#Platonistic

[madmonksandmaenads]

Why is no one talking about daimons these days? People used to talk about the daimons all the time!

Oh, what you're getting your fate directly from the divine Nous of God?

Well, aren't you special.

[sabakos]

I think sex is actually somewhat inherently disgusting and the horny is supposed to help you overcome that as some kind of distraction. But it doesn't work if you think too hard about it.

And in case anyone thinks I'm just being weird and dramatic about it for "society" reasons, I also think this is probably also true of food and hunger; in both cases the actual mechanics of the act itself are repulsive taken in isolation and if you weren't a dumb animal being pulled around on a cart by your desires you'd never get past the initial steps on your own willpower without gagging.

[wildwood-faun]

I love when I read or hear about some ancient thoughts on death or the soul and it maps strangely well onto things I've come to through contemplation

[faithisland]

oh fuck im thinking about the roman empire again

[dairedara]

Does anyone else remember how the recon pagan community absolutely abhorred Platonism in ye olde 2010s? (lol). God forbid you quote a source from late antiquity or else you’d be called “basically a Christian”

[vulcan-bourbon]

writober 2023

day 17 — Night in an abandoned house

— I’m not happy with this place, — Grian whispered, looking around the room in the abandoned house.

A week ago, he, his boyfriend and their friends agreed that they would spend the night in an abandoned house. Well, like abandoned...

In fact, this lodge was listed on one website as a "haunted house for the night where you can have an unforgettable experience with your friends." The house was the most ordinary country house, with a couple of rooms, a living room, literally without any furniture. The torn wallpaper and paper tape taped across the windows added ambiance, but made the empty house feel upset as soon as they arrived.

The company of Grian, Scar, Skizzle and Impulse almost immediately agreed that this was a great plan for a sleepover and weekend. True, they wanted to bring Mumbo with them, but he said that he was too cowardly, and who would look after Jelly while his guys were not at home.

— This is the worst double date, — Scar jokes, — If anything, I took a couple of warm hiking bags, a thermos with warm tea, and on my card there is money for a taxi and for an overnight stay in a normal hotel. — the man winked, laying out the bags in one of the rooms, while Skizz and Impulse were trying to light a fire in the yard, because there was no electricity in this house - they had to somehow come up with something themselves.

But the guys thought it was funny, despite the fact that it was already dark and the weather outside was slightly cool. But this situation suited them all. They had already joked about the fact that they were ghost hunters, and therefore had to survive the night in such a place.

— I personally am satisfied with everything. - Grian snorts deliberately proudly, not holding back his smile and helping to arrange things around the room in which they decided to spend the night. His eyes quickly adjusted to the semi-darkness and he was well oriented in space. — At most I'm afraid that Skizz and Impulse might go crazy and kill us at night. This will definitely be unexpected.

Scar suddenly laughs loudly, as if trying to imagine Impulse if he were possessed by a ghost.

— It’s more likely that a serial killer taxi driver will come for us than the guys will kill us. — Goodtimes jokes, wrapping himself in a blanket and turning off the flashlight. The windows were closed, of course, but he wasn't a fan of insects.

Xelqua elbows him in the side, snorting quietly and himself climbing into the long ice in which his man has already wrapped himself.

— A little more and I’ll think that we are dance material for the release of the next true edge podcast. - Xelqua giggles, briefly kissing Scar on the cheekbone and pulling off the blanket from him, wrapping himself up and quickly rushing towards the exit from the house.

- Guys! - Scar shouts loudly, laughing so that his friends who are on the street can hear, picking up a flashlight and turning it on to quickly find a way out, after all, his legs were not in the best shape. - I found a small and mischievous ghost in this house ! Be careful! He stole my blanket and my heart!

[miyanagateru]

[chicago-geniza]

[Reading ancient Greek philosophy] wow it's amazing that these guys were able to reference experimental Polish prose from the 1930s

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

I love all of this for you Ficino.

Marsilio, never change

He’s dead so he can’t

[meltorights]

[troius]

How likely do you think it is that Divine Comedy influences themes in this arc?

Ha! I have no idea. Dante is considered to have popularized the seven deadly sins as an artistic theme, but there's no guarantee that Kubo read it. Considering how wide Dante's influence is, encountering the sins and even Dante's characterization of them is sort of inevitable in culture.

And yet, I sure feel like it fit. Because it wasn't just being used as window dressing, the sins were being used as they are in Purgatorio, as a way of establishing how living creatures fall short of the moral ideal, and at the same time, showing how shedding those sins can bring one closer to the true and the good.

And of course, all these sins are established in the Purgatorio as arising out of misdirected love, and both Ichigo and Ulquiorra have romantic associations with Orihime, who very much plays the Beatrice figure by representing the true and good values to which our combatants can aspire to (or not).

So I really have no idea. But the thing sure fits like a glove.

[cypress-punk]

A short discourse on western metaphysics.

[soulsinnerstatues]

Is matter evil in Plato? Is Platonism actually hyper-dualistic?

Contrary to what people say online, no. But don't take it from me — take it from Proclus. He wrote about this in On Evils, §31.5-14:

If matter is evil, we must choose between two alternatives: either to make the Good the cause of evil or to posit two principles of beings. For, indeed, everything that exists in any way whatever must either be a principle of complete beings or stem from a principle. Now, if matter stems from a principle, then matter itself receives its procession into being from the Good. If, on the other hand, matter is a principle, then we must posit two principles of beings which oppose each other, viz. the primary good and the primary evil. But that is impossible. For there can be no two firsts.

If, however, matter is necessary to the universe, and the world, this absolutely great and ‘blessed God’, would not exist in the absence of matter, how can one still refer the nature of evil to matter?

It may seem that Plato himself, too, is drawn, as it were, to both argumentations. For when, in the Timaeus, he calls matter the ‘mother’ and ‘wet-nurse’ of generation and a ‘co-cause’ of the fabrication of the world, it is clear to everyone that he takes matter to be good, since he calls the entire world a ‘blessed God’, and matter a portion of the world. But in the argument of the Eleatic Stranger he refers the cause of ‘the disorder of the universe’ to its substrate, when he says that ‘the world possesses all things good from its composer’, but that the contrary of the good originates in the world ‘from the previous condition’ of the world.

In the Philebus, however, he produces matter itself and the whole nature of the unlimited from the One, and, in general, places the divine cause before the distinction between limit and the unlimited. Thus he will admit that matter is something divine and good because of its participation in and origin from god, and that is never evil. For he asserts that ‘one must look for some other causes of evil and not consider god as its cause’, as is said elsewhere.

Perhaps, then, someone may ask us what our opinion is concerning matter, whether we consider it to be good or evil, and in what respect we may admit either of these options. Let this, then, be our decision: that matter is neither good nor evil.

We should repeat what has been often said about matter, that it is a necessity. Indeed, the nature of good is one thing, that of evil another, and they are contrary to each other. But there is another, a third nature, that is neither simply good nor evil, but necessary. Indeed, evil leads away from the good and flees from its nature; but the necessary is everything it is for the sake of the good, and it has a relation to the good.

If then matter exists for the sake of generation, and if no other nature exists for the sake of matter in such a way that we could call it the goal or the good, then we must say that matter is necessary to generation, that it is not evil and that it is produced by divinity as necessary, and that it is necessary for the forms that are incapable of being established in themselves.

[dejahisashmom]

Saint Augustine of Hippo and His Detours on the Long and Winding Path to Christianity | Ancient Origins

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/saint-augustine-hippo-and-his-detours-long-and-winding-path-christianity-020654

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

i have mixed feelings about (neo)platonists. i've discussed this before...

i like a lot of their theology though i find them, in practice, to be very similar to christians.

one thing i'm unsure about is what they mean when they say the gods are "good." this sounds like a very christian idea. and i've never quite understood what christians meant by it either. i don't necessarily disagree with this sentiment but i don't know if i totally agree either.

for me personally, my moral conceptions of the gods has always been that they are /beyond/ good and evil. they are like amoral forces of nature which bring both blessings and calamity.

this is basically a segue for me to discuss the storm hitting california right now. because i feel like this storm is an example of the gods and their mixing of both blessings and calamity.

obviously this sudden storm causes widespread destruction between all of the flooding and mudslides and whatnot.

but on the other hand, california has been enduring a terrible drought for decades and these rains are a great reprieve.

i just checked on the water levels in my local lake. a couple of years ago it was nearly bone dry. i think it was at 30% capacity. it was depressing how low it was.

two years of above average rainfall and it's now up to 75% of capacity. that's the fullest it's been since i was about 4 years old. i'm currently planning a visit this summer just to see it this full.

[cauchys-special-boy]

anyone have good recs for philosophy of math? because i want to expand my knowledge of the world and of my favorite subject within it, not because my friend keeps dunking on my takes and i want to Show Him