/lit/ - Literature

‘Now then, my lad, you’re still young, and as time goes on you’ll come
to adopt opinions diametrically opposed to those you hold now. Why not
wait till later on to make up your mind about these important matters?
The most important of all, however lightly you take it at the moment, is
to get the right ideas about the gods and so live a good life:—otherwise
you’ll live a bad one. In this connection, I want first to make a crucial and
irrefutable point. It’s this: you’re not unique. Neither you nor your friends
are the first to have held this opinion about the gods. It’s an illness from
which the world is never free, though the number of sufferers varies from
time to time. I’ve met a great many of them, and let me assure you that
none of them who have been convinced early in life that gods do not exist
have ever retained that belief into old age. However, it is true that some
men (but not many) do persist in laboring under the impression either
that although the gods exist they are indifferent to human affairs, or
alternatively that they are not indifferent but can easily be won over by
prayers and sacrifices. Be guided by me: you’ll only see this business in
its truest light if you wait to gather your information from all sources,
particularly the legislator, and then see which theory represents the truth.
In the meantime, don’t venture any impiety where gods are concerned.
You may take it that it will be up to your lawgiver, now and in the future,
to try to enlighten you on precisely these topics.’

Hail to you, you who are glorious and creative,
O Atum-Horakhty!
As you rise splendidly from the horizon of heaven,
praises are yours from the mouths of everyone,
Beautiful, fresh as the youthful sun disk
from the arms of your mother, Hathor.
Rise in splendor everywhere,
with your heart joyful forever!

The Two Shrines of Egypt come to you in obeisance
to offer praise at your rising.

How beautiful you are on the horizon of heaven—
and the Two Lands are suffused with turquoise!

This is Ré-Horakhty,
the Divine Child, heir of eternity,
who procreated himself, bore himself by himself,
King of heaven and earth, ruler of underworld,
chief over desert and realm of the dead;
Who came to be in the waters, drew himself forth from Nun,
brought himself up by himself, made his offspring illustrious.

Mighty king who lights the horizon,
the Nine Great Gods rejoice at your rising,

The whole world is happy,
jubilant at your appearing for them.
Glorious god within his shrine,
lord of eternity in the midst of his skyship,
The Horizon-dwellers row you,
those in the Night Bark sail you,
The Souls of the East invoke you,
and the Souls of the West give you praise.

It was in this fashion that I then spoke to Dionysius. I did not explain
everything to him, nor did he ask me to, for he claimed to have already
a sufficient knowledge of many, and the most important, points because
of what he had heard others say about them. Later, I hear, he wrote a
book on the matters we talked about, putting it forward as his own teaching,
not what he had learned from me. Whether this is true I do not know. I
know that certain others also have written on these same matters; but who
they are they themselves do not know. So much at least I can affirm with
confidence about any who have written or propose to write on these
questions, pretending to a knowledge of the problems with which I am
concerned, whether they claim to have learned from me or from others
or to have made their discoveries for themselves: it is impossible, in my
opinion, that they can have learned anything at all about the subject. There
is no writing of mine about these matters, nor will there ever be one. For
this knowledge is not something that can be put into words like other
sciences; but after long-continued intercourse between teacher and pupil,
in joint pursuit of the subject, suddenly, like light flashing forth when a
fire is kindled, it is born in the soul and straighway nourishes itself. And
this too I know: if these matters are to be expounded at all in books or
lectures, they would best come from me. Certainly I am harmed not least
of all if they are misrepresented. If I thought they could be put into written
words adequate for the multitude, what nobler work could I do in my life
than to compose something of such great benefit to mankind and bring
to light the nature of things for all to see? But I do not think that the
“examination,” as it is called, of these questions would be of any benefit
to men, except to a few, i.e., to those who could with a little guidance
discover the truth by themselves. Of the rest, some would be filled with
an ill-founded and quite unbecoming disdain, and some with an exaggerated
and foolish elation, as if they had learned something grand.

>>16571661
>>fun things are fun
>>you are you
>Has she read Plato?
but Plato says that moderate fun is fun and that you are you

>>16495035
>The Greeks already proved matter isn't real
greeks such as?

>>16258606
yes that's Plotinus, Porphyry says it in his Vita.
Oh look, he even says that he wanted to base it on Plato's Laws.
>§12. Gallienus the emperor and his wife Salonina honoured and revered Plotinus greatly. On the strength of his friendship with them, Plotinus asked them to rebuild a certain city in Campania, once said to have been a city of philosophers, which had fallen into ruins. He
asked them to bestow the surrounding countryside on the city once it had been repopulated. The idea was that the inhabitants would live according to Plato’s laws, and the city would be called Platonopolis. Plotinus promised that he and his companions would move there. And
the philosopher would very easily have had his wish, were it not that some of the emperor’s court stood in his way – whether through envy or resentment or some other unworthy cause.

>so many followers he could found a small city

So how will heaven work?
it's orthodox doctrine that there's no second fall

>download a journal of philosophical essays
>a third of the essays in this ENGLISH journal are written in french
thank god this bullshit is dying out
fuck the french

>>15816948
what's the inner kernel of this thread?
I think there have been like 5 distinct arguments, only two of which I've engaged in. I think the guy you've talked to for 70% of your posts have been some other guy.
I'm not even sure what your argument is, are you the guy who's "Egypt Only"?, and whom which I accuse of Protestantism because he has no way of correctly interpreting the TENS OF THOUSANDS of hymns without a philosophical tradition to draw from?
>>15816967
And Plato addressed mankind that some free indulgence every once in a while and artistic freedom (in creation) is necessary for the survival of a state to not fall into total degeneracy like the whole christian west.
Since we believe that beauty can only come from god, any creation that is beautiful is divinely inspired (not the same as revelation), as Ion also says. And a good culture will in time filter out the greatest liturgies and songs, a type of virtuous democracy. The popular of today passes, but the great stuff lasts centuries.
And this is also how chrisitanity managed to survive, they manage to extract some of the myths that most resonates with the Soul, just as Plato did; but what we see now is that Christianity's fame, like Islam, was enforced, nnot because of truly popular appeal. Unlike Plato, who is preserved by nothing but true appeal.

Post Physique.