Das arrives at Tea Time Party

[Guest guest]

Dear Visti,

My suggestion for a Contender's Corner is just a proposal, as I do not

have a website or sysop privileges...it's just the germ of an idea, something

to think about while sipping one's tea!

 

A long time ago I became curious about astrology after reading in

Plato's Republic, Timaeus chapter (rare to find this chapter translated, and

Oxford edition is best), where he states that "the Gods set the stars in the

heavens to rule the affairs of men." "That means Plato believes in

astrology," I thought to myself, "I will have to look into this!"

 

Plato also scribed Socrates' opinion that the older he became, the more

he realized that he knew very little at all. That was a result of Socrates'

experience in going out and asking people he met, what they were doing and

how, and why. Each laboring specialist knew so many things that Socrates had

never learned at all, let alone thought about before going up to meet him.

 

I've puzzled a lot about one concept Plato wrote about, which is his

statement that Hades has performed a complete delusion upon mankind, and it

is a perfect delusion in which many are ensnared, and thus become captives of

Hades...here's my recollection of Hades' perfect delusion to ensnare mankind,

though I haven't read it in years: that a person may be made better by his

association with another.

 

My first reaction to that was to think it was terrible! What a bad

thing to say! Why, this was a negation of religion, wasn't it? Are we all

to cast ourselves adrift? Hardly! "No man is an island," remember? So why

would this brilliant man say such a foolish thing! Well, I considered that I

couldn't be made any better by associating with that line of thought!

 

Oh, just thinking about things I can't solve, you know...this is such a

nice picnic, so many happy faces here, it did rain a bit to cool us off.

Ahh, the sun is shining again!

 

smiles,

Carol