Qualia

When people think of modern day Stoics, they think of some of the world’s greatest influencers such as Nelson Mandela. However, the first person that came in to my mind when I thought of a Stoic was my father. My father is a surgeon who works with cancer patients. Despite the fact that my parents are in a fairly stable relationship, I’ve probably lived with my father for slightly more than half of my life, and I’ve seen him far less than that. His occupation forces him to live within…read more

I was reading some of my earlier notes from the beginning of the course, and I came across some notes I wrote about the epic poems by Homer. In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles decides not to participate in the war with Trojans due to his grudge against Agamemnon’s hubris. However, when his dear friend Patroclus dies in battle, he decides participate in the battle and live a short but glorious life. According to the ancient Greek heroic code, Achilles did himself good by both resisting Agamemnon’s hubris and standing up to…read more

Plato’s theory of Forms sounded strangely familiar when I first heard it. It seemed like I had heard of it outside of Greek philosophy class, but I could not pinpoint when and where. Then it struck me today while I was reading this passage from Aristotle’s Metaphysics I. “For to each set of substances there answers a Form which has the same name and exists apart from the substances…” The fantasy trilogy Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. That is where I saw it. The three novels take place in a fictional…read more