Many consider Plato (428–347 B.C.) to be the greatest philosopher who ever lived. He is my favorite personally. I consider myself a Platonist, albeit with some modifications, of course. In this regard, I consider the previous 56 posts to be simply a prologue to this post. A.N. Whitehead (1861–1947), an English mathematician and philosopher, said […]
Category Archives: Plato
56. The Hope of Resurrection and the Hopelessness of Reincarnation
In the West, we have three main beliefs concerning the afterlife – materialistic annihilation, reincarnation, and resurrection. Before continuing with this post, stop briefly for a moment and consider what your view is of the afterlife, if indeed you have given it much thought. Please leave your comments below.
54. Protagoras – The First Sophist and Philosophical Revolutionary
“Man is the measure of all things.” This famous dictum is familiar to most of us, yet I imagine that most people have no idea who uttered those words. You can probably guess by the title of this post that it was none other than the philosopher Protagoras. But what did he mean by it […]
53. The Greek Sophists – Authentic Philosophers or Purveyors of Deception?
For those familiar with philosophy, the word “Sophist” brings to mind a highly articulate snake oil salesman who, through eloquence and smoothness of speech, is able to manipulate people into doing what he wants. In the ancient world, it was said that the Sophists could convince people it was night when it was day. This […]
36. Philo of Alexandria -a Jewish Perspective of Logos
Let’s continue our journey from Heraclitus’ idea of Logos to St. John’s application of the Logos to the Son of God. In post 35, I discussed how the Stoics took Heraclitus’ idea of the logos and expanded it to include the idea of eternal recurrence – the continual destruction and rebirth of the entire universe.1 […]
35. Logos: from Heraclitus to the Stoics
What unifies a universe made up of individual and diverse things? As I previously stated, the main philosophical problem to be solved – throughout history but especially in ancient Greek philosophy – is that of universals also known as the problem of the one and the many.1 (Please read the preceding posts if you haven’t […]