I am now an old hand on internet forums, having been a poster to Philosophy Forum for some years, and being a mod on another forum. My philosophical views are anti-materialist, which is what drew me to Ed Feser's books - I first perused the amazon page for Last Superstition, then his blog and various other publications. I'm not myself Catholic but I am very drawn to Christian Platonism and find that the Thomists provide the most (or even only) coherent form of traditional metaphysics in Western culture.
One question I would like to explore here is the battle between nominalism and (medieval) realism. I have read some interesting historical analyses, for instance M A Gillespie's The Theological Origins of Modernity (which Dr Feser reviewed.) As I said, I'm drawn to Platonism, and am very sympathetic to the (medieval) realist attitude, which I think to all intents is only preserved in Thomism. So those are the areas I'm interested in exploring.
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Welcome, quotidian! Have you read much of Proclus? His commentary on Euclid's first book of the Elements might be right up your alley.
That's probably a good idea. I have picked up many snippets of Platonism, from anthologies and scattered journal articles, but I must confess to feeling rather daunted by the prospect of diving right into it. I have read some introductory material on Proclus and found him very interesting indeed. But life is short.
That seems very much on point, and is also in the uni library where I'm an alumni member - so thanks, will look into it.
actually there's a very good preview of that volume on Google Books, for anyone interested.
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Welcome!
I'm interested in Scholasticism for the same Platonic reasons you are. I've been trying to work out a succinct and explicitly Platonic viewpoint through the work of Lloyd Gerson on here and elsewhere, and I would love to have people who are interested in that. I tend to flag off in posting when I think no one cares.
Last edited by iwpoe (7/30/2015 2:09 am)
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iwpoe wrote:
Welcome!
I'm interested in Scholasticism for the same Platonic reasons you are. I've been trying to work out a succinct and explicitly Platonic viewpoint through the work of Lloyd Gerson on here and elsewhere, and I would love to have people who are interested in that. I tend to flag off in posting when I think no one cares.
Why don't you give us a post on a Platonic theistic proof or better yet an alternative epistemological account of how we grasp universals? I’m not asking this in a combative way – I’d generally be interested in seeing more posts on those subjects – if not then the boards get a bit Thomism heavy.
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DanielCC wrote:
iwpoe wrote:
Welcome!
I'm interested in Scholasticism for the same Platonic reasons you are. I've been trying to work out a succinct and explicitly Platonic viewpoint through the work of Lloyd Gerson on here and elsewhere, and I would love to have people who are interested in that. I tend to flag off in posting when I think no one cares.Why don't you give us a post on a Platonic theistic proof or better yet an alternative epistemological account of how we grasp universals? I’m not asking this in a combative way – I’d generally be interested in seeing more posts on those subjects – if not then the boards get a bit Thomism heavy.
Well, let me get back on the project in a more general way so I can lead into that. My depression has creept back in in the last month or so and I start to be unable to tell whether I'm boring or simply not expressing myself.