tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post7317614785611560247..comments2024-03-29T03:57:26.974-04:00Comments on Grim's Hall: Plato's Laws X, 3Grimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-16813520501166110032021-02-06T16:00:05.827-05:002021-02-06T16:00:05.827-05:00That’s a good argument, but look at this too: Clei...That’s a good argument, but look at this too: Cleinias is providing the “Yes, of course you’re right” commentary. It could be that Plato is using the Athenian to provoke our objections. That sophisticates the dialogue into a complex instrument that allows Plato to stimulate us into engaging the debate. It also would happen to protect him. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-60948636410827088932021-02-05T21:50:27.805-05:002021-02-05T21:50:27.805-05:00I vote "One".
It's said Socrates ...I vote "One". <br /><br />It's said Socrates preferred face-to-face dialog over reading text because the f-t-f encounter allowed him to "interrogate" or confirm meaning. Plato here has created a text to mimic a dialog; in a (fair) attempt to bring out his points. If he'd wanted to hide his tracks, the conversation would be, frankly, more Socratic. "That is so, Socrates." "You are right, Socrates." "Of course" and "No question" and "None would say otherwise" ... <br /><br />That said, however, Plato's "rocks and fire" claim embeds the modern explorations of "emergent order". <i> The elements are severally moved by chance and some inherent force according to certain affinities among them-of hot with cold, or of dry with moist, or of soft with hard </i> The ROCKS are formed in accordance with RULES, but who made the rules? Yes, this becomes a form of the "turtles all the way down" sort of argument. But to the extent that all of the physical world is an expression of math -- with fundamental axioms which might after all have been by choice or by chance different -- we get to an understanding that most of the random combinations of fundamentals are unstable or boring. The physics we study are evolving and interesting because the fundamentals appear to be -- carefully? -- matched. <br /><br />Chance is not a god nor possesses godly powers. <br /><br />J Melcherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14349242761775214765noreply@blogger.com