Ciceronianus

It's unclear to me whether what's being referred to as "The One" is meant to be supernatural (outside of or apart from nature) or a part of nature (th...

Well, that at least provides an explanation.

I think it's more a case of degenerating myself, but I've never watched an entire season of American Idol, I must admit.

Well, they constitute quite a bit of society and human interactions and always have, before and after the time of the Roman Republic.

At long last, American Idol takes its rightful place as a topic of discussion in philosophy. Alas, we must still await the time when it's recognized a...

I proposed in a thread some time ago that philosophy is in certain respects an affectation (or affectation on the part of certain philosophers). For e...

Well, I disagree. I don't think there's anything establishing that indulging in sexual desires dominated political, social or economic decisions in an...

I enjoy irony.

Distaste for Heidegger? You astound me. He certainly was a stand out Nazi. Stood by them as well.

I think you give sex far too much importance, as did Paul and others did after him. I referred to indifference to sex in the Roman and Greek (perhaps ...

I usually delight in quibbling, but don't feel you must peruse your cache of quotes regarding the naughtiness of sodomy on my account. I don't doubt t...

I don't think the ancients were as consumed by the thought of sexual deviancy as we are, or have been, since the remarkable, sex-hating, Paul of Tarsu...

All those Mongolian tourists. I understand.

I've been there five times, and hope to return. Only once to Rome and once to Greece--Athens and the day trip to Delphi, and Santorini. I had hoped to...

Oh, Europe's just fine. You needn't worry about it. We continue to look back on the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome as Poe would ...

Not much, I think. It isn't clear to me it had anything to do with it, if I understand your question correctly. Are you asking whether the rediscovery...

Not id est, I think, but quite literally mad because Hera made him such when she finally located him. But his worship was also associated with wine, r...

So "visions" are observations of reality, it seems.

There's very little of the mad god Dionysus in Stoicism, it's true.

Schopenhauer's assessment of Stoicism was more profound than that of Nietzsche.

Nope. It's suffering, alright. All of it. Every last bit. Suffer, suffer suffer. Sufferin' succotash, as Sylvester the cat would say. In saecula saecu...

If you'd like to see a movie which might wake you up from the American Dream, I think There Will Be Blood should do the trick.

Well, I like to take advantage of any excuse to quote Warren Zevon: "You can dream the American Dream, But you sleep with the lights on And wake up wi...

Hardly ridiculous. You must know that gods of all sorts routinely punish those who believe in them. It's part of the job.

It strikes me that your metaphor doesn't work, perhaps because those you mention in your post don't seem to be "idols" as usually defined, except perh...

Stop boasting. You've just committed the sin of pride, one of the seven deadly sins. Besides, you'll sin regardless of whether you do so knowingly. Yo...

Just limit it to critical thinking. Even that will cause problems with parents in our Great Republic. As for the rest, critical thinking will serve th...

I read it, but elaborate justifications of totalitarianism don't appeal to me.

I must admit this isn't something that I've had the opportunity to consider.

Consider the words of H.L. Mencken "The Sage of Baltimore": The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous t...

It would depend, I suppose, on whether they maintain that what they believe or know was revealed to them by something equivalent by to the one, true, ...

Ah well. I'm just a lawyer who reads a lot, but I have a blog as well.

I know little of the Patristics, though they seem interesting. Christianity, I think, has always had difficulty trying to incorporate pagan philosophy...

I was raised Catholic. My experience of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is similar to that of 180 Proof, though my time in Catholic schools...

I wasn't aware the Ten Commandments had changed. What do they say now? Or have they added more, to make up for the five which were lost when Moses dro...

I think we agree on many things, but I don't think this analogy works. I know next to nothing about Mormon doctrine, and know enough about Catholic do...

. The followers of pagan gods didn't take the position taken by Jews and Christians regarding God or religion. A pagan didn't claim that the god they ...

Thank you. That's a significant point.

Specifically as to a comparison with the Abrahamic religions, I refer to the tolerance of other religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean befo...

What about the rule you shall have no other god before God, or, for that matter, the other rules described, significantly, as "The Ten Commandments"? ...

Well, it's not quite the same thing. What religions consider correct are different from what I consider correct. Religions may maintain it's correct, ...

Which seems to make the what right wants good and what the left wants bad doesn't it? What could be bad about godful rule, and good about godless rule...

I'm uncertain what you mean by this.

I suppose those sects, if the recognize Abraham as a prophet and believe in the Covenant, would be Abrahamic, but don't know enough about them to say ...

I doubt it. The Abrahamic religions are essentially exclusive and intolerant. It's not possible to reason with those who believe they already know wha...

Not Brazilian, no. But all too aware of the conceit of many of my countrymen in the USA.

Just a matter of time until we start seeing it here in God's Favorite Country.

Sport fencing is odd, not at all like traditional fencing is thought to be. There are some clubs, though, that teach traditional European martial arts...

I tried Googling "swordswomen" and a bunch of anime characters was the result. Even so, it seems Hungary's women's team won the sabre fencing champion...

Attila was one of the great figures of the late Roman Empire in the West; Flagellum Dei (the Scourge of God). I'm not familiar with the poet. I've hea...