You certainly shouldn't be mocked for being from Spain, and I didn't intend to do so. I hope to return there, as I only spent a brief time in Barcelon...
The fact I think that Spain is "no better generally" than most other nations doesn't mean I think it worse than other nations. Most nations are no bet...
A person can't be fond of Spain unless also fond of bullfighting and adverse to poking fun at a Genoese? You surprise me. I suppose admiration for suc...
I disagree. The first aqueduct was the Aqua Appia, erected in 312 BCE. Others were built during the Roman Republic, third to first century BCE. Roman ...
I suppose no answer is a kind of answer, though a poor one. As I say, I'm a man of the West, but we shouldn't limit ourselves. Here's what another Spa...
Things were in such a mess during the creation of Christianity it's hard to tell what was going on. There was the conflict between Paul of Tarsus and ...
Am I among the "numerous members" of this forum you mention? In fact, I'm very much a man of the West, and am fond even of Spain, except for its time ...
Well, consider what was written by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the conquistadors accompanying Cortez, regarding the Spaniards first impression on...
No, not on that point. And just to be clear, my other comments weren't intended to address what seems to be your acceptance of Christianity, which is ...
None of this is peculiarly Christian, I'm afraid. These "teachings" as you call them were arrived at by pagan philosophers long before Jesus was a twi...
Indeed, Bartolome de las Cases provides a contemporary description of the many great things done for the indigenous people of Mexico by the Spanish af...
CBT, regularly used as I understand it to treat trauma and with some success it appears, is based in large part of Stoicism. So, I wondered what was m...
A belief in natural rights may inspire or inform the decision to adopt a law (or not adopt one, or enforce or not enforce a law). Until there is a law...
The concept of natural rights is a fairly modern development; say, from Grotius forward. As has been pointed out, it's very much a product of the Enli...
The law is one thing; morality is another. A law will be a law regardless of whether it's moral or not; regardless of whether it prohibits immoral con...
If you believe Stone's film is accurate, my guess would be you think De Palma's The Untouchables is as well. Be that as it may, my feeling is there ar...
Well, if that's what ghosts do--haunt, that is, because of the wrongs done to them. Many of the "ghost stories" we find in the writings of ancient Gre...
Those who legitimately claim to have experienced something likely have experienced something. Just what that may be, I don't know. I think we still ha...
Well I have, but as a lawyer. There have been cases where this has generated legal briefs and arguments which I think would quality as legal works of ...
But philosophers do, or do nothing at all, I think. My feeling is that when someone tries to explain an experience of the kind you describe, they nece...
Well, he's stumped me now and then. But while I've always thought him to be a outstanding art (and cultural) critic, I haven't considered him an artis...
It seems conservative justices are perfectly willing to be activists when it pleases them. This isn't to contend that what is (or at least should be) ...
I think what you describe is what I'd assert is the difference between art and philosophy. Art, or at least great art, evokes, sometimes only in a fle...
A more traditional view, perhaps, but suggestive. Maybe Philosophy of Art is an inquiry into why and how what is shown or is done by artists effects u...
I hate being conventional. But I see what you mean. Say art is an act, for the sake of argument. Something done remarkably well. Great athletes do thi...
Difficult questions, I admit. And very annoying, the more I think of them. Are they the kind of questions Wittgenstein spoke of, regarding which we mu...
Well, we know what Plato thought of artists, and poets in particular. I think he does more to demonstrate the distinction between art and philosophy t...
Consider, though, that if we contend that anything is a work of art if it's done very well (e.g. Grant's memoirs) or that anyone who writes very well ...
Literature, though, can simply mean prose, or writing, which includes more than art. Someone can write well and not be an artist. U.S. Grant wrote ver...
I envy you, then. I'm quite willing to acknowledge there can be an overlap. Santayana's three philosophical poets no doubt address philosophical issue...
I think my request for examples of the great philosophical works of imagination akin to art will go unanswered, and with good reason. As for Nietzsche...
I confess I got carried away somewhat. I was trying to respond to your claim that analytic philosophy somehow nearly killed philosophy by "cutting off...
It's quite possible for philosophy to address how people live and what they care about without having recourse to the kind of obscurity, and sometimes...
I enjoyed the reference to the "scriptures" of Hegel. But I tend to doubt that people find philosophy to be idle merely because you find in it contrad...
I wonder just how we would "plan our lives" if there were no regularities in nature. Very ineffectively, I would think. If this is the issue, I also w...
Ah, but I am serious and I ask a serious question: How have a serious discussion over something (like Kant's thing-in-itself, or Hume on causation) wh...
I tend to look at maunderings of these kinds as a kind of affectation, or residue of the belief that the only true knowledge is absolute, certain know...
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