Thursday's topic was Cicero, the Orator of the philosophy world. After we got each other up to date on our doings, we discussed his reformation of the Latin language through his writings alone, from a basic to descriptive language through his sheer writing alone, to his unethical decision which singlehandedly blocked a coup, to his focus on aging and its similar yet opposite stance in comparison to Epicurus and death, as well as him being written down by some of our founding fathers as an inspiration.
Overall, today was a pretty productive day! We learned a bit more about each other and our own philosophical views, on my part especially. I thought back to the time in class a few times over the weekend and it helped further structure my initially blurrier philosophical views.
On Tuesday, we'll be discussing Boethius, who was born over six-hundred years after Epicurus and Cicero. He was a politician, like Cicero, although Boethius was born into nobility. He worked with the Church, and his conciliatory efforts led to accusation and eventual execution. In addition, some of his works indicated a higher power above all man.
A trend I'm beginning to notice is that most of our philosophers are also mathematicians. I suppose they both require a lot of thinking, after all, and there were only so many thinkers! It's definitely something to discuss on tomorrow. Or, by the time I've finished writing this, today. Hope you all get the chance to read this before class!
Cheers,
Jonathan
Factual Question: What was the book Boethius wrote in prison?
ReplyDeleteDiscussion Question: Do you agree with Boethius way of thinking to make the best out of a situation? Or would you be more proactive to get out of your bad situation?