classics digests, reflections and reviews
Recently, I’ve had some interesting discussions with a couple of Straussians who argued that Plato didn’t really believe the Theory of Forms or the existence of gods, and that those metaphysical and theological notions are only means to an end, which is to teach people to lead a virtuous life, in other words, they serve as instructional tools for ethics. I asked them if Strauss provided any concrete evidence from […]
Read moreWhy is Socratic Method so Effective? Most dabblers in philosophy, myself included, are the contentious sort. We assert our opinion and reject others’ offhand, without giving any reason as to why our opinion is better. Consequently, discussions tend to end in futility, with both sides going away unaffected and unimpressed. By contrast, the Socratic Method often ends in unanimous consensus among the interlocutors, with others agreeing with Socrates and seemingly unable […]
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Socrates the Snake Charmer In Book I of Eudemian Ethics, Aristotle makes a constructive criticism of Socrates for once, rightly pointing out that knowing (objectively) what is good and just is not the same as being good and just. [Socrates] thought that all the virtues are forms of knowledge, so that knowing justice and being just must go together, for as soon as we have learnt geometry and architecture, we […]
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Nietzsche as Monkey King With a philosopher nothing at all is impersonal. As an armchair Platonist, I had a personal aversion to Nietzsche, whose whole purpose in life seemed to be to overthrow Platonism. After reading “Beyond Good and Evil”, however, my attitude changed from aversion to pity, that is, pity in the Nietzschean sense. To illustrate my view of Nietzsche and his relation to Plato, let me introduce a […]
Read moreShe is the boundary of his being Kierkegaard met Regine Olsen in Copenhagen in 1837, and, by all appearances, there was a deep attraction between the two. They were engaged in 1840, but Kierkegaard immediately broke off the engagement the following year. Regina married her old tutor in 1847, and the couple left Copenhagen for the Danish West Indies in March 1855. Kierkegaard died in November that same year, having […]
Read morePlato writes that the beautiful things in this world are images of the absolute and everlasting Beauty that can be seen only with the eye of the mind. Things in this world change constantly and have no substance, but they are beautiful because they participate in Beauty. In the same vein, justice is made manifest in this world by people participating in or enacting Justice. Sometimes it’s almost as if a […]
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I find the myth of Narcissus fascinating, and Dali’s interpretation, more than any other artist’s, seems to have captured its meaning, from the philosophical and psychological perspective. Plato writes that, if there is no substance and permanence, if everything is constantly in flux and changing, knowledge and love would be impossible, not only because there would be nothing there to be known and loved, but also because it’s impossible to […]
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