Tag: logos

3,729 words

Portrait of Schelling by Karl Joseph Stieler. 1885.

Part 5 of 15 (Part 1 begins here.)

Unintelligibility is the Core of What is Real

It is tempting to think of Schelling’s ground as a “material principle” along the lines of Aristotle’s hulē or Plato’s hupodochē – or, for that matter, the “indefinite dyad” of Plato’s so-called “unwritten teaching” (as reported by Aristotle). This is acceptable so long as we understand that the ground is not a “stuff.” It is a curious combination of void and will – closer to chaos or to the Norse Ginnungagap. (more…)

Statue of Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom, at the Austrian Parliament.

1,871 words

Part 9 of 14 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, Part 8 here, Part 10 here)

There is a deeper problem with Plato’s account of justice in the Gorgias. He treats it as an art (techne). But is justice really an art like medicine? In such dialogues as the Laches, Charmides, and Euthydemus, Plato explores the problems of treating moral wisdom as a techne. This is the error of the sophists. (more…)

Jan Miense Molenaer, A Quack and His Assistant (1830)

3,159 words

Part 5 of 14 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 6 here)

Setting the Stage

Socrates’ conversation with Polus deals with three important philosophical issues.

First, Socrates explains the true nature of rhetoric, which requires that he contrast it with philosophy. This discussion requires several important distinctions: soul vs. body, art vs. quackery, edification vs. corruption, and friendship vs. flattery. (more…)

Jusepe de Ribera, The Philosopher

3,592 words

Part 3 of 14 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 4 here)

Gorgias’ Art (449a–c)

When Socrates finally speaks directly to Gorgias, he asks a simple, straightforward question: “What should we call you based on the art (techne) that you know?”[1] To which Gorgias gives a simple, straightforward answer: he knows “rhetoric” (rhetorike). Socrates continues: “Then is it best to call you a rhetorician [rhetor]?” Gorgias agrees and amplifies: “Yes, Socrates, and a good one too, if you want to call me what, as Homer puts it, ‘I boast myself to be.’” (more…)

You can pre-order Greg Johnson’s The Trial of Socrates here.

4,731 words

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

The following is an excerpt from Greg Johnson’s forthcoming book, The Trial of Socrates, which is available for pre-order at a $5 discount from now until its release on June 30. See here for details.

Socrates’s Flight to the Logoi

Socrates literally calls his second-best method his “second sailing,” which is an allusion to a comment made earlier by Simmias: (more…)

1,411 words

Shawn Bell
Post—: Short Stories by Shawn Bell
Quakertown, Pa.: Antelope Hill, 2022

Other than calling his work “dissident fiction,” it’s hard to categorize Shawn Bell’s short stories. In his recent Antelope Hill collection, entitled Post—, it’s mostly their cutting insights into the insidious façade of globalism — and their tremendously high quality — which link these stories together. Within Post— we have elements of dystopia, coming-of-age, romance, alternate history, family drama, tragedy, and the slice of life found in the faded Houckian suburbs of the American Midwest. (more…)

2,530 words

Lorraine Daston 
Against Nature 
Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019

Loraine Daston’s Against Nature has two qualities that make it a good book. First, it is physically a good book: slim but well-bound, it fits comfortably in the hand and slides easily into the pocket. And there is more than tactile pleasure to be had. (more…)

2,309 words

Richard Weaver
The Ethics of Rhetoric
Muriwai Books, 2017 (1953).

The great task that lies ahead of us is to persuade our people of the rightness of our ideas. It behooves us, then, to study the art of rhetoric, or persuasion. Richard Weaver’s The Ethics of Rhetoric is a rigorous and intelligent introduction to this vanishing art. (more…)

Siegfried & Mime, Arthur Rackham, 1911

2,325 words

Part 4 of 4 (Part 1 here; Part 2 here; Part 3 here)

7. Concluding Reflections

I turn now to some thoughts on how the foregoing treatment of the influence of the past on the present ought to affect our own present, when we finish this essay and return to the real world.

It is a well-known fact that our ancestors acted with awareness of membership in the clan: trying to be worthy of their own ancestors, and not to disgrace them. (more…)