Category: plato

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  • Three Books On Technocracy

    Counter Currents - Nov 12th 2025 2:48pm EST

    2,500 words The word “technocracy” has recently become firmly established in Western political and media discourse. It’s tempting to define it as “rule by technology”, but that begs the question. The Ancient Greek word technē is the root of both modern words, “technology” and “technocracy”, and it means “to make or do, fashion or create.” […]

  • Is Wisdom Alone Sufficient For Happiness?

    Counter Currents - Sep 8th 2025 9:36am EDT

    Socrates accepting his fate. The Death of Socrates – Jacques-Louis David, 1787 2,083 words In Plato’s Euthydemus, Socrates argues for the paramount importance of philosophy because philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom, and wisdom is the most reliable way to attain happiness, which all men are pursing. Happiness requires many goods, but they won’t be […]

  • Overcoming the Will to Live: An Introduction to Schopenhauer 3

    Counter Currents - Aug 22nd 2025 8:44am EDT

    3,832 words The Lonely Tree – Caspar David Friedrich, 1822 Part 1, Part 2 The Platonic Ideas So far we have discussed extensively how Schopenhauer frames his argument in The World as Will and Representation in terms of Kantian philosophy, and how he misunderstands Kant. The other major influence he acknowledged was Plato, and it […]

  • Is Wisdom the Only Unconditional Good?

    Counter Currents - Aug 22nd 2025 6:56am EDT

    You can buy Greg Johnson’s The Trial of Socrates here. 1,317 words In my essay “The Most Important Thing in the World,” I presented Plato’s argument in the Euthydemus for the importance of philosophy. All men are pursuing happiness. To do so, we try to secure certain goods. Something is good if it contributes to […]

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  • The Most Important Thing in the World

    Counter Currents - Aug 19th 2025 12:29pm EDT

    Seated Socrates, fresco from ancient Ephesus 1,732 words Sometimes the most momentous truths can be established with the simplest arguments. A good example is Plato’s argument in his little-known dialogue Euthydemus  for why philosophy, the pursuit of wisdom, is more important than any other pursuit. I found this argument completely convincing. It shattered and remade […]

  • The Most Important Thing in the World

    Counter Currents - Aug 19th 2025 12:29pm EDT

    Seated Socrates, fresco from ancient Ephesus 1,732 words Sometimes the most momentous truths can be established with the simplest arguments. A good example is Plato’s argument in his little-known dialogue Euthydemus  for why philosophy, the pursuit of wisdom, is more important than any other pursuit. I found this argument completely convincing. It shattered and remade […]

  • Why Plato Befriended Tyrants

    Counter Currents - Aug 12th 2025 11:09am EDT

    Plato by L. Vorsterman after Peter Paul Rubens 5,046 words Socrates and Plato were enemies of tyranny. Indeed, in book 9 of Plato’s Republic, Socrates sets forth one of history’s oldest and most influential denunciations of tyrants and tyranny. Yet some of their best friends and students were tyrants. Socrates was a friend and teacher […]

  • Platonism Returns

    Amerika.org - Aug 8th 2025 1:32am EDT

    Years ago, it was decided to bury Platonism under neoplatonism, which grafted on middle eastern concepts of good/evil and another world beyond this one which is so different from it that this one can be discarded. This was the basis of Christianity and ideology. This model began to fail because it had no relation to […]

  • Well, What Do You Know? Plato’s Theaetetus

    Counter Currents - Jul 29th 2025 7:00am EDT

    3,213 words “What do I know?” asked French thinker Michel de Montaigne in the 16th century. Two hundred years later, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant refined the question, asking rather, “What can I know?”. In philosophy, however, there is rarely anything new under the sun, and this was not a new query. Both Montaigne’s and […]

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  • Notes on Plato’s Gorgias, Part 20

    Counter Currents - May 23rd 2025 7:47am EDT

    Hermanubis, Vatican Museum 3,398 words (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, Part 8 here, Part 9 here, Part 10 here, Part 11 here, Part 12 here, Part 13 here, Part 14 here, Part 15 here, Part 16 here, Part 17 […]

  • Notes on Plato’s Gorgias, Part 19

    Counter Currents - May 6th 2025 2:14pm EDT

    Bust of Pericles 2,714 words (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, Part 8 here, Part 9 here, Part 10 here, Part 11 here, Part 12 here, Part 13 here, Part 14 here, Part 15 here, Part 16 here, Part 17 […]

  • Notes on Plato’s Gorgias, Part 18

    Counter Currents - Apr 29th 2025 4:12am EDT

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Allegory of Rhetoric, 1650 1,983 words (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, Part 8 here, Part 9 here, Part 10 here, Part 11 here, Part 12 here, Part 13 here, Part 14 here, Part 15 here, Part 16 […]

  • Notes on Plato’s Gorgias, Part 17

    Counter Currents - Apr 22nd 2025 4:59am EDT

    Titian, Allegory of Time Governed by Prudence, c. 1550–1565 3,298 words (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, Part 8 here, Part 9 here, Part 10 here, Part 11 here, Part 12 here, Part 13 here, Part 14 here, Part 15 […]

  • Notes on Plato’s Gorgias, Part 15

    Counter Currents - Apr 14th 2025 5:32am EDT

    Karl von Blaas, Allegory of Self-Control, 1859 2,703 words Part 15 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, Part 8 here, Part 9 here, Part 10 here, Part 11 here, Part 12 here, Part 13 here, Part 14 here) Thus far, […]

  • The Geometry of Virtue: Plato’s Meno

    Counter Currents - Apr 11th 2025 11:12am EDT

    2,243 words Socrates: Tell me, boy, do you know that a figure like this is a square? Boy: I do. -Plato, Meno But geometric existence is not psychic existence. -Jacques Derrida, Introduction to Edmund Husserl’s The Origin of Geometry *** The dialogue known as Meno is generally placed in the early period of the Platonic […]

  • Art, Death, & Phenomenology

    Counter Currents - Dec 18th 2024 9:14am EST

    2,450 words I always run into strong women who are looking for weak men to dominate them. -Andy Warhol Valerie Solanas took the elevator, got off at the 4th floor. She pointed the gun at Andy, saying, “You cannot control me anymore”. -Lou Reed and John Cale, Songs for Drella The Shot Heard Around the […]

  • Byzantine Secret Societies, Islam, Illuminism & More! Jay Dyer on Jeremy Slate Podcast

    Jay Dyer - Dec 10th 2024 9:25pm EST

    “Join us for a riveting conversation with Jay Dyer as we uncover the hidden connections between ancient Byzantine mystery schools and today’s power structures. From the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire to modern global events, discover how secret societies have shaped our world through centuries of careful manipulation. In this eye-opening episode, Jay Dyer […]

  • Why an Afterlife is More Likely Than You Think

    Amerika.org - Dec 9th 2024 6:32am EST

    Many of us wander into the metaphysical realm through transcendence. That is, we look at this world of war and death, disease and pain, and note also that somehow it ended up being quite beautiful with a type of spiritual joy at the center of our experience, once we filter out the glitches and boredom. […]

  • Unmourned Funeral: Chapter 10

    Counter Currents - Oct 15th 2024 9:49am EDT

    4,944 words Chapter 1 begins here CHAPTER 10 THE RETURN OF THE QUEEN A Quiet Homecoming   O what can it mean To a daydream believer Or a homecoming queen? The Monkees, Daydream Believer Can the Queen return to what was once her kingdom? Any return, any cultural reconquista by philosophy would require philosophers who […]

  • Unmourned Funeral: Chapter 7

    Counter Currents - Sep 24th 2024 12:40pm EDT

    5,103 words Chapter 7 SHADOWPLAY Escaping Plato’s Cave In the shadowplay, Acting out your own death, Knowing no more. Joy Division, Shadowplay We have seen the death of philosophy, or at the very least her mysterious disappearance, and thus the demise of the philosopher, who is now at best a BBC guest, a collector of […]

  • Cosmic Consciousness

    Amerika.org - Sep 23rd 2024 7:32am EDT

    All things ancient are always new. Reality does not change from year to year, and the “new” things people bring up like welfare, casual sex, usury, and scientific management are just old things under new names. We find what works, then forget, and go through a long period of denial before getting back to what […]

  • Platonist

    Amerika.org - Sep 20th 2024 5:53pm EDT

    For the past thousand years, Western Society has turned from the transcendent toward the individualistic. Metaphysical dualism and peer pressure worked it into the usual state of human narcissism, a condition it previously beat in order to rise to higher average IQ and much higher civilizational function. We should probably consider ourselves lucky that mainstream […]

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  • Defending Against Globalist Oligarchs (Ep.143)

    Irida TV - Aug 14th 2024 10:06am EDT

    Feeling overwhelmed and blackpilled in the face of the NWO? Don’t be! There is a defined strategy for navigating against our controllers and it’s… more mundane and effective than you think it is. Protest? Nope. Partisan politics? Nah. It’s political jiu jitsu at a level you’ve never heard! Center for Self Governance https://www.centerforselfgovernance.com/ CSG Student… […]

  • Notes on Plato’s Gorgias, Part 9

    Counter Currents - Jul 10th 2024 9:46am EDT

    Statue of Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom, at the Austrian Parliament. 1,871 words Part 9 of 14 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here, Part 8 here) There is a deeper problem with Plato’s account of justice in the Gorgias. He […]

  • Notes on Plato’s Gorgias, Part 7: Crime and Punishment

    Counter Currents - Jul 5th 2024 10:35am EDT

    A contemporary coin depicting Archelaus, King of Macedonia. (Image source: Wikipedia) 2,056 words Part 6 of 14 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here) Doing Injustice vs. Suffering It Polus grudgingly accepts Socrates’ argument, yet he doesn’t really believe it. Nor does he think […]