The audience I often find myself in is a prosperous Catholic parish, diocese, or Catholic private school in the United States. My opinion of this demographic group is based upon more than thirty years of catechetical experience in four dioceses. These locations vary from Campus Ministry at College Station, TX, to La Jolla, CA then…
Thomas Kuhn, author of The Structure of Scientific Revolution[1], proposes that Aristotle held the scientific high ground for millennia, not because of dogma but because his theories proved true. Similarly, the Church via the writings of Thomas Aquinas finds Aristotle’s theories about man true not because of Hellenistic religious custom but because they provide…
Epistemology comes from two Greek words- episteme (knowledge) and logos (reason, word, study), which taken together means study of knowledge. Within philosophy, epistemology is the process of understanding “How one knows something” or “What is happening in our minds” when the person knows something. In this essay, I will compare the epistemologies of Plato and Aristotle….
Dear Karen*, I have been trying to think of the last time I applied pen to paper to write you a note and realize— it’s been way too long! I would like to pretend that the myriad numbers of excuses I could posit would prove sufficient to my defense, but alas, they remain excuses. Today,…
Plato, observing the deplorable living conditions of his master, Socrates, and his state-sanctioned death opts for another path: teaching paying students in a school called The Academy and writing the Dialogues, which puts controversial philosophical ideas in the mouths of characters rather than himself directly. With money and death threats addressed, he turns his formidable…
Socrates is a major, and some would argue THE, turning point in philosophy. Why? Is it because he had a good advocate in Plato, much the same way that Robert E Lee had Jubal Early or Charles Darwin had T.H. Huxley? Perhaps, Socrates provokes sympathy because the State forced suicide because of his beliefs, much…