Sunday, 31 May 2026

Major works meeting

• Continuing De Rerum Natura
• Starting from around line 800 of Book I
• End at line 930 of Book II, The Dance of Atoms
• Next week we’ll finish Book II

Minor works meeting

• Continuing Theaetetus
• Starting from the middle of 189e
• Ending towards the bottom of 199b

Theaetetus reminder for next week:

We continue the discussion of false judgement and Socrates introduces a new metaphor to truly determine if false judgement is indeed impossibnle, as he said before. However this new metaphor produces a contradiction, which is that either a man can not know something that he knows or that false judgement is possible.

“But as the matter now stands, either there is no such thing as false judgment; or a man may not know what he knows. Which do you choose?”

Then the proceed along different lines to better understand which. Socrates offers to do something crazy and describe what knowing is like, acknowledging that this is absurd becauase the whole discussion is predicated on them not already knowing what knowledge is, how could they describe what knowledge or knowing is like.

But they do it anyways and we form an argument around the difference between possessing and having, with this anaolgy of a hunter who has created an atrium for wild birds. Finally we left the meeting’s reading with describing a hunter who possesses the birds but often fails to have one or tyhe other as thye flutter about.