Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Etc.
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Jul 12th, 2008
. . . Then what?
In yesterday’s class, my lecture was on Plato’s description of how governments decay from one form into another (Republic, Book VIII).
It’s pure genius, especially his description of how tyrants rise out of democracies (564a-end of VIII). In the midst of that description, Plato says of the tyrant:
[Socrates:] At first, in the [...]
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Jul 10th, 2008
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, my weekly article for The Free Liberal was posted.
This week I prove that Obama is the Philosopher King Plato prophesied about, and that Ralph Peters is wrong about the sword being mightier than the pen.
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Jul 3rd, 2008
My weekly article is up at The Free Liberal. You can read it here.
Posted in Culture, Ethics, Philosophy on Jun 30th, 2008
I started teaching a summer version of one of the two classes I teach here at CUA today. We begin with Plato’s Republic.
The goal which Socrates sets for himself (and his interlocutors) in the book is to discover what justice is, and whether it is more worthwhile to be just or unjust.
So here’s a question [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 12th, 2008
I just got back from my local polling place. It was so much fun.
Fred Thompson is still on the ballot in Maryland. So I voted for Thompson. (*uproarious laughter*) But not only is Thompson on the ballot, you have to vote for delegates to the Convention separately.
Many of the delegates have their chosen candidate’s name [...]
Posted in Literature, Philosophy, politics on Dec 7th, 2007
***Spoiler Alert*** (This post contains a discussion of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, so if you haven’t seen it, and don’t want the suspense ruined, read carefully.)
Plato wrote in The Republic, that his ideal city would require a noble lie. Since then, the noble lie has become a part of utopian and distopian [...]
Posted in Philosophy, politics, religion on Dec 3rd, 2007
The Rise of the Tyrant has been put on hold in Venezuela (Chavez loses constitutional vote) even if it’s taken a giant leap forward in Russia.
When I speak of “the Rise of the Tyrant,” I do so in Plato’s terms (see here; do a ctrl-F search for “And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy” [...]
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Nov 18th, 2007
Robert Novak says that some people say Lou Dobbs is considering a run for President. This is the Lou Dobbs of War on the Middle Class, whose type Plato predicted in The Republic (564a-565d) while describing of the rise of tyranny out of democracy.
“Idlers” (or “drones”), says Plato, — the people who make their money [...]
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