Philosophy

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

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

09/29/2023 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. […]

The Sophist Protagoras in Plato’s Dialogues, His Biography and Fragments of His Works
Philosophy

The Sophist Protagoras in Plato’s Dialogues, His Biography and Fragments of His Works

09/27/2023 Bruce Strom 1

Protagoras begins one of his works with “Man is the measure of all things, of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not.”
The ancient author Sextus Empiricus also quotes this fragment, continuing the quote from Protagoras: “And for this reason he posits only what appears to the individual, thus introducing relativity.”  “What Protagoras states then is this–that matter is in flux,” “and the senses are transformed and altered according to the times of life and to all other conditions of the bodies.” […]

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

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

08/19/2023 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 […]

Problems Family Caretakers Face When Caring for Loved Ones Suffering From Dementia
Dementia and Alzheimers Disease

Problems Family Caregivers Face When Caring for Loved Ones Suffering From Dementia

08/02/2023 Bruce Strom 3

This book compares the dance between the dementia patient and the loved ones who are their caretakers where they seem to have the same arguments over and over again, the “Alzheimer’s patients seem unable to learn from their mistakes. But it is also, because, weirdly enough, caregivers experience the same problem. In an uncanny mirroring, we get pulled into a parallel process with our charges, forgetting what happened yesterday, repeating what didn’t work last time, becoming ever more prone to agitation and impatience, even as we’re engaged in a trial of devotion that pushes love to its limit.” […]

Tony Bennett and Rita Hayworth: Their Struggle With Alzheimer's
Dementia and Alzheimers Disease

Tony Bennett and Rita Hayworth: Their Struggle With Alzheimer’s

07/25/2023 Bruce Strom 4

“Tony Bennett was already showing clear signs of the disease, Susan said, when he and Lady Gaga started recording the new LP at New York’s Electric Lady Studios two years after his diagnosis. Indeed, Susan was not entirely sure that Tony was up to the task. ‘We’ll try,’ she recalled telling Danny. ‘That’s all I can tell you. We’ll try.’”
“Tony was a considerably more muted presence during the recording of the new album with Lady Gaga. In raw documentary footage of the sessions, he speaks rarely, and when he does his words are halting; at times, he seems lost and bewildered. Lady Gaga, clearly aware of his condition, keeps her utterances short and simple (as is recommended by experts in the disease when talking to Alzheimer’s patients). ‘You sound so good, Tony,’ she tells him at one point. ‘Thanks,’ is his one-word response.” […]

Wellness Checks for Dementia: Police and Mental Illness
Dementia and Alzheimers Disease

Wellness Checks for Dementia: Police and Mental Illness

07/19/2023 Bruce Strom 4

I joke with the members of my over-55 community that if one of our elderly neighbors is ornery, that we should be patient with them, as they may suffering from dementia, and we do not know it. This is literally true. While you can often sense if someone is autistic, or has a drug problem, or is schizophrenic, often you cannot tell if someone is in the early stages of dementia. […]

Platonic Dialogue Alcibiades 1, On Friendship, :Leadership, and Love
Philosophy

Platonic Dialogue Alcibiades 1, On Friendship, Leadership, and Love

07/14/2023 Bruce Strom 1

In antiquity through the Renaissance, Alcibiades I was a highly regarded Platonic dialogue, and was often the first dialogue serious students of philosophy studied. However, many modern scholars deprecate this dialogue, arguing that it was not written by Plato. We demur, we tend to side with the ancient, medieval, and Renaissance scholars in such judgments, who tend to be inclusive, whereas modern scholars tend to be exclusive, demanding absolute certainty of proof. Our translator agrees with us, he says that the German scholar Schleiermacher first doubted its authenticity based on scholarly taste and a superficial reading. IMHO, although it does appear to differ from his other earlier dialogues, Alcibiades I was likely either written by Plato, or maybe by one of his brightest students, with his input. […]

Lysis, Platonic Dialogue on Love and Friendship, Where Old Men Ogle Boys at the Gymnasium
Philosophy

Lysis, Platonic Dialogue on Love and Friendship, Where Old Men Ogle Boys at the Gymnasium

07/12/2023 Bruce Strom 3

SOCRATES asks whether “only good men can be friends with one another? Can true friendship exist between a bad man and either a good man or another bad man?” (214d) The response of St John of the Cross would likely be that friendship with a bad man will draw you further away from the Love of God, poisoning your soul, leading you away from salvation. Friendship with a good man leads you to love and compassion, friendship with a bad men leads you to hatred and cruelty. […]

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Moral Sayings of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia
Greek Philosophy

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Moral Sayings of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia

06/30/2023 Bruce Strom 5

Was Xenophon’s Cyrus the source of Benjamin Franklin’s response to the question of what sort of government the delegates of the Constitutional Convention had created: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great observes, “It is a great work to found an empire, but a far greater work to keep it. To seize it may the fruit of daring and daring only, but to hold it is impossible without self-restraint and self-command and endless care.” […]