Greek Metaphysics

Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Hericlitus, Plato, Aristotle...

the foundation of Western metaphyics...

I didn't mention Parmenides, but his notion that "Thinking is Being" certainly helped Plato and Aristotle out, as well (not to mention the rest of the history of Western thought).

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Entertainment

Tags:

• metaphysics
• metaphor
• greek
• philosophy
• thales
• anaximander
• anaximenes
• hericlitus
• plato
• aristotle
• parmenides
• being
• essence
• form
• idea

[Barklord]

Have you read any of Peter Kingsley's books on this subject? I think you'd appreciate his thoughts on Parmenides, Zeno and Empedocles as the spiritual masters who founded the principles of western civilization.

[redliterocket4]

I read "Reality" about a year ago, I didn't understand it very well though. I have to read it again.

[Mork5]

Off topic -

I can hear your MacBook fan but those black bars are not from iSight nor iMovie and the last 4 vids were partially out of sync - what camera and what software do you use (cause it obviously doesn't work well) ?

[redliterocket4]

it is the new iMovie that just came out... it's definitely got some bugs that I hope they fix with some updates very soon. I already got rid of the old version of iMovie so I'm stuck for now. The bars are because I'm using the format that allows the videos to be available on iPhones.

[Mork5]

I read in some thread you can run iMovie HD and 08 parallel so you might try to reinstall from Apple DVD or you try recording with Quicktime (Pro version only) cause this bug definitely sucks and as a powerposter like you I would not wait for updates (Apple never got iMovie bugless - maybe in 2012 ?).

[redliterocket4]

haha, I'll see about getting QT Pro.

[theowarner]

Excellent timing. I was doing some of this reading this morning. Also Lucian. Faucault was insisting on it.

[zarkoff45]

Why did you leave out Democritus and his idea that all there was, was atoms and the empty void? It seems that idea became far more important to modern science.

[yungsandifer]

@R10freestyle i cant even comprehend what your talking about,, you bag of marbles for brains,why did all the egyptians get the greeks to look at there pyramids?huh...your a bumbling bafoon,idiotbox,,,

[R10freestyle]

@yungsandifer no they didnt you idiot. lol your Egyptian why did all the Egyptians get Greeks to go look at there pyramids and followed there culture.

[issb422]

Dear ,Study Rumi and ibn e al arabi, knowing himself, knowing God, u will get all answers of ur questions. gooood luck 

[Barklord]

@redliterocket4

Hi, Matt. I just wanted to ask if you ever followed up on reading Reality again. I know it's like a meandering walk through a labyrinth but I keep coming back to portions of it. He has a new book to be released Nov. 1st '10 if you're interested. It's called: A Story Waiting to Pierce You: Mongolia, Tibet and the Destiny of the Western World. Kingsley describes a meeting between Pythagoras and a Mongolian Shaman. Take care.

[patternsinchaos]

And FYI it's common western scientific dogma that water (H20) is a "product" (the term in Chemistry) in the reaction known as fire (oxidation), whenever carbon is involved. GILY

[patternsinchaos]

A re-treatment Thales's theory about all being born of water is forthcoming. ;-) "Flux transfer events" which are entering the western scientific head space are bringing the reality that water frequently forms WITHIN a space from energy at great distances. Google news on Prahalad Jani the Yogi who claims to have gone without food and water for 70 years, you'll see how knowledge of this mechanism might be employed personally. CME cyclone correlations are a massive demonstration of this principle.

[patternsinchaos]

Very nice exposition, Matt.

[9iloveme9]

Thank you for sharing