While it’s tempting to look at the sequences of the bāguà, again the “eight trigrams” or “eight gua”, which as far as the tradition goes represent the earliest form of the Yĭ Jing from which the system of the 64 hexagrams was… Read More ›
Plato
An Ontological Retrospective: Another Look at Aristotle and Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality
Throughout this work we have emphasized the influence of Aristotle, perhaps more so than any other (Western) philosopher – even relative to his teacher Plato. His importance and relevance as it relates to the development and evolution of Western philosophy,… Read More ›
Indo-European Philosophy: On the Soul
There are many parallels that can be drawn between early Hellenic and Upanishadic philosophy. In particular, we find many similarities between the philosophy presented by Plato in his Middle Period as he developed and fine-tuned his theory of forms – in particular… Read More ›
The Lǎozǐ and Zhuangzi: Daoism and the Way of Virtue
As the Confucian school was referred to as Rújiā, the Daoist school was referred to as Daojiā, each called out as one of the six main philosophical schools during the Warring States Period to the Early/Former Han. While a Daoist “canon”… Read More ›
Plato and the Allegory of the Cave: Ideas, Being and Becoming
The first systematic treatment of philosophy, and arguably the most influential, in the West can be found in works of Plato, in particular in his works the Phaedo, the Republic and the Timaeus which are by most accounts the most influential of… Read More ›
The Legacy of Socrates: Skepticism, Knowledge and Reason
One of the best indications of the influence of Socrates on the development of Western philosophy, what the Hellenes, or Greeks, termed philosophia, his ideas being primarily represented by the writings of his best known pupil Plato, is the more modern… Read More ›
From Language to Writing: The Dawn of History
The development of alphabet based language systems in general, a development that occurs in the Mediterranean at around the end of the second millennium BCE or so, represents a major evolution in the history of mankind. It’s invention, if we… Read More ›
Plato’s Metaphysics: Being and Becoming
Perhaps Plato’s greatest contribution to Western philosophy is the idealism embedded in his Theory of Forms, which in essence breaks down existence itself as not only a physical world of inanimate and animate objects, but a theory of knowledge and understanding which is… Read More ›
Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Theology: On Being, the First Mover and Love (Eros)
One of the most preeminent philosophical principles that underpins Western thought, one of the foundational presumptions of modern Science in fact, is the notion of causality, or what we refer to more specifically within the context of 20th century Science… Read More ›
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle: First Philosophy
Leaving aside the Indo-Aryan Vedic tradition, representing the root philosophical and religious tradition of the East, the emergence of philosophy as a branch of thought ran parallel with the advent of Ancient Greek civilization. What was unique about this development,… Read More ›
Theology Reconsidered: An Introduction
What follows is the Introductory chapter from a newly published, two Volume work entitled Theology Reconsidered. The book can be purchased from Lambert publishing via their website; Volume I here and Volume II here. When looking at the first… Read More ›
Pythagoras: The Father of Greek Philosophy
Pythagoras, Thales of Miletus, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, and Democritus all made contributions to Pre-Socratic philosophical thought and were referenced by later philosophers and historians to some extent or another. Although none of the complete works of Pre-Socratic philosophers… Read More ›
The Theogony of Hesiod: Order (Cronos) from Chaos
One of the nice things that you found as you studied more advanced civilizations, as you got further into the first millennium BCE, you had better material and source texts to work with. You no longer had to rely on… Read More ›
Pythagoras and Plato: From the One to Many
Philosophy to the Greeks not only helped them understand the cosmos, creation and destruction of the universe and the essence of the natural world, but also the harmony within which we as individuals should lead our lives, and in turn… Read More ›
What can we do?
We look around and what do we see? As we live our little boxes in the sky Or our homes that we build on plotted our land With food processed and shipped And the environment raped to serve our needs… Read More ›
