Monthly Archives: November 2018

The Presocratics – The One and the Many

Part of "School of Athens" by Raphael (Raffaelo Sanzio, 1483-1520)

© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission)
https://darrellarnold.com/2018/09/18/presocratics/

One of the earliest disputes of the Greek naturalists and Eleatics concerned the question of the one and the many — that is was the substratum of the natural world or reality itself one substance or many? Continue reading The Presocratics – The One and the Many

A Philosopher’s Lifelong Search for Meaning – Part 6 – Skepticism and Meaning

continued from a previous entry

  1. Skepticism

Yet, as we ascend these mountains of thought, we are brought back to earth. Looking to the past we see that truth, beauty, goodness, love, and meaning have emerged from cosmic evolution but so too have ignorance, loneliness, cruelty, despair, poverty, and pain. Surely serious reflection on this misery is sobering and we must temper our optimism accordingly. Continue reading A Philosopher’s Lifelong Search for Meaning – Part 6 – Skepticism and Meaning

The Presocratics – Parmenides and Zeno

Parmenides.jpgBust of Parmenides

© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission)
https://darrellarnold.com/2018/09/18/presocratics/

Hans Georg Gadamer, an important 20th century Germany hermeneutical philosopher, emphasizes … the importance of Parmenides and the Eleatics for Plato’s later theory of the forms. Like Plato … Parmenides, as well as Zeno and other Eleatics, dismisses sense experience as a source of truth. Continue reading The Presocratics – Parmenides and Zeno

A Philosopher’s Lifelong Search for Meaning – Part 5 – Transhumanism and Meaning

continued from a previous entry

  1. A Fully Meaningful Cosmos

There are then plausible reasons to believe that individual and cosmic death might be avoided. Yet immorality doesn’t guarantee a meaning of life, as the idea of hell so graphically illustrates. Immortality is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a fully meaningful reality. But what do we mean by fully meaningful? Continue reading A Philosopher’s Lifelong Search for Meaning – Part 5 – Transhumanism and Meaning

Summary of David Benatar’s “The Human Predicament”

I have previously written about the philosopher David Benatar’s anti-natalism. Now Oxford University Press has published his book The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.  Here is a brief summary of the book followed by a few comments.

Continue reading Summary of David Benatar’s “The Human Predicament”