[Krimel] recently I asserted that one of the chief motivations of Plato and other early Greek thinkers was to incorporate the stunning achievements of the Greek mathematicians into the lives of ordinary Athenians. Matt then advanced the notion that Plato was driven by bitterness and personal grief over the treatment of his mentor at the hands of Athenian authorities. Who can say which is which? Does either theory account for the facts or just express our respective personal prejudice?
Ron: I think what Plato was upset about was that Socrates was condemned to death Via Sophist arguments based on rhetorical argument. What we would today call Spin doctors. What he borrowed from the mathematicians of his day was their new method of Building logical arguments using deductive rather than inductive reasoning inferred from universal understandings such as concrete referents or established laws which changed The forum of the dialectic. Consequently, crushing the Sophists in an open debate became something like shooting fish in a barrel. Which I'm sure Was relished by the avenging Plato. Anchoring arguments in what seemingly Appeared to be universal concrete tangibles as axioms created an almost Impervious method of "truth finding". Which created the need for ever More precise law interpretation and creation. Plato found that the mathematicians use of deductive reasoning based on axioms had huge power Socially. I feel he developed his concept of universal forms to belay any arguments That the perception of common forms is in any way subjective in origin Thereby destroying the validity of his methods of truth finding or at least Calling them into question. He based the whole casaba on the brains ability To "connect the dots" out of random patterns. This was his axiom. The One people still use as a proof from anything from intelligent design To materialism. Schopenhauer wrote that "...materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself." Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
