Plato's Symposium, Part 2: Love and the Immortal Good
Speeches on love, first by Aristophanes, then Agathon, followed by Socrates who relates the wisdom of Diotima, lead us to wonder whether love is, as Diotima says, the mortal human's search for the imm...
31 Maj 20231h 52min
Plato's Symposium, Part 1: Love's Poetry, Bearing Individual and Universal Truths
In our first of three sessions on Plato's Symposium, the dialogue on love that occurs among a group of hungover Athenians, participants from the Toronto, Calgary, and Philosophy Meetup groups pointed ...
12 Maj 20231h 46min
Plato’s Hippias Minor: Truth, Lies, and Feedback Loops
What is the truth? In our previous discussion, we heard the conclusion of Socrates that measurement is the greatest skill that we can exercise. The title character of Plato’s Lesser Hippias, or Hipp...
5 Maj 20231h 32min
Plato's Protagoras, Part 3: In Virtue of What Does Good Outweigh Bad?
In concluding our 3-part series on Plato’s Protagoras, a consensus may have emerged that virtue is not a universal form – but if it has no consistent definition, what is virtue, and can it be taught? ...
9 Apr 20231h 51min
Plato's Protagoras, Part 2: Is Virtue One Thing or Many?
Is there a first principle of virtue? If virtue is knowledge that can be taught, does the teacher need to know the limits of virtue as a single thing - or does virtue consist of a range of attributes,...
24 Mars 20231h 52min
Plato's Protagoras, Part 1: Can Virtue Be Taught?
Plato’s dialogue Protagoras revolves around the question of whether virtue can be taught. If it can, then how do we define virtue? Is there a universal form for virtue, one thing alone that defines vi...
10 Mars 20231h 53min
Plato's Philebus, Part 3: The Philosopher's Arithmetic
In our exercise of reason to judge the harmonious mixture of pleasure and knowledge in the good life, Socrates ranks first the skill of measurement. In the conclusion of Plato’s Philebus, we learn th...
23 Feb 20231h 52min
Plato’s Philebus, Part 2: Does the Universe Have a Soul and Reason?
Where does the human soul come from, if not the universe of which we are part? The question that Socrates poses relates to his assertion that everything comes to be from a cause, as he and Protarchus...
8 Feb 20231h 39min
