Secular Frontier

Previously My Favorite Philosophy Word: “AS” Heraclitus: War, Politics, and Law The Question of Being: Approaching Parmenides Through Zeno, Plato, and Aristotle Anaximander and the Magic of Translation Now, the Conclusion: These posts are meant as an introduction to the history of western philosophy so that the reader might take a second look at Anaximander, ... The Inception of Western Philosophy: Anaximander, Heraclitus, and Parmenides

John MacDonald is the Wile-E-Coyote Distinguished Professor of Question Marks and Chicken Wings at The Secular Web. He has advanced qualifications in Continental Philosophy / Ancient Philosophy, and Education – and Volunteers as President of the Secular Web / Internet Infidels. John blogs for The Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids. Contact Information: Email: [email protected]

“… adikia says that where it prevails, all is not right with things. That means, something is out of joint… The saying says, of what is present, that, as what is present, it is out of joint… It speaks from the essential experience of adikia as the fundamental trait of eonta (Heidegger, Anaximander’s Saying [in ... Anaximander and the Magic of Translation

Parmenides noted apprehension and Being are the same. So, for instance, a child’s pet rock stops appearing just as a friend and starts appearing as an igneous rock friend after science class. But we commit the fallacy of thinking our mental constructs overlay perfectly onto reality. Zeno’s paradoxes are good examples: In order to cross ... The Question of Being: Approaching Parmenides Through Zeno, Plato, and Aristotle

In the surviving text of Heraclitus, the word polemos (πόλεμος—traditionally translated as “war,” “strife,” or “confrontation”) appears explicitly in three fragments under the standard Diels-Kranz (DK) numbering system. Heraclitus uses the concept not just to describe physical warfare, but as a foundational, cosmic principle of tension, differentiation, and change that structures reality. 1. Fragment DK ... Heraclitus: War, Politics, and Law

What is the etymology and meaning of hupokeimenon? Hupokeimenon (Greek: ὑποκείμενον) literally means “that which lies beneath” or the “underlying thing.” It is a foundational term in metaphysics and logic, most famously utilized by Aristotle to define the ultimate underlying reality or substance that supports properties and survives changes. 🏛️ Etymology The word is an ... My Favorite Philosophy Word: “AS”

The Unit, Beyond the Facts: The DOET Series of Posts What is Philosophy? A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids (2/2) What is Reading?  A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids (Conclusion)  The Comics Posts: Thinking About Deconstruction and Postmodernism Thinkery Comics 1: Anaximander Thinkery Comics 2: Nietzsche Thinkery ... NEXT STEPS: Escaping the Thinkery; or, how Plato Invented the Modern World

Previously, Beyond the Facts: The DOET Series of Posts What is Philosophy? A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids (2/2) What is Reading?  A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids (Conclusion)  The Comics Posts: Thinking About Deconstruction and Postmodernism Thinkery Comics 1: Anaximander Thinkery Comics 2: Nietzsche Thinkery Comics ... (Part 2/2) Thinkery Comic mini-series CONCLUSION: I CREATE My OWN THINKERY COMIC!

Previous Comics Posts in This Series: Beyond the Facts: The DOET Series of Posts What is Philosophy? A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids (2/2) What is Reading?  A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids (Conclusion)  The Comics Posts: Thinking About Deconstruction and Postmodernism Thinkery Comics 1: Anaximander Thinkery ... Thinkery Comic mini-series CONCLUSION: CREATE YOUR OWN THINKERY COMIC

BACKGROUND Heidegger notes for Kant what belongs to an object as such, that make up the determinateness of the object’s objectivity:  These “Synthetic judgments a priori” are transcendental time-determinations.  To illustrate this, let us take the first group of dynamic-ontological principles, those which state a priori [something] about the existence of nature. Kant calls these ... Thinkery Comics mini-series part 4/5: Kant and Causality

Heidegger points out that since Plato, anything that ‘is’ can be differentiated into two realms, the aistheton and the noeton, that which is apprehended by the senses and that which can be apprehended by nous, the mind’s eye. The noeton is that which truly is because it is not subject to the changeability of the ... Thinkery Comics 3: Plato

Background: “The solitary speaks.”One receives as a reward for much ennui , ill-humour and boredom, such as a solitude without friends, books, duties or passions must entail, one harvests those quarters of an hour of the deepest immersion in oneself and nature. He who completely entrenches himself against boredom also entrenches himself against himself: he ... Thinkery Comics 2: Nietzsche

Background: Heidegger translates Anaximander’s “dike” as jointure and “adikia” as out of joint. Something is wrong with beings, they are either subtly or conspicuously out of joint. But then, something splendid happens like falling in love or landing that dream job, and temporarily there is jointure, everything falls into place. In the language of Robet ... Thinkery Comics 1: Anaximander

Previously: Beyond the Facts: The DOET Series of Posts What is Philosophy? A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids (2/2) What is Reading?  A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids Now, The Conclusion Postmodernism and Deconstruction is often seen as “anything goes” interpretation.  Let us question that. One way ... (Conclusion)  The Comics Posts: Thinking About Deconstruction and Postmodernism

Reading is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without seeing the picture on the front of the puzzle box. Understanding what you’ve read is like looking at and studying a hidden gestalt image over and over until you finally see the hidden picture, and then can’t unsee the hidden picture. Our analogies capture the cognitive ... (2/2) What is Reading?  A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids

For the Greeks Philosophy was interested in Being, which was the iceberg beneath the surface of the water when all you can see is the tip, or what is going on behind the scenes that makes the theater play on the stage possible and run smoothly. For example, we have grapeness before our mind’s eye ... What is Philosophy? A Joint Post on Secular Frontier and Secular Web Kids

The Posts: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 2 of 4 Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 3 of 4 Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 4 of 4 (Concluding This Mini-Series of Posts) The Death of ... Beyond the Facts: The DOET Series of Posts

Previously: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 2 of 4 Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 3 of 4 The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse Just DOET Thinking! Welcome to Secular Frontier! DOET (Do-It) ... Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 4 of 4 (Concluding This Mini-Series of Posts)

Previously: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 2 of 4 The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse Just DOET Thinking! Welcome to Secular Frontier! DOET (Do-It) Thinking Dedication Page for the Intellectually Impatient DOET PHILOSOPHY REVERSAL: I’m ... Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 3 of 4

Previously: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse Just DOET Thinking! Welcome to Secular Frontier! DOET (Do-It) Thinking Dedication Page for the Intellectually Impatient DOET PHILOSOPHY REVERSAL: I’m Not Trying to Prove my Philosophy with Math Appendix: Example of ... Blogging Through Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” Chapter 2 of 4

Previously: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse Just DOET Thinking! Welcome to Secular Frontier! DOET (Do-It) Thinking Dedication Page for the Intellectually Impatient DOET PHILOSOPHY REVERSAL: I’m Not Trying to Prove my Philosophy with Math Appendix: Example of ... Appendix 2/2: DOET Thinking and Remembering Being

Previously: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse Just DOET Thinking! Welcome to Secular Frontier! DOET (Do-It) Thinking Dedication Page for the Intellectually Impatient DOET PHILOSOPHY REVERSAL: I’m Not Trying to Prove my Philosophy with Math Celebrating 100 Years ... Appendix: Example of DOET Circular Questioning at the Grade 5 Level

Previously: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse Just DOET Thinking! Welcome to Secular Frontier! DOET (Do-It) Thinking Dedication Page for the Intellectually Impatient Celebrating 100 Years of Martin Heidegger’s “BEING AND TIME” (Dedicated to Edmund Husserl April 8, ... DOET PHILOSOPHY REVERSAL: I’m Not Trying to Prove my Philosophy with Math

Previously: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse Just DOET Thinking! Welcome to Secular Frontier! Celebrating 100 Years of Martin Heidegger’s “BEING AND TIME” (Dedicated to Edmund Husserl April 8, 1926) Celebrating New Teachers: Education and Metaphysics with Squaring ... DOET (Do-It) Thinking Dedication Page for the Intellectually Impatient

(Parmenides, wiki) **** This is dedicated to those current few who suspect there is more to thinking than just who is the greatest chess strategist or who can recall the most trivia facts the fastest on the gameshow Jeopardy or the board game Trivial Pursuit. In such a context people usually aspire to the intelligence ... Welcome to Secular Frontier!

Previous DOET Introductory Posts Series: Blog Series Commenting on Chapter 1 of Martin Heidegger’s “Introduction to Metaphysics” The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse Now, the Celebration: A DOET philosophy (pronounced “do-it” like Nike “Just Do It!”) or something like it did not just arrive ready made from heaven but is ... Just DOET Thinking!

Previously: What is the Difference between God (Infinite Mind) and Person (Finite Mind) in German Philosophical Thought? (2/2) What is the Difference between God (Infinite Mind) and Person (Finite Mind) in German Philosophical Thought? (Conclusion) What is the Difference between God (Infinite Mind) and Person (Finite Mind) in German Philosophical Thought? (Afterword) What is the ... The Death of the God of Leibniz: Deconstruction in a Nuthouse

To close, let’s think one more time of the right-angle triangle “as” it appears to (i) A mentally challenged person who does not encounter triangles as a distinct class of shapes, vs (ii) A child just learning her shapes, vs (iii) A teenager in geometry class learning the Pythagorean theorem, vs (iv) A geometry professor ... (Afterword) What is the Difference between God (Infinite Mind) and Person (Finite Mind) in German Philosophical Thought?

That our thinking proceeds from obscure to clear would be evidence for God for Leibniz, that beings are progressively more rational as our growing reason allows us to encounter them ever more clearly. We have hit on one of the most elegant, underlying moves in Leibniz’s entire metaphysics. For him, the very fact that our ... (Conclusion) What is the Difference between God (Infinite Mind) and Person (Finite Mind) in German Philosophical Thought?

What does Leibniz say about the mind of God? In the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the mind of God is the ultimate, necessary repository of all possibilities, mathematical structures, and eternal truths. Leibniz views God not merely as a creator who acts by whim, but as the supreme, infinite intelligence whose intellect operates with ... (2/2) What is the Difference between God (Infinite Mind) and Person (Finite Mind) in German Philosophical Thought?