I wanted to give my post below as an example of the scenario I was trying (and failing) to articulate last fall. In this scenario, the failure of a speaker’s effort – an effort that up to this point seems determine the meaning of a conversation relative to a certain goal of longed-for persuasion or [...]
Archive for the ‘athens’ Category
The Voice of the Athenian: the city begins where the city ends, part ii
Posted in Socrates, anyone, athens, beginnings, defeat, dialogue, eccentric, exceptions, fate, greek, history, love?, melos, polis, the impossible, tragedy on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
another angle on cosmos
Posted in Equality, Geometry, God, Socrates, Sophistry, anyone, athens, beginnings, cosmos, dialogue, eccentric, greek, hubris, idiosyncrasy, love?, necessity, polis, wisdom on March 12, 2009 | 3 Comments »
At the tail end of prosecuting his interlocutor Callicles, who has scorned his offer of friendship, balked at his refutations, and threatened him with murder, Socrates withdraws for a moment from the struggle of argument, having won something like the moment of calm perception that an exhausted warrior receives beside the ongoing fray, seeing the [...]
Vivant Dr. Sampo, Dr. Mumbach, Miss Bonifield, Mr. Shea, Miss Enos, and the others! — Semper Sint in Flore
Posted in Indian Summer, Janus, annihilation, anyone, art, athens, autumn, beginnings, bells, books, crannies, cry, defeat, dialogue, eccentric, exceptions, fate, flowers, greek, history, hubris, idiosyncrasy, language, letters, love?, mania, melos, mosaic, necessity, nemesis, nooks, polis, rain, rule, spring, stars, summer, the fall, the impossible, time, tragedy, wind, winter, wisdom, wit on February 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
What Is Catholic About a College Degree
Peter V. Sampo
President, Thomas More College
Let us assume the college has a Catholic liturgy, teaches Orthodox Catholic theology, and is under the auspices of a religious order, a diocese, or is, at least, canonically recognized by a diocese. Further, let us assume loyalty to the Magisterium. As necessary as [...]
speech ending quietly
Posted in God, athens, beginnings, dialogue, greek, language, love?, mania, rule, summer, wind, wisdom on November 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Phaedrus: . . . But let’s be going, since now even the stifling heat is more gentle.
Socrates: Shouldn’t we pray to the gods here before going?
Phaedrus: Yes, surely.
Socrates: Dear Pan and ye other gods who dwell here, grant that I may become beautiful within and that my worldly belongings be in accord with my inner [...]
The Voice of the Melian: the City Begins where the City Ends, Part I
Posted in athens, beginnings, greek, history, language, love?, melos, nemesis, polis, stars, the impossible, thucydides, tragedy on November 6, 2008 | 8 Comments »
In the latest comments on “Remember Melos”, itself a comment on a dialogue to which comment can only be late, Finny tries to read the voices of Athens and Melos. This reading begs the question: where is it that these voices can be heard? In what forum, what agora, what city can Athens and Melos have anything to say to each other? What assembly, and what sort [...]
An Aristophanic Impossibility
Posted in Archimedes, Hermes, Janus, Syracuse, annihilation, art, athens, beginnings, catapult, economy cars, fate, greek, hubris, love?, mania, mosaic, necessity, nemesis, pretentious, rain, speed, stars, summer, sun, the dramatic unities of time and place, the impossible, traffic on October 26, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I am insane. I no longer doubt it. Allow me to convince you. This morning I found myself desperately trying to put milk in cereal instead of cereal in milk. Always with the same result: my cereal ended up in the milk, and not the other way round. I’d gone through three boxes of Grandy O’s and two [...]
Remember Melos
Posted in annihilation, athens, beginnings, cry, defeat, dialogue, greek, history, lacedaemon, logic, melos, necessity, polis, stars, thucydides, tragedy, wisdom, wit on October 20, 2008 | 6 Comments »
That’s Melos to the North.
We told them ”we don’t want you to think you can persuade us by saying you did not fight on the side of the Lacedaemonians in the war, though you were their colony, or that you have done us no injustice. Instead, let’s work out what we can do on the basis [...]
