A review of “David Hume” (audiobook)

“It is evident, that all the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human nature: and that however wide any of them may seem to run from it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of MAN; since the lie under the cognizance of men, and are judged of by their powers and faculties … consequently we ourselves are not only the beings, that reason, but also one of the objects, concerning which we reason.”

– Introduction to David Hume’s “A Treatise of Human Nature” (1739-1740), as written by the author himself

I had heard very little about David Hume, before listening to this audiobook. But after listening to this presentation, I was (and still am) convinced that he is one of the greatest philosophers of all time. His influence was massive, and he wrote on many topics – something that was more common then. For example, he wrote on history, politics, and economics as well as philosophy. But he is most famous for his original contributions to the philosophy of science, and the debate over what is the most reliable foundation of human knowledge. It was in this regard that Immanuel Kant once paid him a heartfelt compliment. Kant said that “the suggestion of David Hume was the very thing, which many years ago first awakened me from my dogmatic slumber.” (See the full quote and its citation here.)

A review of “Great Epochs of European Art: Art of the Ancient Greeks & Romans”

The difficulties of learning about Greek and Roman art from textbooks

For many years now, I’ve been interested in Ancient Greece and Rome. I read some textbooks about their respective histories, and even learned the Ancient Greek language from some other textbooks. (More about that here.) From these endeavors, I learned some basic things about their culture. But there was one thing that was hard to get from books, which was proper visuals. Textbooks have only so much ability to include pictures, particularly when they’re trying to stay affordable for their readers. Color pictures in particular can be very expensive to produce for textbooks, and so some textbooks include very few of them. This meant that it was difficult (even if technically possible) to learn much about Greek and Roman art from textbooks. Thus, I felt like I needed something else to compensate for this.

A review of “Plato” (audiobook)

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

– Alfred North Whitehead, “Process and Reality” (1929)

This audiobook was my introduction to the Knowledge Products series of audiobooks. This particular audiobook is what got me hooked on the others. I love their way of introducing you to the thinkers covered. In particular, I love the way that they place these thinkers’ ideas into the context of their times, and give biographical information about the authors.

A review of “The Civil War” (audiobook)

“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect, and defend it.’”

– Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861)

What was the Civil War about? This question may be easy to ask, but it is one of the most complicated questions in American history. No matter how long we discuss it, we keep coming back to two popular theories, which are sometimes believed to contradict each other. These are slavery and “states’ rights.” Both of these issues were explicitly discussed in the United States Constitution, so both of them were constitutional issues as much as they were anything else. But we don’t have to choose between these two seemingly-contradictory explanations. This audiobook argues that these two issues were inseparably connected in the Southern mind. Put simply, this audiobook argues that slavery was the root cause of the Civil War, while “states’ rights” was the convenient pretext used by the South to justify their attempts to protect and prolong it. At times, even “states’ rights” would take a back seat to their despicable goal of prolonging African slavery, as this audiobook shows in a number of ways – including by citing the “secession ordinances” of the rebellious states (which are highly incriminating on this score).

“Man is the measure of all things” … or is he?

“It is indeed the opinion of Protagoras, who has another way of expressing it. Man, he says, is the measure of all things, of the existence of things that are, and of the non-existence of things that are not.”

– Socrates, as recorded in Plato’s “Theaetetus”

Is all truth in the “eye of the beholder?” Protagoras thought so, but Socrates didn’t …

Socrates and Plato both reported some words from the Greek sophist Protagoras, in Plato’s dialogue “Theaetetus.” The dialogue features a character by the name of “Socrates,” believed here to represent the actual and historical Socrates. The character of “Socrates” thus quotes Protagoras as saying that “Man is the measure of all things.” Thus, we seem to have the word of both Plato and Socrates that Protagoras really said this. But what does it mean that “Man is the measure of all things”? As Socrates correctly argues, it seems to mean that all truth is in the “eye of the beholder” – or, at least, that Protagoras believed this to be the case. “If I believe that something is true,” say some today, “then it must be true.” But this belief leads to a number of problematic conclusions, as Socrates proceeds to point out in this same dialogue, the “Theaetetus” – named after one of the other characters in the dialogue. Nonetheless, some today (notably certain postmodernists) still proclaim that all truth is in the “eye of the beholder.” It is acknowledged that some things really do work this way, but it would seem that other things do not. Thus, this dialogue is a timeless meditation on objective truth whose arguments need to be heard today. Thus, it may be worth examining here in this post.

Socrates

A review of “Aristotle” (audiobook)

“We must not expect of Aristotle such literary brilliance as floods the pages of the dramatist-philosopher Plato. Instead of giving us great literature, in which philosophy is embodied (and obscured) in myth and imagery, Aristotle gives us science, technical, abstract, concentrated; if we go to him for entertainment we shall sue for the return of our money.”

– Will Durant’s “The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers” (1926), Chapter 2, Section 2

Aristotle is one of the most influential philosophers in all of world history. More than 2,000 years after his death, his name is still known, and his works are still studied. I knew his name early in my childhood, but did not examine his ideas until early college. My first philosophy class introduced me to Aristotle, and made me want to learn a bit more about him. As it turned out, my dad already had this audiobook about him by this time. Thus, the two of us listened to it on a moderately long road trip. My dad had already listened to it, but I had not – although I had listened to a similar audiobook about Plato by the same company (Knowledge Products). I greatly enjoyed this audiobook (my second from this series), and it helps that Charlton Heston is narrating it. Nonetheless, this audiobook makes one’s brain hurt after a while.

A few problems with Plato’s “Republic” (and his ideal state)

“You know also that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken.”

– Plato’s “Republic” (written around 375 BC), Book II – spoken through the character of “Socrates,” whose depiction in “The Republic” probably does not represent the actual views of the historical Socrates (although his depiction in some other Plato dialogues may really do so)

I recently finished reading Plato’s “Republic” in the original Greek …

My first encounter with the ideas of Plato was in an intro to philosophy class in 2005. I became particularly interested in his work “The Republic,” and later read the work in English translation during the winter of 2006-2007. At that time, it was for my own amusement, and I read it all the way through in English. Later, the book was assigned for an intro to ethics class in 2009 (which was also a philosophy class). But this time, it was for an accelerated summer class, so I was forced to limit myself to just the assigned parts of it. I figured that if I had read the work all the way through long before this, then I didn’t need to read the entire work this time around. Later on, I learned the Ancient Greek language. Thus, I was brave enough to want to tackle the entirety of “The Republic” in the original. Now, I have finally finished doing so – a task that took me roughly four years. (Specifically, I read it from February 2019 through February 2023.)

Plato