Plato's Cosmogony

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Published 2012-11-06
Chapter Seventeen from Book One, Part Two of Bertrand Russell's "The History Of Western Philosophy" (1945).

All Comments (8)
  • @okd007
    The is called Chapter 18 in the audio.
  • @rgaleny
    As for geometry, it is not triangles but wave theory that is preeminent today.
  • @latentwisdom
    It is a constant irritation in regards to these dialogues, that whenever there is talk of a prime mover, it is called "God", as in the Christian understanding of this being, but for Plato, no such thing existed untill 400 years later, and only because of Plato having written these dialogues in the past! For the ancient greeks, there was a whole range of Gods as we understand them today, but for them they all shared the common name of θεός - Theos.. meaning "Divine" or "Divinity" and not any singular being as is understood in Christianity! Get it RIGHT!
  • Space is dual to time -- Einstein Fear is dual to anger, anger is dual to hate, hate is dual to suffering -- The Yoda dualities.
  • @DeweyTucker
    Man will come back as a bird because he doesn’t use mathematics to describe the universe? Is this why Nikola Tesla loved pigeons? He saw the light flow out the pigeon’s eye when it died. Who picks up this thread?
  • @sergeyfox2298
    Speculation: The biggest point I got was that our immediate sensible world, being temporal, is the world people see as created, because of the classical geometric structures that we perceive as we observe the sensible world. Now, I understand that classic math and science that we're taught in high school comes from the Greeks, because of how their conception of the universe was quite regular and sensible. Logically, greek math and science must have been the equivalent of high school math and science, possibly more advanced but definitely classical. This classical conception of the universe that we likely learn in high school and college is the universe God created. Also, I see the anthropocentric and male centered gaze that interprets humans, and how even nonhumans seem to be interpreted through greek male eyes. I also didn't realize that animal just means 'pertaining to anima', to living being. Thus, it makes sense that the gods are animals too. Humans, more or less men, appear to be created in the image of God, and the rationality (reason) being present in God seems to only apply to men, because men are in the image of God. This helps explain why women seem to have the transient soul but men have the Eternal soul, and upon it must have been harder for women to enter heaven, because woman identity was a punishment from the gods to those who didn't live virtuous lives, this virtue coming from reason. Greek cosmogony was crazy sexist.