Hesiod

Platonic Dialogue: Protagoras and Socrates Debate: Can Virtue Be Taught?
Philosophy

Platonic Dialogue: Protagoras and Socrates Debate: Can Virtue Be Taught?

Bruce Strom 0

Socrates wants his students to think for themselves, so we cannot assume that Socrates really believes that virtue cannot be taught. After all, at the end of the dialogue, Socrates asserts that true knowledge leads to virtue. Perhaps he seeks to dissuade the youths in Athens from studying under the Sophists, who claim to be able to teach anything, for a fee, a generous fee, of course.
What example comes to mind if we assert that virtue can be taught? We need to go no further than the Book of Judges, which is filled with horrible stories that atheists love to parade as proof that God is not a loving god. We must keep in mind the constant theme of the Book of Judges: Everyone in Israel did what was right IN HIS OWN EYES. Which is the slogan of the Sophists. […]

Heraclitus, Pre-Socratic Philosopher, Inspiration for Stoics and Clement of Alexandria
Philosophy

Heraclitus, Pre-Socratic Philosopher, Inspiration for Stoics and Church Fathers

Bruce Strom 1

What can we learn from reflecting on the surviving fragments of Heraclitus, the Pre-Socratic Philosopher? Many of his pithy sayings inspired the later Cynic and Stoic Philosophers, and the Church Fathers, including Clement of Alexandria and Hippolytus of Rome. These sayings by Heraclitus include: “God is day and night, winter […]

Hesiod Works and Days
Philosophy

Hesiod: Works and Days, Early Greek Moral Philosophy

Bruce Strom 2

Hesiod is a grouchy old farmer who mistrusts ‘lords’” but does not advocate changing the society. “He believes in justice, honesty, conventional piety, self-reliance, self-denial, foresight, and above all, WORK. He dislikes city folk, the sea, women, gossip and LAZINESS. He delivers a maxim like ‘Don’t urinate where the Sun can see you’ with the same earnest convict that he advises judges not to take bribes, his brother to avoid pride, and the farmer to get two nine-year-old oxen and a forty-year-old hired hand. […]

Erasmus In Praise of Folly
Catholic Middle Ages and Beyond

Erasmus, Luther’s Predecessor, The Praise of Folly

Bruce Strom 0

Folly reminds us of the tension between the vulgar and the devout. “The pious, since they aim primarily at what is almost alien to the crass senses, are numbed and stunned by the sensual. In contrast, the ordinary person gravitates towards them.” Thus, many negligent people value bodily sensations such as “sex, love of food, sleep, anger, pride, and envy. The pious wage a constant war against these urges, whereas the vulgar crowd considers that without them life has no real existence.” […]