Category Archives: philosophy

Experience and Knowledge – Encounters and Reflections: Conversations with Seth Benardete, p. 197

The passage below, from Encounters and Reflections: Conversations with Seth Benardete p. 197, is something I’ve been thinking about the last week or so. It needs quite a bit of context. Benardete talks about how he met a mathematician at a party who thought mathematics was his professional life, but wasn’t feeling particularly fulfilled by …

May 9, 2013 – 6:04 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy | Tagged | Comments (2)

Notes on a Lecture of Susan D. Collins – “E Pluribus Unum: Citizens, Friends, and Free Thinkers in the Ancient City”

These are my notes; feedback appreciated, I did what I could to be clear. You can watch the original lecture here. Susan Collins teaches at the University of Houston and is the co-author of a translation of Aristotle’s Ethics. If you’re interested, an interview with her. Can ancient thought guide current political practice? There are …

April 25, 2013 – 10:20 pm | By ashok | Posted in aristotle, philosophy, politics | Comments (0)

Briefly Noted: Leo Strauss, “German Nihilism”

Leo Strauss, “German Nihilism” (in Interpretation Vol. 26 No. 3 Spring 1999) 1. At first, the value of Strauss’ lecture seems to be that of a historical document. It is delivered in 1941 shortly after the fall of France and before it is clear the U.S. will enter war. Strauss, a German Jew, asserts that …

March 17, 2013 – 7:04 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, politics | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Bioshock 2: Libertarianism, Transhumanism and the Will to Believe

Spoilers galore ahead 1. I finished Bioshock 2 last night. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the opening – mind control makes you shoot yourself in the head 30 seconds into the game, then you resurrect 10 years later – the idea of Rapture (the city you explore) is one of the best premises …

January 6, 2013 – 12:54 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, politics | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Michel Serres: “I quite like my granddaughter’s recent remark: why did that stupid Robinson forget his mobile phone?”

“I’ve known two worlds: that of today in which, near and next to everyone, everyone communicates with everything and everyone, and the other, the preceding one, in which a meticulous cutting up of islets would toss our detached lives about amid a space of scattered tatters. I quite like my granddaughter’s recent remark: why did …

December 20, 2012 – 10:49 am | By ashok | Posted in blogging, philosophy | Comments (0)

A Reputation for Justice: Plutarch, “Life of Aristides”

1. Aristides was an Athenian politician renowned for his justice during the Persian Wars. His main rival was Themistocles, who saved the people of Athens as the city burned. Themistocles was successful working in the name of expedience; his swift rebuilding of Athens’ walls set the stage for Athens’ imperial rise. What did Aristides achieve? …

November 19, 2012 – 12:29 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, politics | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Notes on a talk of Ronna Burger concerning Aristotle’s Ethics

Privileged to witness Ronna Burger lecture on her book Aristotle’s Dialogue with Socrates: On the Nicomachean Ethics. Below are my notes, rewritten into a straight lecture and with some ideas that are definitely not Dr. Burger’s. I take full responsibility for anything said that is stupid or problematic. I guess this is a paraphrase of …

November 6, 2012 – 6:30 pm | By ashok | Posted in aristotle, philosophy | Tagged | Comments (0)

Is Fiction Useful? Note on Jefferson’s Letter to Robert Skipwith, Aug. 3rd 1771

Letter of Thomas Jefferson to Robert Skipwith, Aug. 3rd 1771 Jefferson honors a request to create a catalog of books for Skipwith’s library. We find him, strangely enough, defending the value of fiction: A little attention however to the nature of the human mind evinces that the entertainments of fiction are useful as well as …

October 30, 2012 – 11:10 pm | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, politics, xenophon | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

John Koethe, “Book X”

John Koethe, “Book X” 1. The last book of Plato’s Republic confuses me too. Why does it critique imitation and poetry? What I understand of the Republic I understand in relation to its characters. Glaucon, who wanted a proof that justice is good for one, falls in love with the city in speech. The guardian …

October 2, 2012 – 5:47 pm | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, plato, poetry | Comments (0)

On Leisure and Philosophy: Xenophon, Memorabilia III.9.9

For the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to express an argument more simply. I don’t need the root of Xenophon’s rhetoric, I don’t think, though it has certainly felt that way at times. What I need is a demonstration of why writing on Xenophon gets complicated and thorny in a …

September 9, 2012 – 3:30 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, xenophon | Comments (8)