Tag: the soul

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Greg Johnson is teaching a five-week course on Plato’s Gorgias on Counter-Currents Radio, which will continue on three Saturdays later this month (July 15, 22, and 29). The second lecture, which dealt with Socrates’ discussion with Polus from 461b to 481b, can be heard below. A visual aid that accompanies the lecture is here.

The theme of the course is “Might vs. Right.” Dr. Johnson is using Donald J. Zeyl’s translation of the Gorgias published by Hackett as both a separate book and as part of their Plato Complete Works volume. (more…)

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

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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…)

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This is my art. This is the game I never cease to play. I turn the wheel that spins. — Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy

The wheel also appears in alchemical texts as a symbol of spiritual ascent and descent. — Richard Cavendish, The Tarot (more…)

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The following essay on Plato’s Theages is based on a transcript of a taped lecture, which I revised based on notes for two later lectures on the same dialogue that offered a more complete interpretation. I want to thank V.S. for the original transcript.

The Theages is a short Platonic dialogue that can be read as a response to Aristophanes’ Clouds. In both texts, Socrates is approached by a country gentleman to educate his son. In the Clouds, the father is insistent, the son reluctant. (more…)

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It was said by sages of old that matter is an illusion — not because it “isn’t real,” whatever that means, but rather because it is always in motion and always changing. Therefore, as soon as one perceives and understands its state it has already changed, and the idea one has about it is no longer true. At best, one perceives what it was, but never what it is. (more…)