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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3428 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 8, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'm not sure I follow your point about Great Books like Aristotle. It's always seemed so obvious to me that these books are rather pointless except as a historical interest. The people who wrote them were so primitive by comparison, so limited in their empirical knowledge, so deprived of the progress in thought that we've made as a species, I can't fathom why someone would think that they have anything interesting to say on its own merits

This is hilariously myopic to me. The point is that there are fundamental axioms of our history and the ideas of our society that were built on Aristotle's points. Your pithy dismissal of 'historic interest' is doing a ton of work here. If you don't want to truly understand anything, then sure throw out all of history while 'learning.' But as @Fruck explained quite well, everything is contextual.

On top of that, modern knowledge is far overrated. The thing the ancients knew much better than we know is people. How we operated, what made us tick, how to live a good life. The question is barely even asked in modern times, because of the massive hubris and casual disdain you express here.

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