School
Platonism
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Numbers exist independently of us: mathematical platonism is true
I'll defend platonism in its standard form: there are abstract mathematical objects, they don't depend on minds or language, and mathematical statements are true or false because of them. Main argument: indispensability,…
Started by Tomasz Wójcik5 replies0 views -
Reading group: Plato’s Phaedo, weeks 1–3
I'd like to read the Phaedo slowly with anyone who is interested. It is the dialogue I return to most, and it reads differently every decade. Proposed plan: Week 1: the frame…
Started by Giulia Ferrante5 replies0 views -
Teaching the Euthyphro to sixteen-year-olds: what works and what doesn’t?
The central question (10a) is whether the pious is loved by the gods because it is pious, or pious because it is loved by the gods. My students grasp the dilemma in…
Started by Giulia Ferrante4 replies0 views -
Is the Allegory of the Cave a theory of education first and a metaphysics second?
Every year my students read the cave in Republic VII as a story about two worlds: shadows down here, Forms up there. That's not wrong, but I've come to think it isn't…
Started by Giulia Ferrante4 replies0 views -
Diotima’s ladder: does loving the Form of Beauty make particular people disposable?
In the Symposium (210a–212a), Socrates reports Diotima's account of the ascent of love. The lover moves from one beautiful body to all beautiful bodies, then to beautiful souls, to practices and laws,…
Started by Giulia Ferrante3 replies0 views -
Plato
Athenian philosopher, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, who founded the Academy in Athens. His dialogues, most featuring Socrates as the main speaker,…