Aristotle, Akrasia, the “Practical Syllogism” and Procrastination

The proverbial procrastinators’ dictum runs something like: Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow? Many of us struggle in various ways and at various times with procrastination. Our reasons for procrastinating vary widely. Some of us dread doing a particular task. Others of us just prefer to do the pleasant thing we [...]

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A Thought-Question Posted on FB

Do most arguments against the existence of God result from deductive and definitional syllogisms? Do most arguments for the existence of God result from inductive and experiential probable strength? (Madman Mundt: I’ll show you the life of the mind!)

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Dr David Bradshaw’s Home Page

Please visit Dr. David Bradshaw’s homepage which contain some extremely intelligent and useful essays (particular a couple of papers on the term energeia, or, in English, “energies”). You will not be disappointed.

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Synodikon of Orthodoxy

From the introductory paragraph to the Synodikon of Orthodoxy: The text of the Synodikon of Orthodoxy has been much altered over the centuries, chiefly by the addition of material and names that postdate the Restoration of the Icons in 843. This is the case with the text that is printed in the current Triodia. Some [...]

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Plato’s Complete Works Online

The Hellenophilic Ellopos.net site has a webpage devoted to Plato, from which you can access Plato’s Complete Works. They also have a bilingual anthology of portions of Plato’s works which is not only available online but is downloadable. One of the downloads is the entire Greek Timaeus (along with the LXX Genesis and patristic commentary, [...]

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Philosophical Football (At Least the Right Team Wins!)

[The sketch script.]

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Aristotle on Knowledge of First Principles

Although I’m not as well versed in Aristotle’s Organon, and definitely feel more facility with his ethical and metaphysical works, I’ve got to say, I really appreciate the Posterior Analytics. Posterior Analytics I.1 All instruction given or received by way of argument proceeds from pre-existent knowledge. This becomes evident upon a survey of all the [...]

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Joe Sachs on Human Reflection on Experience

It is not the nature of human beings to let thing that interest us go unthought about. “What is it?” and “Why?” are not just modes of speaking and thinking: they are living ways of standing in and toward the world. In the face of our most powerful experiences, those questions may not get fully [...]

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Ivan Kireyevsky on the Limitations of Philosophy

From Ivan Kireyevsky’s On the Necessity and Possibility of New Principles in Philosophy (1856): . . . [B]etween the time of Aristotle and the general submission of world culture to Christian teaching, many centuries elapsed, during which many different and contradictory philosophical systems nourished, consoled, and disturbed man’s reason. Few of these systems, however, were [...]

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A Few Remarks about Studying for Logic

[Note: I will be passing this out to my logic class this week. Our logic class meets on Monday nights, and our textbooks are Kelley's The Art of Reasoning, and the companion book of analytical readings by Hicks and Kelley.] I had the benefit of a public school education that taught me how to learn [...]

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