The first known occurrence of the lexeme "postmodern" is in a fifth-century letter by an African pope, Gelasius I: "... post modernum, quod tantorum pontificum collectione ..." - J. Moorhead, “The Word modernus”, Latomus 65, 2 (2006), 425–33, here 426
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“A commerce of light”
A book I wish I had on hand during lock-down is Leibniz and China, A Commerce of Light (Cambridge, 2004).
Three indescribable things
Three indescribable things - black-green pine, foam-white cloud, cobalt sky - have never been more beautiful..... The sky over French Hill, Jerusalem, 19 April 2020
“I am changed by philosophers into all the beasts …”
"The philosophers differ about the soul ... At one time I am immortal and rejoice; at another time again I become mortal and weep. Now I am dissolved into atoms: I become water, and I become air: I become fire, and then after a little, neither air, nor fire: the philosopher makes me a beast,… Continue reading “I am changed by philosophers into all the beasts …”
“In next week’s TLS”
3 April 2020
Bukowski & Bukowski on reincarnation
I'm reading Bukowski today - not Charles, like back in the day, but Louis Bukowski, "La réincarnation selon les Pères de l'Eglise", Gregorianum 9 (1928). Here's the younger Bukowski on reincarnation: "I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next… Continue reading Bukowski & Bukowski on reincarnation
“The answer to so many of our questions”
Terribly funny. Rereading Martin Amis's late-modernist "revenge comedy" - The Information. "The information is nothing. Nothing: the answer to so many of our questions."
“I trust Julian the Apostate”
There is a huge, complicated literature on the question of whether Constantine I 'converted' to the Christian faith. Sometimes the simplest argument is the best. Joseph Vogt of Tübingen says in the 1960s: “I prefer to trust Julian the Apostate’s bitter reproach to his uncle of having deserted the sun god, Helios.” That's one line… Continue reading “I trust Julian the Apostate”
“The highest reward”
"The highest reward, for the souls of great philosophers, is to migrate into the bees and nightingales; they who have nourished the human race on their words, then charm it with the sweetness of their honey or the beauty of their song." - Ambrose of Milan, De bono mortis X 45 Cit. P. Courcelle,… Continue reading “The highest reward”
David Mirhady on Platonic Legislations (2017)
David Mirhady reviews my book Platonic Legislations (2017) in Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought (2019). Mirhady begins: "This short book turns to the writings of Plato to meditate on issues of legal change (‘the flux of law’) in the post-Soviet era. It does not assume previous knowledge of Plato’s thought. It may then be best… Continue reading David Mirhady on Platonic Legislations (2017)
D. L. Dusenbury 