Comments by "ALLHEART" (@ALLHEART_) on "Popper, Soros and the Open Society" video.

  1. 35:24 It's not entirely accurate to say Plato wasn't very influential in the Middle Ages. 1) Plato was the teacher of Aristotle, and there is plenty of Plato in Aristotle (and in Thomas Aquinas, for that matter), 2) the Isogogue, a widely read introduction to Aristotle's categories at the time, was a commentary by Porphyry, a Neoplatonist from late antiquity (this also illustrates how Neoplatonist philosophers saw Plato and Aristotle as largely saying complementary things, rather than contrary things). This contributed to the people of the Middle Ages understanding Aristotle through a Neoplatonic lense/framework. 3) The lack of access to the complete works of Plato in the Middle Ages can only be really true of the Latin West. The Eastern Roman Empire continued to have full access to all of Plato (and Aristotle, and all the rest), in the original language, throughout the Middle Ages. 4) What little Plato the Latin West did have access to was highly influential throughout the period. 5) St. Dionysius the Areopagite was widely read in the Latin West and the Roman East, and his thought shares many commonalities with Neoplatonism. The Middle Ages were highly influenced by Plato.
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  2. 13:36 A lot of people have proposed that Plato's Republic and the totalitarianism/utopianism therein is actually not representative of Plato's actual beliefs and is in fact intended ironically by Plato. Given Plato's (or at least Platonism's) penchant for concealing the true meanings of works of literature, it isn't entirely beyond the pale that this might be the case. Worth looking into.
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  3.  @evelynwalton6674  lol
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  4.  @tjalferes  1) That's interesting. 2) Regardless, I think it is pretty clear modern scholarship has overemphasized the disagreements of the two, and ancient Neoplatonism seems to have clearly produced a sort of synthesis between them. 4) If you're unaware of the Platonic influence on the thought (or at least thought parallel to Plato; the Platonic and generally Hellenic influence on the thought of the Middle Ages can also be overemphasized and often is by antagonistic scholars as a means of attacking the sincerity and genuineness of the Middle Ages' Christianity) of the Middle Ages, there is much scholarship on the topic. I listened to a playlist of lectures a while ago on a different topic then this, but it ended up summarizing some of this research. 5) I'd be the first one to point out the differences between St. Dionysius and Plato in thought and to oppose the overemphasis of the influence the latter had on the prior. That's why I only said they have many commonalities. St. Dionysius is clearly a thoroughly Christian thinker, as certain more careful scholars have pointed out. God bless.
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  5. 1:10:27
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  6. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZoV1AMZzLaq2GU7j2vlLdg-Oihd4MTW
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