Hello!
I have been reading a lot on the history of Greek philosophy. I have become very interested in this topic due to some existential angst I've been having. Personally, I have found studying the ideas of these thinkers have given me some perspective as well as providing my pursuits with a purpose. That purpose being fulfillment.
I find that having a goal in life is the most important step a person can take against depression. Depression is a complex state that has no single cause or cure. What I can say is that a crucial part of overcoming hopelessness and self-hatred is experimentation.
Experiment with your worldviews. My last post was (in retrospect) very similar to the philosophy of Parmenides, and I would not have known this unless I was open-minded enough to read about Parmenides. I would not have conceptualized those ideas unless I let go of my nihilistic roots. Moreover, I would have never come across nihilism without first relinquishing my religious upbringing.
As you can see, more knowledge does not bring wisdom. Wisdom comes when a multitude of personality traits unite in a person. These being openness, studiousness, conscientiousness, and pragmatism. And then comes the phase of relinquishing these traits and entering a voluntary state of close-mindedness. We must examine the arguments of our interlocutors first-hand. After we understand the position as if we believed it, we return to our previous perspective and look upon the situation as a whole.
Such is the holistic nature of philosophy.
More soon! Follow me if you would like to see posts about the pre-Socratics!
Hi @shinday. I'm a philosophy fan myself. so I'll be curious to see what you bring. Funny enough, I'm working on a graphic novel about Socrates, his trial and execution, and how that affected the young Plato. I'm at the very start of things, but I'll be sharing my progress here. Give me a follow if that sounds like it could be to your interest!
That's a very creative idea, and I'd be interested in seeing how it comes along. I was planning on reading Plato's Apology but instead decided to start with the pre-Socratics and Milesians. It can be quite hard to fully digest the dense works on the philosophers, so there is undoubtedly a demand for lighter descriptions of their ideas and lives.
I'm rather surprised that it hasn't been done yet. There was an Italian (I think) movie in the 60s, but it's very hard to find. I've never seen it. (And from what I've heard they directly did the Platonic dialogs; mine will be a combination of several historical sources, as well as my own fictional narrative details.)
The Pre-Socratics are very interesting, but there's often only a very little amount of surviving sources to tease out their thought and worldview. One of the most fascinating things from that era for is Thucydides' Peloponnesian War. Anyway, have fun as you dig into the Greeks!
@shinday you were flagged by a worthless gang of trolls, so, I gave you an upvote to counteract it! Enjoy!!