Tag: Platonism
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2024-09-13
Levels of Knowledge
Continuing our series on the basics of Platonism, we must distinguish between two different kinds of knowledge that are appropriate to sensibles and intelligibles. The former, Plato calls *doxa* a kind of knowledge based on the way things *seem*. The latter Plato calls *episteme*, a kind of knowledge based on the timeless understanding of intelligible patterns.
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2024-08-16
Being and Becoming
We continue our series on the fundamentals of Platonism by explaining how intelligibles are "beings" that simply are what they are while sensibles are "becomings" that unroll what they are over time.
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2024-06-21
Eidos in the Meno and Euthyphro
Continuing our series of essays introducing basic ideas in Platonism, this week we take a close look at several critical passages from the early dialogues Meno and Euthyphro that use the vocabulary of "eidos" and "idea."
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2024-06-14
The Language of the Forms
Confusion sometimes surrounds the technical terms that are used in the Platonic tradition to refer to the Forms because there is not just one word for 'form' but several. To make matters worse, none of the relevant words were originally conceived as technical terms and Plato himself uses them only sparingly. In this essay, I hope to clarify the situation.
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2024-06-07
Sensibles and Intelligibles
Expanding on the last essay, this post adds some nuance to the distinction between sensibles and intelligibles and introduces some of the words that are used in Greek as technical vocabulary in the Platonic tradition.
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2024-06-01
The Mystery of Similarity
Despite the grand, cosmic conclusions, Platonism begins from very simple, ordinary observations. Among these ordinary mysteries---and leading straight to the heart of Platonism---the common experience of similarity is perhaps the most strange of all.
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2024-05-18
Plato's Academy
A brief introduction to Plato's Academy, the school Plato founded outside of Athens and which continued after him for two-and-half centuries.
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2023-05-19
Vulcans and Androids
Science fiction has made popular a certain trope concerning us logicians. The thought is that logic is somehow cold and calculating, the activity of a merely robotic kind of intelligence. Students sometimes assume that this is the point of logic class. Emotions get you into trouble, so your parents want you to be more like Spock. The unfortunate side-effect of the treatment is that you will be less fun at parties. In defense of logicians everywhere, especially those passionate, very-fun-at-parties, Platonic logicians, I submit that this stereotype misses a deep truth about the nature of the human soul.
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2023-05-12
The Socrates Effect
A curious thing happens when a young man meets Socrates for the first time. To a young man, the humiliation of successful men in the previous generation holds a perennial fascination. They gathered around. They enjoyed the spectacle. They imitated the method. A few of them listened and understood.
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2021-12-11
A Dialogue on Platonic Realism
I had an interesting conversation with a friend on Discord about Platonic realism. So we decided to dress it up as a Platonic dialogue.
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2020-07-10
Logos as Intelligibility and Intelligence
We continue to explore the meaning of the word Logos by distinguishing the objective side, intelligibility, from the subjective side, intelligence. The latter is a faculty receptive to the former.
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2020-01-23
Jordan Peterson and Platonic Realism
Jordan Peterson's use of Jungian archetypes brings him close to the kind of metaphysical realism we see in Christian Platonism---close, but not quite there.
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2019-10-09
Traditionalism
Traditionalism is best understood as an orientation toward the timeless truth rather than an attachment to old ideas simply because they are old.
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2019-07-24
What are the Forms?
Following the last post on the meaning of Platonism, I here flesh out the idea of transcendent Forms as intelligible structures that keep showing up again and again in the world of our experience.