[ExI] Is anyone an expert on Aristotle and Life?

[Stefano Vaj]

On 30 December 2011 10:10, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't think you can force an ancient philosopher like Aristotle into
> the transhumanist frame. He didn't know about evolution, for example.
>

Sure. And pagan philosophers had all kind of wrong ideas about natural
facts, such as the approximate distance between the earth and the sun,
something which for that matter identically affected or XIX century
scientists.

Moreover, no matter how little one can be sympathetic with the
judaeo-christian tradition and how much one would like to overcome its
legacy, this tradition is now and will forever be a part of our history,
opening new questions, changing our perspectives, etc.

At the same time, however, the memory of our pre-christian past remains
exemplary of how one could, and can, well think out of that particular box
and how a consistent worldview could. and can, be established that was not
based on escapist fantasies or contempt of reality, but on the joyous
acceptance of all that.

So, if religious and secular humanists have made a large use throughout
history of Aristotles or Plato by reinterpreting and exploiting in the
light of their values whatever could be still of interest, at least in
archetipical terms, in their works, I think it is equally legitimate for
posthumanists to do just the same. Even though I expect the latter to be
more aware of what is philologically, and what is only "inspirationally",
plausible.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20111230/d57f704f/attachment.html>