Yale Lecture on Plato

This is a lecture delivered by Anthony Kronman, philosopher and law professor at Yale University, where he provides a nice explanation of part of Plato's Republic. For our purposes, the stuff we are concerned with is that concerning the reality of the Forms vs. that of individual things (beauty itself vs. beautiful things). He explains, and critiques, the metaphysical assumptions which support and explain Plato's views on democracy in a very interesting way, and why Plato could not possibly favor democracy as a good political ideal.

It's a very good lecture, in my opinion, until he starts arguing for creation ex nihilo (out of nothing) as a solution to the problems faced by Plato, which takes place toward the very end, but everything up to that point is rather interesting.

I hope it helps you better understand Plato.

Don't know if this will work

Hey everyone it's me, Lori, I don't if I'm doing this right or not, but hopefully it will post. I'm very computer illiterate!!! Berto, I kept trying to get in the blog even though it said my invitation expired and I think it finally worked anyway. I don't understand how, but here I am. I can't seem to get the videos to work though. Nothing happens when I click on the play arrow. I know all of you are probably going to laugh at me when you read this, but I have know idea what I'm doing. I HATE computers!!!!!! Could it be because I still have dial up and not high speed internet. I know, I'm behind the times!!!! See you all at class after the break. Lori

Islam Vs. Christianity

I found this today, and thought you might find it funny as well.

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I enjoyed the video and think that it is very true. It would be really great if further studies could help children with autisum. Those mirror neurons are really something and have alot to do with how we become and see the world. I believe that Aristotle's 3 claims about humans are very true. He was a man before his time - is that how the saying goes?

Aristotle and Mirror Neurons

Here is an audio clip summarizing certain key excerpts from Aristotle's views on ethics.

And the following is a video clip on state-of-the-art research on mirror neurons. Aristotle, you will remember, contended that the habitual performance of acts of a certain kind would eventually produce a corresponding state of mind, or character, in the moral agent. This is precisely why he thinks moral education, through role models who teach by example, is extremely important.

New scientific research, as shown in this video, provides empirical support for Aristotle's claim that

1. we are social creatures,
2. we learn through imitation, and
3. the physical performance of certain actions produces certain cognitive responses.

This stuff is extremely interesting, and I'd love to see some discussion related to this.