Massimo!!! Where did you get the pictures of the 4 ladies representing virtues?! I'm in the process of creating some art decor at home and want to recreate the 4 virtue ladies.
My morning coffee time is at an end so I have to finish this and think about its actual substance later but right now I need to ask probably the silliest question of all:
Epictetus apparently describes "ball players" in the Discourses, but I've never actually heard of any classical Roman ball games. What on earth were these ball players playing?
John, good question! Apparently, they were playing both something like our modern beach volleyball and soccer. There is a report of someone getting killed in a barber shop by a flying ball from a nearby game…
The VP candidate Stockdale wasn't perhaps a perfect Stoic either. At least, his Reform party later chose infamous Buchanan as its candidate for the presidential elections.
Or would its members pick a cosmopolitan Stoic first and a racist/nativist four years later?
(already in the Perot/Stockdale days, the Reform party was protectionist and anti-migration)
After many months of following this blog, recent posts have brought me to the point of making a brief comment. Dualism is being assumed in my view. Using reasoning as the way to be in line with Nature (the good, which I agree with) is not how Nature works in all other species. Auto-pilot is at work. Thoughts, memories, perceptions,...are caloric and electrochemical. Consciousness too is inextricable from the physical.(energy-matter-information) Doing "Spiritual Exercises" also assumes a non-physical realm exists. What is "Spirit?
Monism makes the most sense to me, and I'm lost in the "New Stoicism".
Steven, well, this is likely my fault for not explaining things clearly. Both ancient and modern Stoicism are monistic, they explicitly reject dualism. Everything is made of matter (or whatever modern physics says), and “spiritual” simply means “of the mind.” The mind being what the brain and nervous system do. All coming down to matter and energy, which are the same thing, according to general relativity. Reasoning is perfectly in line with nature because reasoning evolved naturally.
Massimo!!! Where did you get the pictures of the 4 ladies representing virtues?! I'm in the process of creating some art decor at home and want to recreate the 4 virtue ladies.
Victoria, random search using DuckDuckGo. There are different versions of the concept, for instance embedded in the Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_virtues
My morning coffee time is at an end so I have to finish this and think about its actual substance later but right now I need to ask probably the silliest question of all:
Epictetus apparently describes "ball players" in the Discourses, but I've never actually heard of any classical Roman ball games. What on earth were these ball players playing?
John, good question! Apparently, they were playing both something like our modern beach volleyball and soccer. There is a report of someone getting killed in a barber shop by a flying ball from a nearby game…
The VP candidate Stockdale wasn't perhaps a perfect Stoic either. At least, his Reform party later chose infamous Buchanan as its candidate for the presidential elections.
Or would its members pick a cosmopolitan Stoic first and a racist/nativist four years later?
(already in the Perot/Stockdale days, the Reform party was protectionist and anti-migration)
Maurits, good point.
Quite satisfactory to a naturally social animal capable of reason--thanks.
Glad to hear it, my friend!
After many months of following this blog, recent posts have brought me to the point of making a brief comment. Dualism is being assumed in my view. Using reasoning as the way to be in line with Nature (the good, which I agree with) is not how Nature works in all other species. Auto-pilot is at work. Thoughts, memories, perceptions,...are caloric and electrochemical. Consciousness too is inextricable from the physical.(energy-matter-information) Doing "Spiritual Exercises" also assumes a non-physical realm exists. What is "Spirit?
Monism makes the most sense to me, and I'm lost in the "New Stoicism".
Steven, well, this is likely my fault for not explaining things clearly. Both ancient and modern Stoicism are monistic, they explicitly reject dualism. Everything is made of matter (or whatever modern physics says), and “spiritual” simply means “of the mind.” The mind being what the brain and nervous system do. All coming down to matter and energy, which are the same thing, according to general relativity. Reasoning is perfectly in line with nature because reasoning evolved naturally.