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Ciceronianus

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I'd be inclined to say the idea of American exceptionalism has taken quite a beating lately. Be that as it may, if your point is that nations will act...
October 28, 2020 at 19:46
I think there is a problem that arises from the improper use of words, but that problem is that "forced" is being used in an unusual manner here. We m...
October 28, 2020 at 19:38
I found something defining it as a verb--to mumble or grumble. I think there are matters that can only be poorly expressed or communicated through lan...
October 27, 2020 at 16:57
Those damn Copenhagenists should stay in Copenhagen, where they belong, and forget about the universe.
October 26, 2020 at 21:29
Portions of the Old Testament, like those I quoted, are generally ignored by most religious figures today. I think the U.S. is exceptional as many her...
October 26, 2020 at 20:29
The Old Testament is full of references to the extermination of heathens, like: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel ...
October 26, 2020 at 18:42
Did he? I stand corrected.
October 26, 2020 at 18:18
"Ronner" is new to me. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I see it's also used to refer to a lover of Ronald McDonald, but assume that wasn't ...
October 26, 2020 at 18:17
It seems to me apparent that we're caught in chaos and suffering, and have been for a very long time. So, understanding that we are doesn't strike me ...
October 26, 2020 at 16:27
Flavius Josephus a Christian? I don't think so. Some Christian inserted a statement that Jesus was God in one of his works, rather awkwardly, but he r...
October 26, 2020 at 15:41
Also, the oppression and persecution of nonbelievers, Jews and, even more so, of unorthodox Christians.
October 26, 2020 at 15:30
Thinking is something we do (well or poorly) as well as dreaming, breathing and pissing. We do those things because we're creatures which evolved in a...
October 23, 2020 at 16:45
Absolute truth, like absolute certainty, is a chimera. If they were geese, they may be said to have led philosophers on a wild goose chase for 2,500 y...
October 23, 2020 at 16:34
Do you believe that you're forced to breathe. Or forced to piss? That you wouldn't breathe or piss if you weren't being compelled to do so? Dreaming, ...
October 22, 2020 at 21:50
I think anyone who reads Hegel is remarkable, in the same sense that I think anyone who voluntarily wears hair shirts is remarkable. It's as if one is...
October 22, 2020 at 14:46
I think I have good reason to believe it makes no sense to speak of us as if we existed before we exist,. Because, I hope it doesn't surprise you to l...
October 22, 2020 at 14:21
In short, if A is possible, then it must make B possible, which opposes C, in the name of the being of C, and of the D from which (B, the being of C, ...
October 21, 2020 at 21:28
It's all so clear. That possible enunciative analysis--possible, bear in mind, not actual--simply must make it possible--not certain or probable--to r...
October 21, 2020 at 20:55
I thought they were badges or insignia, or communication devices like on Star Trek.
October 21, 2020 at 16:21
That won't be necessary, as I can find you as much as I want to here.
October 21, 2020 at 15:25
No. What you did say, however, was that you weren't asked if you wanted to exist, and were "forced" to do so, by IT. That was what I referred to, as s...
October 21, 2020 at 15:20
I want a colossal statue in my likeness to erected in Chicago on the Chicago River, say at the State Street bridge (I like Marina City), standing athw...
October 21, 2020 at 15:15
Everything comes back to cats. Even aliens, as this Nazca Lines image shows. Or maybe it shows cats are aliens. I forget which. https://phys.org/news/...
October 20, 2020 at 21:27
I confess I was just being silly. But chess, when played at high levels, is very much about theory. Some would say it's become too much a matter of th...
October 20, 2020 at 21:19
Aw, you don't fool me. There aren't any generals in chess.
October 20, 2020 at 19:57
Depends on how young they are, I suppose, but teaching logic and rhetoric as tools in evaluating claims would be useful. As for teaching philosophy, h...
October 20, 2020 at 19:38
Well, there was no "you" to ask, before you existed, nor was there any "you" to be "forced" to exist before you existed. So, there was no IT forcing a...
October 20, 2020 at 17:33
I've been Satan's lawyer for years now. I'll be representing him in Heaven after Judgment Day. Business is business.
October 19, 2020 at 17:06
Well, as long as the rest of the world is fucked as well, we'd probably be okay with that. Jesus will make sure we're raptured away before really bad ...
October 19, 2020 at 15:26
Well, you see, the Christian Roman Empire actively suppressed traditional pagan religion. Not necessarily Constantine, who seemed to prefer Apollo/Sol...
October 19, 2020 at 15:15
Clearly, I must read her work. I still think fondly of the way Austin eviscerated Ayer in Sense and Sensibilia, but she seems to have taken him on in ...
October 19, 2020 at 15:00
I think he knew Antony well, and that his sometimes rather ribald denunciations of Antony in the Senate assured he would die. It's a shame that the fu...
October 16, 2020 at 16:21
That was his day job. It didn't end well. He lost his crown, so to speak, as well as his hands it's said. But he certainly remained active until the e...
October 15, 2020 at 14:21
I'm with the Sage of Baltimore, H.L. Mencken, who said that every election is a kind of advance auction sale of stolen goods. That said, the quality o...
October 14, 2020 at 15:33
My daemon, Cicero, insists that old age is "the crown of life." I tend to think of it more as "the bottom of the barrel of life" in the sense that one...
October 14, 2020 at 14:20
I remain convinced that Supreme Court Justices should spend more time practicing law or on the bench than Judge Barrett, who experience is, shall we s...
October 12, 2020 at 18:31
Many barbarians served the Empire well, it's true. And I think the Empire generally did well by them, for the most part. The Principate was available ...
October 12, 2020 at 18:21
Yes, generally, but in the same sense so many of us, and others, have considered people different from us inferior in some manner. The Roman Empire wa...
October 12, 2020 at 14:42
He was well advised by the attorney for the three persons of the trinity, the Archangel Causidicus Magnus.
October 12, 2020 at 14:33
Those hired in the morning agreed to work in return for a specified payment. Those hired later were told merely that they would be paid whatever the l...
October 09, 2020 at 17:11
You to have no qualms about speaking for all of them, it seems. When we speak of rights which "reflect objective moral law" we speak of rights which e...
October 08, 2020 at 16:09
"I doubt we of the West will ever get over the Roman Empire" doesn't mean "We of the West will never get over the Roman Empire." Nor does "I think you...
October 06, 2020 at 20:59
I just thought I'd note, because all I do should be of note, that I've begun reading The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical Wor...
October 05, 2020 at 20:07
Dolphins they may be, but they're known as the porpoises of art and philosophy; porpoises, that is to say, for those purposes.
October 05, 2020 at 17:31
https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/JCpds_4RJblvcFa0C_qerCvZgLk=/3836x2158/smart/filters:no_upscale()/bottlenose-dolphin-tursiops-truncatus-paints-with-pai...
October 05, 2020 at 15:56
Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.
September 30, 2020 at 15:04
I don't like the use of grand juries. I hope a complete record is produced (I don't know the details of the Judge's decision). If it doesn't make clea...
September 29, 2020 at 16:13
Leibniz recommends the new BMW Monad, especially the Ultimate Monad, its most luxurious, but fundamentally simple, trim. It has a navigation system by...
September 28, 2020 at 19:29
His political engagements were with other Jews, and of another kind entirely, of course. Though I suppose he could be said to have screwed them as wel...
September 28, 2020 at 19:16
Ah well. But you can't be accused of dissembling, that's for certain. I haven't read any of her opinions, but I doubt she's written more than a few fo...
September 28, 2020 at 16:47