(Originally written July 21, 2018 in Book 17)
Timaeus & Critias
Plato
The Timaeus was the first Ancient Greek text to give an account of creation of the world by a divine creator. Other, earlier Greek accounts were either mythical, centering around sexual reproduction or treated as a haphazard evolution.
"The primary purpose of the Timaeus is theological, that is to say, to give a religious and teleological account of the origin of the world and of the phenomena of nature" (Plato, 7).
On a side note, the teleological has been widely discarded by science. But, I wonder, if we are simply matter and synapses and electrical currents then we are exactly like what the rest of the cosmos is in terms of stuff. But, we, as human beings, obviously do things with a purpose. Thus, we are teleological beings. If we are merely stuff like everything in the cosmos then that stuff is teleological. If matter is then teleological then why is it limited to human beings? That would seem an arbitrary statement.
The creation account of the Timaeus is not a god synonymous with the Christian God or even other Greek gods.
The philosophical basis for the Timaeus begins with Plato's distinction between Being and Becoming. The world of Being contains the Platonic Forms, the principles of logic and mathematics - that which can be known by reason. The world of Becoming is what we perceive by the senses.
"The function of the creator is to account for the intelligibility of the universe" (Plato, 110. Plato believed the cosmos was something we could understand and it could be understood because there is an intelligent force underlying it.
Plato argues that there is a goodness inherent in the actions of the Creator. Thus, when we see traces of divine design we can infer goodness.
The Timaeus and the Critias belong to the late period of Plato's works. They are probably his penultimate works before he wrote the Laws, which he left unfinished on account of his death in 348 BC.
Timaeus
Socrates begins by summarizing the ideal society
- separating the people by occupation/craft/class
- each class gets a single occupation appropriate to it
- the ruling class would thus, only be rulers and have no other occupation
- the rulers must be gentle to their subjects
- the rulers must be trained physically and mentally
- the rulers must not have private property
- no marriage among the rulers. all children were to be children to all and not now their parents. The good men should be assigned to the good women (and the bad paired up) by secret, fixed ways
Critias then begins to tell a story about the travels of Solon. Solon went to Egypt, to the city of Sais. There, Solon learned from the priests about antiquity.
Solon learns about Deucalion and Pyrrha who survived a great flood. But, the old priest criticizes Solon for childish thinking and small-thinking. "You remember only one deluge, though there have been many, and you do not know that the finest and best race of men that every existed lived in your country; you and your fellow citizens are descended from the few survivors that remained" (Plato, 36).
Then Timaeus speaks. He intends to speak an account of how the universe began.
First we must distinguish between "that which always is and never becomes from that which is always becoming but never is" (Plato, 40). Distinguishes between Being and Becoming.
Being is knowable by reason and intellect. Becoming is understood through opinion and irrational sensation. Being has no cause. Becoming always has a cause.
The cosmos falls into the category of becoming because it can be sensed. Since it is sensible it has a cause.
Why did the creator choose to create the cosmos? The creator is good and therefore wishes all things to be as like him as possible. "God thererfore, wishing that all things should be good, and so far as possible nothing be imperfect" (Plato, 42). The creator took the chaos and reduced it to order.
The Creator created the cosmos to have soul in it, not in any indiviudal part, but in its entirety. That soul is diffuse throughout its entirety.
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Philebus
(Originally written July 19, 2018)
Philebus
Plato
From my Goodreads account:
Any of Plato's dialogues are generally worth reading. His style and literary prowess are enough to carry him to that level. What makes some of Plato's dialogues fantastic reads is his ability to argue soundly with himself. In Philebus, you have Plato's literary quality leading the charge. The first of Socrates' dialectic sparring partners in this dialogue are Philebus who is basically as involved as the spoiled boy who announces he won't play the game because his friends chose a diferent one than what he had suggested. Like the sulking boy Philebus sits in the corner watching the game and occasionally chimes in with a retort that has nothing really to do with the conversation because he is still hurt they're playing Monopoly instead of Life. Socrates' other partner is Protarchus. Protarchus seems to have the spinal fortitude of cooked spaghetti. While the philosophical debate isn't as strong or as barbed as in other dialogues the wit, sarcasm and wordplay is just as magical and makes Philebus a good, light read.
Philebus
Plato
From my Goodreads account:
Any of Plato's dialogues are generally worth reading. His style and literary prowess are enough to carry him to that level. What makes some of Plato's dialogues fantastic reads is his ability to argue soundly with himself. In Philebus, you have Plato's literary quality leading the charge. The first of Socrates' dialectic sparring partners in this dialogue are Philebus who is basically as involved as the spoiled boy who announces he won't play the game because his friends chose a diferent one than what he had suggested. Like the sulking boy Philebus sits in the corner watching the game and occasionally chimes in with a retort that has nothing really to do with the conversation because he is still hurt they're playing Monopoly instead of Life. Socrates' other partner is Protarchus. Protarchus seems to have the spinal fortitude of cooked spaghetti. While the philosophical debate isn't as strong or as barbed as in other dialogues the wit, sarcasm and wordplay is just as magical and makes Philebus a good, light read.
Philebus Notes 3
(Originally written July 19, 2018 in book 17)
Philebus
Plato
(continued)
"Bad men, then, delight for the most part in false pleasures, good men in true ones" (Plato, 77).
False pleasures are a 'ridiculous imitation' of true pleasures.
There are three types of life:
1) The pleasant
2) The painful
3) The painless, joyless life.
To be without pain is not the same as to feel pleasure.
The greatest pleasures and pains occur not when the body or soul is healthy, but when they are sick.
Ignorance is always an evil.
Pleasure belongs to the class of becoming, i.e. the pleasure one has involves the process of being thirsty. Thus, pleasure is not pure Being. The Good in pure Being and does not involve process and is thus, not becoming. Being is higher than becoming. Thus, pleasure cannot be the Good because as the Good it must be the highest.
Socrates claims that dialectic has the greatest claim to discovering pure truth. He concedes that while Gorgias' act of persuasion may acheive more utility, it does not have a strong claim as does dialectic to understanding the truth of a thing.
"We find fixity, purity, truth and what we have called perfect clarity, either in those things that are always unchanged, unaltered and free of all admixture, or in what is most akin to them; everythign else must be called inferior and of secondary iporantce" (Plato, 122).
There is a Greek proverb about the need for repeating a good thing 'once and twice and once again' - use this in Future Modern Ancient Greeks for comedic effect
Philebus claims that pleasure and the pursuit of it is the Supreme Good of all living Creatures. Socrates claims they are different and intelligence has more claim to be ranked as good than pleasure.
Knowledge of things unchanged is greater than knowledge of changing things. Knowledge of pure Being is greather than knowledge of becoming.
THe mixture that comes to the threshold of the Good is all knowledge, the knowledge of both unchanging and changing things and those pleasures that do not have folly attached to them. The pleasures of a temperate existence are allowed in, but those that cause ruin or disturbance are not.
Beauty, proportion and Truth are synonymous. The mixture will be good if these three things are in it. These things make the mixture good.
Socrates' heiarchy of what is closest to the Good:
1) Whatever is measured or appropriate
2) Whatever is proportional and beautiful
3) Reason and intelligence
4) That which belongs to the soul itself (Science, Art, Right Opinions
5) Pure pleasures of the soul, some attached to knowledge, some to sensation
Philebus
Plato
(continued)
"Bad men, then, delight for the most part in false pleasures, good men in true ones" (Plato, 77).
False pleasures are a 'ridiculous imitation' of true pleasures.
There are three types of life:
1) The pleasant
2) The painful
3) The painless, joyless life.
To be without pain is not the same as to feel pleasure.
The greatest pleasures and pains occur not when the body or soul is healthy, but when they are sick.
Ignorance is always an evil.
Pleasure belongs to the class of becoming, i.e. the pleasure one has involves the process of being thirsty. Thus, pleasure is not pure Being. The Good in pure Being and does not involve process and is thus, not becoming. Being is higher than becoming. Thus, pleasure cannot be the Good because as the Good it must be the highest.
Socrates claims that dialectic has the greatest claim to discovering pure truth. He concedes that while Gorgias' act of persuasion may acheive more utility, it does not have a strong claim as does dialectic to understanding the truth of a thing.
"We find fixity, purity, truth and what we have called perfect clarity, either in those things that are always unchanged, unaltered and free of all admixture, or in what is most akin to them; everythign else must be called inferior and of secondary iporantce" (Plato, 122).
There is a Greek proverb about the need for repeating a good thing 'once and twice and once again' - use this in Future Modern Ancient Greeks for comedic effect
Philebus claims that pleasure and the pursuit of it is the Supreme Good of all living Creatures. Socrates claims they are different and intelligence has more claim to be ranked as good than pleasure.
Knowledge of things unchanged is greater than knowledge of changing things. Knowledge of pure Being is greather than knowledge of becoming.
THe mixture that comes to the threshold of the Good is all knowledge, the knowledge of both unchanging and changing things and those pleasures that do not have folly attached to them. The pleasures of a temperate existence are allowed in, but those that cause ruin or disturbance are not.
Beauty, proportion and Truth are synonymous. The mixture will be good if these three things are in it. These things make the mixture good.
Socrates' heiarchy of what is closest to the Good:
1) Whatever is measured or appropriate
2) Whatever is proportional and beautiful
3) Reason and intelligence
4) That which belongs to the soul itself (Science, Art, Right Opinions
5) Pure pleasures of the soul, some attached to knowledge, some to sensation
Monday, July 16, 2018
Philebus Notes 2
(Originally written July 16, 2018 in Book 17)
Philebus
Plato
(continued)
Socrates maintains that neither pleasure nor intelligence are identical with the good.
The good must be perfect, must be adequate and when one recognizes the good, one must desire it and go after it.
Socrates shows Protarchus that a life lived in the whole enjoyment of pleasure without intelligence would be impossible. Without intelligence one couldn't even judge that his life was pleasurable. It wouldn't be a human life, but a life of some beast.
Socrates and Protarchus also agree that a life of complete and perfect intelligence without pleasure (or even pain) would not be desireable either.
Since a life devoted to pleasure and a life devoted to intelligence both prove to be inadequate than neither intelligence nor pleasure can be the good.
Socrates points out that while pleasure and his own personal reasons are not the good; it might be that, "the tru, divine, reason, I fancy, is in rather a different position" (Plato, 35).
4 Classes of Existence:
1) Limitless - that which can be more or less, that which is becoming, that which contains a quality of "compared to such-and-such", i.e. a thing is hotter when it is compared to something. it continues on being hotter and hotter (or colder and colder) when compared.
2) The limited - that which posseses a quality of a fixed ratio or is equal to something else.
3) A mix of the limitless and the limited - this is the balance and perfection. By combining pitches in music we arrive at a harmony. "it is here that we find the source of fair weather and all other beautiful things" (Plato, 48).
Socrates uses the example of law and the wickedness of man. Socrates contends that the lawlessness and wickedness of man is due to the limitless nature of man's pleasure and his appetite for it. When Law and Order was instituted then limits were imposed. Thus the limitlessness and the limited were combined to produce balance. Socrates maintains against Philebus that rather than spoiling the capacity for pleasure this imposition of limitedness preserved man.
4) The thing that causes the mixture of the limited and unlimited. This is greather than the thing that is mixed because the caused always comes after the cause.
Socrates claims that mind and soul belong to the category 4, the cause of things.
Socrates points out pain must be discussed in any thought of pleasure. He places both pain and pleasure in the third, combined category.
He describes pain as a disturbance of harmony in any creature and pleasure as the occurrence when that harmony is restored. "When the natural state of a living organism, constituted, as I have maintained, of the unlimited and the limit, is destroyed and that destruction is pain; conversely, when such organisms return to their own true nature, this reversion is invariably pleasure" (Plato, 60).
Socrates argues that all desires come from the soul, not the body. Likewise pain and pleasure are in the soul, not the body.
Socrates points out that feeling a pleasure is on the same level of holding an opinion. Since opinion can be either true or false, pleasures can likewise be either true or false.
If a pleasure has rightness then it is a right pleasure. But if a pleasure has badness, it is a bad pleasure.
Socrates compares our souls to a book. When memories with attached feelings "write" on our souls what is true, then true opinions spring up in us. But when those memories and attached feelings are false, false opinions spring up in us.
Philebus
Plato
(continued)
Socrates maintains that neither pleasure nor intelligence are identical with the good.
The good must be perfect, must be adequate and when one recognizes the good, one must desire it and go after it.
Socrates shows Protarchus that a life lived in the whole enjoyment of pleasure without intelligence would be impossible. Without intelligence one couldn't even judge that his life was pleasurable. It wouldn't be a human life, but a life of some beast.
Socrates and Protarchus also agree that a life of complete and perfect intelligence without pleasure (or even pain) would not be desireable either.
Since a life devoted to pleasure and a life devoted to intelligence both prove to be inadequate than neither intelligence nor pleasure can be the good.
Socrates points out that while pleasure and his own personal reasons are not the good; it might be that, "the tru, divine, reason, I fancy, is in rather a different position" (Plato, 35).
4 Classes of Existence:
1) Limitless - that which can be more or less, that which is becoming, that which contains a quality of "compared to such-and-such", i.e. a thing is hotter when it is compared to something. it continues on being hotter and hotter (or colder and colder) when compared.
2) The limited - that which posseses a quality of a fixed ratio or is equal to something else.
3) A mix of the limitless and the limited - this is the balance and perfection. By combining pitches in music we arrive at a harmony. "it is here that we find the source of fair weather and all other beautiful things" (Plato, 48).
Socrates uses the example of law and the wickedness of man. Socrates contends that the lawlessness and wickedness of man is due to the limitless nature of man's pleasure and his appetite for it. When Law and Order was instituted then limits were imposed. Thus the limitlessness and the limited were combined to produce balance. Socrates maintains against Philebus that rather than spoiling the capacity for pleasure this imposition of limitedness preserved man.
4) The thing that causes the mixture of the limited and unlimited. This is greather than the thing that is mixed because the caused always comes after the cause.
Socrates claims that mind and soul belong to the category 4, the cause of things.
Socrates points out pain must be discussed in any thought of pleasure. He places both pain and pleasure in the third, combined category.
He describes pain as a disturbance of harmony in any creature and pleasure as the occurrence when that harmony is restored. "When the natural state of a living organism, constituted, as I have maintained, of the unlimited and the limit, is destroyed and that destruction is pain; conversely, when such organisms return to their own true nature, this reversion is invariably pleasure" (Plato, 60).
Socrates argues that all desires come from the soul, not the body. Likewise pain and pleasure are in the soul, not the body.
Socrates points out that feeling a pleasure is on the same level of holding an opinion. Since opinion can be either true or false, pleasures can likewise be either true or false.
If a pleasure has rightness then it is a right pleasure. But if a pleasure has badness, it is a bad pleasure.
Socrates compares our souls to a book. When memories with attached feelings "write" on our souls what is true, then true opinions spring up in us. But when those memories and attached feelings are false, false opinions spring up in us.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Reaction to a dark twist in a short story idea
I just came across an idea for a short story that I posited in August of 2007. Wow, that was surprisingly dark! I think I may have been watching entirely too much Law and Order. I also think that I was trying to be provocative for the sake of provocativeness. Honestly, if done well it wouldn't be a horrible short story, but it might be done mediocre and achieve nothing but shock for the sake of shocking or be a badly written morality tale with a weird kitsch vibe. I'm not sure what I think about it. I was just surprised by its darkness.
Monday, July 2, 2018
Philebus Notes 1
(Originally written July 2, 2018 in Book 17)
This book hasn't been written in for nearly eleven years. But it seems a waste not to fill the pages. Thus, I'll continue with my Plato reading project that has dragged on for nearly two years now.
Plato's Philebus
trans. R. Hackforth
Cambridge at the University Press
1972
Introduction
Philebus is from the later career of Plato.
Philebus is not a real person; he is an embodiment of an irrational dogmatic hedonism.
The main concept of Philebus is that pleasure is an 'unlimited thing'.
Philebus
Philebus: pleasure is the good for all loving creatures; it is the right aim for all creatures and they ought to seek it.
"Hedonism and Socratism have this much in common, that they both find the human good within ourselves" (Plato, 12).
Socrates: thought, intelligence, memory and true reasoning are more valuable than pleasure.
This book hasn't been written in for nearly eleven years. But it seems a waste not to fill the pages. Thus, I'll continue with my Plato reading project that has dragged on for nearly two years now.
Plato's Philebus
trans. R. Hackforth
Cambridge at the University Press
1972
Introduction
Philebus is from the later career of Plato.
Philebus is not a real person; he is an embodiment of an irrational dogmatic hedonism.
The main concept of Philebus is that pleasure is an 'unlimited thing'.
Philebus
Philebus: pleasure is the good for all loving creatures; it is the right aim for all creatures and they ought to seek it.
"Hedonism and Socratism have this much in common, that they both find the human good within ourselves" (Plato, 12).
Socrates: thought, intelligence, memory and true reasoning are more valuable than pleasure.
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