Plato

[Mackgnash the III]

I was just curious what everyone thought of the Allegory of the Cave. If you don't know what that is, i'll explain....later...

[Trollax]

Live my life by it

The only good fnord is a dead fnord after all

So I fired osiris and made life easier for everyone...

[seanfish]

"We see through a glass darkly"
Corinthians 13:12

Thus proving that even the devil himself can quote the bible for his own purposes.          

Weird news from the wall of my personal cave btw... for some reason the emoticons on this page have stopped animating and are stuck partway through their cycles. The   guy looks reeeealy stoned.

*shrugs*

I know what you mean about living life by the cave allegory, Trollax... it's the basis of my whole practice of not making too many judgements, and not worrying too much about the reality of what I see. Living that way actually provides a great deal of insight (as differentiated from judgement) into what's going on, so long as you remember to let it go and move on.

[Slarti]

was that the one about the things chained to the wall, and they saw the shadows from the fire as reality, but then they were unchained, and they got mad or something?
i need to go reread 'the complete idiot's guide to understanding philosophy".

[Mackgnash the III]

Yeah that pretty much explains it....kinda

[Payne]

NO MORE MEME!

[Triple Zero]

this one = cutest.

[Cain]

Plato was a dick and I hope he gets eaten by a hamster.

[Pope Cornholio Barfmaster]

I was just curious what everyone thought of the Allegory of the Cave. If you don't know what that is, i'll explain....later...

I had to analize it (not anal ize it) for my phylosophy class.I think Its lame but makes some sense

[Mangrove]

Plato was a dick and I hope he gets eaten by a hamster.

[Cain]

 

But seriously, Platonic Forms are responsible for some of the biggest bullshit in philosophy ever.  They also tie neatly into his political theories, which are....totalitarian, to say the least.

[Mangrove]

But seriously, Platonic Forms are responsible for some of the biggest bullshit in philosophy ever.  They also tie neatly into his political theories, which are....totalitarian, to say the least.

I was getting this impression from 'The Closing Of The Western Mind' which was pretty much a history of 'how we got a dark ages'. Really good book detailing the rise of Platonic ideas supplanting the Greek rational tradition and the way in which the church stepped into the vacuum left by the collapse of the Roman Empire.

[Cain]

Yeah, I remember you mentioning that book a few times.  Up until Plato's time, the majority of philosophers who had any currency were Ionian Greeks (Athens was considered Ionian, but most cities described were in fact in Persia, and thats what is referred to here), who indeed practised a crude form of scientific scepticism.

Plato combined perfectly with Church teachings, as well as with heretical Islam, since the Assassins were rather fond of many of his followers.  Between the two, they pretty much cut up most of Europe and the Near East between them.  Before that time, religious fanatics had been relatively few, as most pagan religions taught that the earth and life was holy.  Plato gave the grounding for dismissing reality for fake metaphysical shadows, helping create the mindset of the sort of person who would through their life away in a "holy cause".

[Mangrove]

I'm digging the classical culture a lot more now. I scored a book about the Oracle Of Delphi at Borders. Brand new hard back book in the bargain bin for $6.

Was reading this in the laundromat today. Chapter 1 ends with Christianity destroying all the temples etc and propagating the idea that the pagan religions were channelling Satan.

Later on, the book gets into the latest archaeological and scientific research that has occurred at the site. I read in Scientific American about 3 years ago about how the classical accounts (especially those of Plutarch) could be validated by modern research, especially the psychoactive fumes that rise up out of cracks at the temple site.

I think the author is William Broad.

So, yay ancient Greeks. 

except Plato

[Cramulus]

So, yay ancient Greeks. 

except Plato and Aristotle

fixed