What’s new? In praise of hepcats. (Euthyphro)

Last updated on: September 2, 2020 at 8:00 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

When I ask my wife what’s new, she generally responds: “What’s new pussycat?” Tom Jones, the singer or the novel, she says are both hot and cool. Plato’s Euthyphro? Her reaction is different: informed but substantially less passionate. Why? The Platonic dialogue recognizes that truth cannot be both hot and cool, that being a contradiction*. In fact, the dialogue insists on being merely immortal: the book of the hepcat. The opening question is: What’s new, Socrates, to make you leave your... Read more

2020 is OVER! Happy New Year!

Last updated on: September 1, 2020 at 9:43 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

2020 has not been my favorite year. Can I have an “Amen”? What if 2020 has ended and we can enter a new year leaving behind the past? If you are a philhellene*, and anyone appreciating university, philosophy, and science, should be a philhellene, then this is the New Year. Lovers of wisdom can proclaim 2020** over. How? This is the Orthodox New Year and that finds roots in the splendor of a classical, Christian civilization.*** Rome did not “fall”... Read more

The Sad Case of a Dated Education? (A Debate)

Last updated on: August 30, 2020 at 11:32 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Dr. Holloway is a working engineer and not a professor, though he admits to professing things. He criticized a certain style of argument which caused another friend, Jeff Williams to worry he was being attacked. Mr. Jeff Williams, sometime UC Chicago grad, with an education from a better era, was concerned and so responded. Williams has a style that is fortunately inimitable and unfortunately jejune. Holloway is a happy soul who enjoys the fray and so was glad to respond to... Read more

An Impulse Totally Wrong: A Danger of Reading Old Books

Last updated on: September 1, 2020 at 1:05 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Reading old books can be good, just as reading more contemporary books is necessary. The old checks the new, the new illuminates errors in the old. A dialogue in our reading is necessary! As a defender of reading ancient books (do) I would not wish to be misunderstood: we must read contemporary books. My assumption is that we are immersed in this present age, but that immersion may not open us to diverse voices. Read broadly, especially in scholars or people... Read more

On Shakespeare (A Response from a Critic)

Last updated on: August 30, 2020 at 11:50 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Before the pandemic, Jeff Williams sent me a criticism of my views of Shakespeare. I took a break from “back and forth” contention for a period of time, but now seems a good moment to let Mr. Williams have his say. My views on the poet and playwright are summarized here. Why doesn’t Williams persuade me? Check any of his claims. They all depend on a series of assertions many of them dubious or wrong. When he cannot even get... Read more

A Critic Responds to His Critic

Last updated on: August 30, 2020 at 7:43 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Jeff Williams has presented his ideas frequently here and one professor, Dr. Eric Holloway, took on his approach to ideas. Mr. Williams responded, a response sadly delayed by my decision to focus on the positive during the early stages of the pandemic. To be fair to him, I present his response to his critic (unedited) here: A Response to a Very Sincere Critic Theists find it increasingly difficult to justify their faith as human knowledge advances, and with that become... Read more

Internet Atheists, the last true Victorians

Last updated on: August 27, 2020 at 9:44 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

An idea is not false because the idea is old. Think of Socrates and his Method. An idea is not impotent because the idea is old. Think of Jesus and the Gold Rule. An idea is not true because it is hallowed by age. Ask the Victorians about colonialism. The English Victorians did much good, but English colonialism did great evil. The novels, architecture, music of the Victorian era often is magnificent, even if most artifacts, as is true of... Read more

Mind Churn

Last updated on: August 28, 2020 at 6:50 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Then beside their ships the other nobles of the grand Achaean army slept the whole night long, overcome by sinking sleep; but sweet sleep did not hold Agamemnon son of Atreus, shepherd of the people, as he churned in his mind many things. A pandemic. This week maybe there was going to be a hurricane. Classes to teach, a book to write, a novel to finish, and most important family to love and nourish. My mind churns. My usual method... Read more

Proper Weirdness!

Last updated on: August 27, 2020 at 9:27 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Weirdness can be the sign of eccentric genius or it can be harmless madness. The eccentric down the street may be Tesla, but most often is merely a monomaniac obsessed with a theory only notable by the odd ways it proves to be false. Do not aspire to weirdness, but if seeking the truth and the label comes from the conventional intellectual, proudly accept “weird.” Pause, though, and think about whether you are pursuing truth or merely looking for a quirky... Read more

God Is Not A Big Us and Other Mistakes Lots of Us Make

Last updated on: August 24, 2020 at 7:44 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

We worship God, not a giant “us.” God is not made in our image. He cannot be. If such a being exists, then God does not need us. He might choose to create humankind or not. God is, in God’s essence, totally different from humanity. This matters greatly, since it is deadly error to think God is actually some bigger, faster, stronger version of us. Some of us might picture God as a big, bearded man (perhaps our race) sitting on a... Read more