Athens Corner

This is the opening hour and a half of the sequel to my recording "Thucydides, Plutarch, Nietzsche" for my Technology and Nihilism series.  Subscribers will have access to the full 4 hour recording soon.Here I discuss the significance of Thucydides's turn to speeches after the "archaeology."  In this recording I discuss Thucydides as the alternative to the Platonic and Aristotelian tradition, and how it is that Nietzsche sees in Thucydides the standard which we are to look towards going forward.Among other things, what is at issue is the status of the divine in the life of man, particularly with respect to what we mean by "history" and how, if at all, we even have access to "history."I include numerous and meticulous juxtapositions of Thucydides with Plato (particularly the dialogues of the Gorgias, the Republic, and the Laws) and Aristotle (particularly the Nicomachean Ethics, the Politics, and the Physics). I also draw upon specific examples from Montesquieu, Hegel, Nietzsche, William Butler Yeats, and Heidegger to connect everything that comes tumbling out from a very subtle and detailed reading of Thucydides and a representative sampling of the entirety of the great books of our Western tradition to emphasize the living relevance of them all for us todaySupport the show

This is an X/Twitter space where I discuss Plutarch and his relevance for us today, particularly as Americans on the 4th of JulyThemes of the discussion:— Plutarch and the American Founding— Plutarch on “history” in relation to greatness, the beautiful, the heroic, the sacredI took 3 different approaches:1) Explaining why Plutarch is relevant for us via the tradition from Machiavelli to the Federalists and AntiFederalist (with hints at the much early sources than Machiavelli)2) What even is “history”?3) Simply opening Plutarch and readingSupport the show

This is my entire discussion of the opening to Thucydides's Peloponnesian War for the Technology & Nihilism series on my website (AthensCorner.com).  In this recording I read in its entirety, and discuss in very meticulous detail, the first twenty-two paragraphs of Thucydides's Peloponnesian War (commonly referred to as "the Archaeology" of the text).  At issue is just how much we as default postmoderns still have so very much to learn from what Thucydides has to teach us, particularly regarding his thematic treatment of what we think of today as technology and, just as importantly, how technology relates to and defines man in political community.  In presenting this teaching, I go into great detail about the following, along with quite a bit more (!!!):1.) The relationship between Thucydides, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, which itself unfolds into a discussion of the relationship between Thucydides and Homer, Thucydides and Plato and Aristotle, and Thucydides and Plutarch. 2.) The difference between Thucydides's understanding of history, our own current understanding of scientific history, so-called philosophies of history, and how what we refer to as technology is definitive of the difference between Thucydides and our postmodern understandings of each of those latter two conceptions.3.) The meaning and the significance of greatness and Greekness for Thucydides, and how it is to be understood in distinction from barbarism.4.) The meaning and significance of the achievement of Athens in relationship to the rest of Greece and especially Sparta for Thucydides.5.) The relationship between custom or law ("nomos") and nature ("phusis") in the meaning of the Greek accomplishment for Thucydides as it unfolds into the relationship between images and mind for the Greeks as seen in, for instance, the art of the Parthenon Frieze. Support the show

If you're enjoying the recordings I've been providing here and you're curious about my larger project with AthensCorner.com and my own story, then I think you'll find this brief discussion interesting and hopefully as enjoyable as the others. Support the show