On the classic Hindu text from possibly around the third century BCE., which is a part of the Indian Epic poem Mahabharata, attributed to Vyasa, though that probably wasn't a single person. What is it to live wisely? What grounds duty? The text is a conversation on the eve of battle between the archer hero Arjuna and his charioteer, Krishna, who in the course of the text Continue Reading …
Ep. 204: The Bhagavad Gita’s Hindu Theology (Citizen Edition)
On the classic Hindu text from possibly around the third century BCE., which is a part of the Indian Epic poem Mahabharata, attributed to Vyasa, though that probably wasn't a single person. What is it to live wisely? What grounds duty? The text is a conversation on the eve of battle between the archer hero Arjuna and his charioteer, Krishna, who in the course of the text Continue Reading …
Episode 198: Plato’s Forms in the “Parmenides” (Part One)
On the most peculiar Platonic dialogue, from ca. 350 BCE. Are properties real things in the world, or just in the mind? Plato famously thought that for a property like "large," there's a Form that causes all the large things to be large, and which enables us to recognize those things as large. These Forms are not material things, and hence aren't the objects of ordinary Continue Reading …
Episode 198: Plato’s Forms in the “Parmenides” (Citizen Edition)
On the most peculiar Platonic dialogue, from ca. 350 BCE. Are properties real things in the world, or just in the mind? Plato famously thought that for a property like "large," there's a Form that causes all the large things to be large, and which enables us to recognize those things as large. These Forms are not material things, and hence aren't the objects of ordinary Continue Reading …
Episode 197: Parmenides on What There Is (Citizen Edition)
On the fragments referred to as "On Nature" from ca. 475 BCE, featuring guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy without Any Gaps podcast. One of the most influential Presocratic philosophers, Parmenides gives "the Way of Truth," which is that there is only Being, and talking of Non-Being is nonsense. And guess what? Any talk of difference implies non-being, so Continue Reading …