as I've said. Perhaps Heidegger selects us. I...

Thank you. It looks interesting.

I think his view that we only really think when we encounter problems (broadly defined) is quite true. This is essentially Peirce's position when he c...

I think there's a place for philosophy even in living as we do.

I await a revelation. Like Paul on the road to Damascus.

Not sure what you think of John Dewey. I'm rather fond of him. Another philosopher (Joseph Margolis) asked him to read some of Heidi's work. He did, a...

His insights on Hitler and National Socialism are indeed very interesting, and very clearly stated. There's no need to decipher what he wrote about th...

"Albert Einstein was a lady's man While he was working on his universal plan He was making out like Charlie Sheen He was a genius." --Warren Zevon Sor...

I've been told more than once on this forum when complaining of Heidegger's mysterious pontificating that it's my fault I can't understand him. I woul...

I'm sure there may be many interesting implications from these works. I'm just wondering if they make any difference to how we live our lives on a day...

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3quhly Batman's right.

Alas, all too often they disregard facts entirely, except perhaps when they face them in day-to-day life and have no option but to acknowledge them by...

I think there's a lot more to learn about this before we start speculating about "non-physical reality." What takes place at the quantum level isn't n...

If everyone would live an Epicurean (or Stoic, I would say) life most if not all our problems would be resolved. But most of us won't. That we should ...

I'll have to read the article you cite, but I think Epicureanism like Stoicism teaches that happiness, or the good life, is in large part dependent on...

The Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence for that matter, as well as the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and Citizens which Revoluti...

My understanding is Epicurus and his followers discouraged participation in politics. Yet it seems you emphasize its relation to and impact upon polit...

Yes. Yes it is. Well, it may not be the only cause of such things. It's one of the causes. I know that terrible things happened before Romanticism rai...

This indicates only that in their cases they were sentenced to death and were evil. It doesn't establish that those sentenced to death are all evil, o...

It's merely the result of being convicted of more than one crime, for each of which a sentence is imposed. So, you sometimes hear of sentences being s...