On Sat, Jan 17, 2015 at 3:16 AM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote:
> On 1/15/2015 2:56 PM, Platonist Guitar Cowboy wrote: > > > > You seem to have a problem with "Platonism" as linguistic label, which I > say because I assume you value critical thought and scientific method on > semantic level. Because "believing in Platonism" is nonsense if Platonism > is framed as the first tradition in accessible history to value reasonable, > scientific doubt, without resorting to radical theological extremes. In > effect therefore, you state on semantic level "I don't believe in > reasonable doubt". > > > On the contrary I believe in science, which is not just reasonable doubt. > It's a combination of reason and observation. Plato (429-327BCE) > denigrated observation and promoted mysticism and armchair speculation. > I'm not sure I get your point: "Plato believed in mysticism and BS"; it is therefore consistent that he believed in other BS and therefore his work can be reduced to BS. Thus: > He promoted the idea of an afterlife in which the scales of justice got > balanced. > Is this observation + reasoning to you? I can't parse more than ad hominem. > And his approach tended to shut off the scientific enterprise that started > long before in Ionia with Thales of Miletus (624-547BCE), Anaximander > (611-546BCE), and Democritus (460-370BCE). I don't know why Bruno thinks > he's a Platonist when his idea of "The One" was already put forward by > Anaximander who called it "aperion": > > * "In his cosmogony, he held that everything originated from the apeiron > (the “infinite,” “unlimited,” or “indefinite”). Anaximander postulated > eternal motion, along with the apeiron, as the originating cause of the > world." * > Truth is perhaps weirder than infinity, causality, motion etc. Plato and others made the notion more precise, stating the paradox and the implications. But this is level of labels. We can call "negative theology", from these more or less plausible points of origin to present day, what we like and cite whomever we wish, with whatever birth/death dates they may have had. The question imho is: do we see the common thread that make these questions appear as a plausible and consistent whole? I don't know. I've merely read some of it and can state that I do. Particularly Gödel's contribution and discovery of computers. ... > > Science was stifled for 900yrs by the fall of Rome and a combination of > Platonism and Aristotleanism that were incorporated into Christianity by > Augustine and Aquinas. Science didn't resume until Galileo. > > When I first joined this list I explained that usually described myself as > an agnostic in philosophical discussion because I'm agnostic about the > existence of some gods, but I describe myself as an atheist at cocktail > parties because otherwise I get buttonholed by someone who thinks I'm > uncertain about the God of his Bible. > Those parties don't seem fun but I had you buttonholed as a someone who isn't intimidated by buttonholing. > Of course one can't be absolutely certain of anything (maybe I'm a brain > in a vat or a computer simulation) but I'm as certain about the > non-existence of the god of Abraham as I am about anything. > Anything is...whatever we need it to mean? I know it's a figure of speech but isn't this a basic contradiction? > Notice that I capitalize "God" (as does Bruno) since it's supposed to be > a proper name, name of a person, and that's exactly the kind of god I don't > believe exists. > > > Brent > I suggest that the anthropomorphic god-idea is not a harmless > infirmity of human thought, but a very noxious fallacy, which is > largely responsible for the calamities the world is at present > enduring. > --- William Archer, 'Theology and War' > When taken too literally, so is any idea. Hence "moderate negative theology" or thereabouts on semantic level. Pick the linguistic clothes you like and clarify when necessary: I like to keep my engine running clean and try that it's a clean machine. Even when reality god calls for that cocktails be deemed around ;-) PGC (and some Beatles stuff at the end, which was a band. You can check out their vital records for dates anywhere you like) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
