Sunday, September 1, 2013

Aristotle - Metaphysics

"it is best left In the past as its views are too false for the future."


"i dislike all the classics. that goes for aristotle."


"This is kind of like if you need to brush up on your Calculus and you start by going all the way back to multipication tables."


"If I'd lived with Plato for a solid 20 years, would (even) I have written something better than the Metaphysics? I believe so, yes."


"Maybe Aristotle wasn't interested in philosophy
I am not particularly fond of this book. If undergraduate college courses are meant to provide students with general outlook on likely events, and graduate schools at major universities are intended to select those students who want to qualify for cutting edge work in a highly specialized professional discipline, the works of Aristotle seem to be the high point of a Greek attempt to create an upper level above anything that had previously been considered possible. Alexander the Great, as a student of Aristotle, might be faulted for aspiring to far more than what could be useful, just as Heidegger seemed to be pushing for a German spirit that was sure to damn the rest of the world to misery when he assumed a place in the leadership of a German university backing Hitler and the Nazi party.
...
It is far more ancient than modern. It is not clear how infinite his 'triangle containing two right angles' (p. 112) is supposed to be. Even his attempts to tiptoe around the major stereotypes of ancient bookworms seem limp. 'For instance, it is neither always nor for the most part that someone pale has a refined education, but since it sometimes happens, it will be incidental (or if not, everything would be by necessity).' (p. 113).

The Index only mentions three pages in Aristotle's text for Socrates, though Aristotle often uses his name as an example ... Two generations of seeking lessons from Socrates, ignoring whatever meaning the hemlock had, took place before we find Aristotle finally admitting 'For there are two things one might justly credit Socrates with, arguments by example and universal definition,' (p. 260). A real philosopher ought to do better than that."

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