Sunday, 26 April 2026

Major works meeting

• Starting Diogenes’ Life of Epicurus
• Ending with finishing Principle Doctrines and Letter to Menoeceus
• Also read Proposition’s 1 and 2 of Euclid’s Elements

Minor works meeting

• Continuing Theaetetus
• Starting from 172b
• Ending midway 179d

Theaetetus reminder for next week:

We continue the discussion regarding Theateatus’ assertion that knowledge is perception, along the lines laid out earlier from last week, especially regarding Protagoras’ rebuttal about man and the measure. We had a long digression about the characteristics between the man who succeeds in convincing others vs the philosophical man. This digression was not flattering towards the former. He is described as a slave due to working purely well under constraints but without being a master of determining those constraints himself. Moreover he is an expert at speaking poorly of others, braging about geneaology, and cares about little plots of land. The philosopher knows nothing bad to say of others and has a generally very broad view of everything, so much so that he doesn’t know his neighbor because he can not see a man, he only asks what is man. Then we return to from the digression to the final argument against protagoras, which has to do with the future. And Socraters clearly lays out that man is not any more the measure than he is able to make the future happen, which he obviously can’t. So they—theodorus and Socrates—agree that Protagorus is wrong, but they haven’t neccesarily put aside the argument of Perception being knowledge altogehtter. Socrates says they need to at it more closely before they can really be sure.

Andrew: future behavior comes up because they’re discussing laws made by a community being in their best interest, however laws exist to persuade or discourage future behaviour. Therefore the discussoin of the future proceeds from that argument, but it applies generally to the man as well.