4 ms·
Plato is crap: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=57000 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=57000
by phony_identity 19y ago
Plato is crap: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=57000 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=57000
- jimbokun 19y agoI like this quote: "To this day, most philosophers suffer from Plato's disease: the assumption that reality fundamentally consists of abstract essences best described by words or geometry. (In truth, reality is largely a probabilistic affair best described by statistics.)"
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- yters 19y agoBefore Plato and Heraclitus, Greeks thought reality was essentially chaotic and impossible to understand. You can see this in their creation myths. Heraclitus originated the idea of the Logos, a pattern underlying everything, and Plato built on this.
- Jd 19y agoI think you mean before Thales.
- yters 19y agoSearch for logos here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus
- Jd 19y agoYou stated that before Heraclitus 'Greeks thought reality was essentially chaotic and impossible to understand.' Thales is a counter-example who is earlier than Heraclitus. See the IEP http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/greekphi.htm http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/greekphi.htm or Edward Hussey's excellent book.
- yters 19y agoAssuming a material origin implies reality is orderly and understandable?
- Jd 19y agoSpeculating on a causal principle implies that there is causality in the universe. Consequently, order and the possiblity of some degree of understanding are also implied, although the translation from speculation to empirical confirmation is not.
- yters 19y agoI see. Well, sounds like you know more about the pre-Socratics than I. I was under the impression that it wasn't until Heraclitus that people thought things in our mind, like math, would correspond with external reality.
- Jd 19y agoYou stated that before Heraclitus 'Greeks thought reality was essentially chaotic and impossible to understand.' Thales is a counter-example who is earlier than Heraclitus. See the IEP http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/greekphi.htm http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/greekphi.htm or Edward Hussey's excellent book.