Benjamin Dean > Recent Status Updates

“… it is also possible that snow is produced in other ways. “ 3.104

it’s amazingly refreshing to have all this recognition that what is proposed is potentially incorrect when there is insufficient evidence. In contrast to Aristotle and Plato’s absurd certainties and circularity

“we should not do physics by following groundless postulates and stipulations, but in the manner called for by phenomena;”

Text 3.86

take that, Aristotle!

“… the soul is most responsible for sense-perception. 64. But [the soul] would not have acquired this [power] if it were not somehow enclosed by the rest of the aggregate. … That is why when the soul has departed, it does not have sense-perception.”

Text 2.63-2.64

“men consider any amount of virtue to be adequate, but wealth, goods, power, reputation, and all such things they seek to excess without limit.”

“But it is law: that each and every
drop of blood spilled
on the ground calls out for more blood spilled.
Yes, murder cries for the Erinys
who rise from those who died before
to bring ruin on the heals of ruin.”

Dear Professor Burian,

might i humbly suggest that the introduction to a piece of writing, even to a millennia-old classic, ought to _introduce_ the piece in question? I have no doubt this is a fine exercise in exegesis; it is, however, almost totally useless to a reader not yet familiar with _The Oresteia_ .

I don’t know what to do
two states of mind in me

“To feel pity … and to listen to the claims of decency are … entirely against the interests of an imperial power.” Cleon, III.40

“where there is an end, the successive things that go before are done for it. … Things are done for something.” Book II.8

well, this just about sums up where Aristotle and I fundamentally differ on the nature of nature, of cause and effect, and on the concept of purpose.

The preceding paragraph also happens to be entirely refuted by the theory of evolution by natural selection.

“We assume the gods to be above all other things blessed and happy” X.8

what?! every appearance of the gods in, say, _The Iliad_ seems to give lie to this assumption.

“… even if there is some one good which is universally predictable of goods or is capable of separate and independent existence, clearly it could not be achieved or attained by man” I.6

“The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.” I.5

in these times, it’s good to have an appeal to authority for the proper relation between wealth and excellence: Απολογία 30b. (though Socrates’ poverty should be remembered when considering the necessity of the relation)