Philosophy
The pre-Socratic philosophers are a strange bunch. On the one hand, their ideas about the nature of reality must strike most of us as just plain weird. Everything is made of air or water? The fundamental constituents of the universe are love and strife? No, it's number? What?
On the other hand, what else can you expect from really smart people who didn't have the benefit of the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of almost three millennia that they were the first to contribute to?
But there are a few cases, like Empedocles, in which, while he was still wrong, he came so tantalizingly close to the right answer (or to what the right answer would sort of look like), that even though he threw himself into a scorching volcano to prove he was a god, I can't help but take off my hat to him and introduce you to his thinking in a fun little three minute philosophy episode:
If you want to learn a bit more about the pre-socratic philosophers, maybe you'd be okay with Carl Sagan giving you a short history lesson? I'm sure you wouldn't mind that, right? :)
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Today is Einstein's birthday and as I put the finishing touches on the manuscript, Einstein's Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion, I am thinking about the question in the last chapter -- why do we love Einstein?...
- Descartes, Dualism And Monism
Let?s assume that both you and me do have minds; I guess it would be way easier to think this post over if you had some free mind to use. Otherwise the idea of thought without a mind might get a little bit tricky ? but as you?re about to see, thought...
- Who Is Better Able To Philosophize? The Young Or The Old?
The Republic of Plato contains many philosophies and the philosophers who create them. The philosophers of the Republic of Plato express in depth interpretations of the world that reveal their amazing intelligence. These interpretations are argued and...
- Three Minute Philosophy - Heraclitus & Parmenides
Living in an age full of ever-improving technology and scientific understanding, we may sometimes be inclined to think that observation and measurement constitute the only way to get a hold of reality, but there is a long history in philosophy of great...
- "favorite Pre-socratic Greek Philosopher" Poll
Favorite pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Anaxagoras... Anaximander... Anaximenes... Democritus...1 Diogenes...1 Empedocles... Heraclitus... Parmenides... Pythagoras...3 Thales... Zeno... All...1 None...1 I had to vote for Pythagoras even though I do...
Philosophy
Three Minute Philosophy - Empedocles
On the other hand, what else can you expect from really smart people who didn't have the benefit of the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of almost three millennia that they were the first to contribute to?
But there are a few cases, like Empedocles, in which, while he was still wrong, he came so tantalizingly close to the right answer (or to what the right answer would sort of look like), that even though he threw himself into a scorching volcano to prove he was a god, I can't help but take off my hat to him and introduce you to his thinking in a fun little three minute philosophy episode:
If you want to learn a bit more about the pre-socratic philosophers, maybe you'd be okay with Carl Sagan giving you a short history lesson? I'm sure you wouldn't mind that, right? :)
- Why Do We Love Einstein?
Today is Einstein's birthday and as I put the finishing touches on the manuscript, Einstein's Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion, I am thinking about the question in the last chapter -- why do we love Einstein?...
- Descartes, Dualism And Monism
Let?s assume that both you and me do have minds; I guess it would be way easier to think this post over if you had some free mind to use. Otherwise the idea of thought without a mind might get a little bit tricky ? but as you?re about to see, thought...
- Who Is Better Able To Philosophize? The Young Or The Old?
The Republic of Plato contains many philosophies and the philosophers who create them. The philosophers of the Republic of Plato express in depth interpretations of the world that reveal their amazing intelligence. These interpretations are argued and...
- Three Minute Philosophy - Heraclitus & Parmenides
Living in an age full of ever-improving technology and scientific understanding, we may sometimes be inclined to think that observation and measurement constitute the only way to get a hold of reality, but there is a long history in philosophy of great...
- "favorite Pre-socratic Greek Philosopher" Poll
Favorite pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Anaxagoras... Anaximander... Anaximenes... Democritus...1 Diogenes...1 Empedocles... Heraclitus... Parmenides... Pythagoras...3 Thales... Zeno... All...1 None...1 I had to vote for Pythagoras even though I do...