Tag Archives: Plato

What does it mean to live in a contingent universe?

Does this mean the end of metaphysics (at least for this bicyclist)?: I think that the below Walker Percy quote, though about declining suicide (not the lucky escape of an accident) goes rather nicely with the above video. The above bicyclist, … Continue reading

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Robert Campin (1375-1444): the truth will out?

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I get a “the truth will out” vibe from the paintings of Robert Campin—a sort of protective concealment-revelation cycle of some sort functioning as a subtext in at least some of … Continue reading

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Pope John Paul II: He Buffeted His Body and Made It His Slave?

According to Yahoo News today, a new book by Monsignor Slawomir Oder claims that Pope John Paul II habitually abused himself: John Paul frequently denied himself food — especially during the holy season of Lent — and “frequently spent the … Continue reading

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Richard Rorty in the Gospel of Matthew—or the Reification of Just One Way of Being in the World?

In Matthew is a curiously ironic parable, told by Jesus, that strikes me as something that the neopragmatist Stanford philosopher, Richard Rorty, might have told when he was alive, with proper theatrics, as a joke. In other words, if you think that there is … Continue reading

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The Ideal vs. the Real: Our Kitchen as Plato’s Cave

The image that was on the side of the gingerbread house kit box wasn’t exactly what my three and six year old ended up making:

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Would I Mind Being Called an Atheist?

I wouldn’t mind the atheist tag—if that is what I was. Atheism has a more than respectable intellectual pedigree and it has brought enormous levels of freedom and intellectual intelligence into the world. I wouldn’t want to be in a … Continue reading

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“And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don’t know”: Socratic Skepticism in a Kansas Song (1976)

Rising above the noise and confusion of the herd—to other noises and other confusions?:

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The Passion of the Agnostic? “The Death of Socrates” by Jacques-Louis David

From Plato’s Apology (Socrates speaking): “I am wiser than this man: neither of us knows anything that is really worth knowing, but he thinks that he has knowledge when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think … Continue reading

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