But I think the objection is that you're coming across as a conspiracy theorist. I'm able to agree with Gerson that there is a profound antinomy betwe...
I'm certainly not agreeing with the idea that Leo Strauss is the initiator of a grand conspiracy. The first I heard about Leo Strauss was from you, in...
I can see his point, but I have a different background - more counter-cultural. My areas of interest are traditional philosophy and comparative religi...
I agree, but it's also true that Plato didn't write a system of philosophy, he was not a systematic philosopher. I do my bit, modest though it might b...
I'm not at all convinced by that line of argument. As I said before, I think it's part of the much broader 'culture war' between scientific secularism...
Climate change science is so simple it can be stated in a few sentences. The burning of fossil fuels, chiefly coal, oil and gas, emits CO2, which abso...
Industrial society could not have developed without sufficient energy sources, and most of it came from coal, which captures energy from the sun. Coal...
It's worth noting that the discussion of the 'noble lie' entered this thread at the point where we were talking about the proof of the immortality of ...
Climate change science is so simple it can be stated in a few sentences. The burning of fossil fuels, chiefly coal, oil and gas, emits CO2, which abso...
It was adapted from John Uebersax but I think this interpretive framework is not unique to him, I selected it because I thought it representative. Com...
People can be both endearing, and also suffer from poor judgement, sadly. Part of the issue is that understanding both COVID-19 and climate change req...
Actually reading the NY Times article on the release of the draft report, Trump does comment ' 'Mr. Trump on Friday said the review “has uncovered sig...
Sure, but I've noticed your responses are conditioned by a very specific perspective. And you have a reading of Plato that I don't always agree with. ...
I expect that Trump, if he makes any comment, will declare that the recount is wrong. The depth of his delusion is such that no mere fact could penetr...
Not every philosophical argument comprises interpretation of Plato. I was agreeing with the sentiment: and commenting on why this is so, what lead up ...
Do you think I'm saying that 'nothing can be learned from these old arguments?' I hope I didn't convey that impression. Am I wrong in believing that t...
The 'grand scheme' is something that has been discovered by human beings. So the 'grand scheme' that we seem insignificant in respect of, is still som...
It's not just one intellectual, it's the whole cosmopolitan intelligentsia, and the thrust of modern academia generally, particularly in the English-s...
Not a good reason. I wrote this in response to a thread on another forum, in respect of a discussion of this paper: 'Heisenberg had in mind Aristotle’...
Why shouldn't there be? What prima facie case is there that there ought not to be chance? What about Peirce's 'tychism'? Didn't he see chance as basic...
There's another thing I want to try and spell out. Forms, ideas, numbers, principles and so on, are not 'existent things', they're not 'out there some...
I had some vivid experiences in my early years which were like recollections. Part of it was realising that I am the necessary ground of all experienc...
It’s natural to feel that way, but everyone has to be treated equally, I think. I think those who refuse vaccination without good reason should forego...
That story posted above links to other stories about people suing hospitals to force them to administer their ‘folk remedies’ to COVID patients. As if...
Even if I knew it as a simple truth, I know nobody would believe it because belief in re-birth is a strong cultural taboo. It can’t even be discussed ...
‘In Aristotle's influential works, ‘nous’ was carefully distinguished from sense perception, imagination, and reason, although these terms are closely...
I think 'lie' is a pejorative in the context, as it implies an intention to deceive. 'Edifying tale' I think would be nearer the mark. If I said I had...
My gloss on it is that whenever you say that something 'is' something - e.g. that an apple 'is' red - insofar as the thing you're referring to is a ma...
Here I think you're confusing intellect and imagination. Another example: René Descartes uses the chiliagon as an example in his Sixth Meditation to d...
I wonder what 'looking into beings' might mean? Is it a reference to 'contemplation of the nature of being'? Let's revisit: Again, in the Meno, Socrat...
No, they're not, but I think numbers, universals, and the Forms are of the same order - they inhere in the 'formal realm', the domain of pure form, wh...
I was wondering recently whether this is because our culture has only kept those elements of Platonism which are useful for science and engineering, w...
I will just refer back to those two links I provided the page before, about the definitions of 'noetic' and 'gnostic'. As you already noted, Plotinus ...
it's a rather specialised area of archeology. I'm certainly open to the possibility that it is subject to revision, but I don't know if it's completel...
Well, personally I hadn't encountered it, but the convergence between ancient European and Indian scripts and languages was the area that Müller was a...
My knowledge of ancient languages is mostly confined to my dimly-remembered studies of Max Mueller's 'linguistic archeology' back in the 1970's (I thi...
Did Greek descend from Hebrew? I had the idea it was of Indo-European origin. Sure! But as I pointed out, my response was to trying to connect 'nous' ...
It was a widespread practice in ancient asceticism. It became later associated with Christianity through the process of cultural assimilation, althoug...
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