Ciceronianus

Of course our experiences will differ is some respects, and some of us may be significantly different from the norm. Some climates in which we live ar...

Not a real, or sincere, or genuine expression? Not accurate? I think we all have a fairly good idea what we did, who/what we encountered, how we felt,...

How vague will depend on the speaker, I would think. But what can be more authentic about us and our relationship with the rest of the world than our ...

Usually? Their children, their spouses, their friends, their work, sports, politics, their health, their relatives; in short, their lives.

We seem to get along well enough. It isn't necessary that anyone superlatively express meaning in most cases.

There's some saying about teaching and doing...I can't quite remember it, but it came to mind when you mentioned you teach people to think. You should...

It seems a rather long way to go to avoid explaining why you admire what you say Rand's done for mankind, or why doing anything for mankind may be adm...

Ah. I see. You admire Ayn Rand for her contributions to mankind because you believe other people share her views, although they don't say they do. Tha...

More people know the answer to that question than I do.

Well, if reading Ayn Rand led you to read Aristotle, I suppose her work may have done something for you, but I find it difficult to think of anything ...

I'm afraid that's true. Or any of it, for that matter, except perhaps a (happily) forgotten excerpt in some anthology or other.

I don't think that's likely. And it would be challenging, but I think I could manage. It may be necessary to use the words "essence" and "Being" and "...

Something is merely the absence of nothing. You must know nothing to know something.

I enjoy thinking about The Nothing, which can't be discussed but which I encounter only by the dread I feel when thinking of Heil--wait, I mean HEIL--...

I don't know the quote, but if it's a statement made by Augustine there's probably a good chance it's from his work De haeresibus.

I'd say Stoicism generally influenced Christianity, not Seneca in particular. But Seneca is credited with making Stoicism seem more human than did the...

It's interesting, then, that the early Christians were so inclined to treat him as one of their own. Seneca was the subject of criticism for his wealt...

The early Christian Fathers were quite fond of Seneca. Jerome called him "our Seneca" and someone took the trouble to fabricate a correspondence betwe...

As a rule, a contract to do something which violates the law is void, or voidable, on public policy grounds. So, for example, a contract to sell one p...

Yes, and with the same creatures with the same free will that led to the corruption requiring the destruction of Creation the first time around. There...

I don't support any politician, nor do I have any leader(s), in national government. The executive and legislative branches of our Great Republic are ...

It changed when it abandoned its ritual, ceremony and liturgy. In other words, when it changed the manner of its public worship. I had the misfortune ...

That seems to have been the case for institutional Christianity generally, I would say, and was not peculiar to the Catholic Church. Or perhaps more a...

Be proud of your Catholic upbringing. Revel in it! If one is going to belong to a religious institution, or institutional religion, Catholicism is the...

Augustine's Confessions seems to me readable only if one enjoys another's efforts to expose himself, as it were. There's something perverse about his ...

Ah. It's Jesus time, I see. Well, I was contributing to this thread in my modest way as it seemed to address legal issues, to a certain extent. But wh...

Not that long ago, and for all I know it may still be the case in certain jurisdictions, it was required that there be grounds for divorce. Adultery b...

Evidence of what, though? It's necessary, first, to define the crime. What kind of conduct constitutes the crime of adultery? What is it that must be ...

To the extent that others seek to control their conduct in various ways on the ground that they're transgender, lesbian, gay, whatever, I think they'r...

I can't help but feel that controversies of this kind arise from our regrettable tendency to disturb ourselves over matters which are not in our contr...

If only you were in charge! But I think you should consider requiring them to wear a scarlet "A." It far more effectively meets the need of the sexual...

It's quite odd, I think, but perhaps the tendency to moralize about and condemn the sexual conduct of consenting adults is merely another way in which...

What an unfortunately silly person you are! Silliness can be amusing, and normally I'm in favor of it, particularly where the law is concerned. But on...

A Ah, yet another lawyer wannabe. I delight in those who rely on lawyers, or their perception of the law, to make points only to denigrate them if it ...

I am a lawyer who has clients. I think you've been talking to lawyers who have clients who are fathers involved in domestic disputes.

It's astounding what reasons we contrive to explain and justify our aversion to, and peculiar fascination with, the sexual behavior of others.

I think Sinclair Lewis was right. "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." I don't say fascism will come ...

It's gone, you know. Conservatism I mean, as a force in our politics, society or culture. Sadly, I would say. It's been suborned as a political force,...

I wish them good luck. I think the man is an abomination.

I think that in order to be an "enemy" under this clause, the person or nation must be more than a competitor, more than ideologically or economically...

It's not something I deal with in my practice, I'll admit. But behold Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution of our Glorious Republic, God's favor...

Oh yes, yes indeed. It's mojo was in its long history and its mystery, all encompassed in a most impressive, sometimes chilling, sometimes serene, som...

And so do I, when compared with the banal, colorless, uninspiring ceremony that replaced it.

There's some good stuff on the internet as well. But most of all, I'm fond of this, Romanes eunt domushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8

The God of my youth, certainly, but not joy as I knelt on stone or marble reciting those words early in the morning.

But for the Latin I memorized as an altar boy, I generally fake it using the bits and pieces I can remember, and hope I use the appropriate tenses, de...

What about the Stoa, or Porch? There are a lot more porches than there are academies or lyceums.

It's less than clear to me that a person who seeks or acquires "knowledge for its own sake" is in any sense admirable, let alone more admirable than s...

Ego quo ibo? In philosophy, to understand myself; to understand the rest of the world, and others, as well as possible; to do the best I can with what...

Well, the Gospels were written in Greek. Bad Greek, according to ancient commentators I know of, but I have no idea whether that's the case. Paul used...