Kali Tribune

Tagged: Plotinus

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Essay / Knowledge

The Word of Old: Tradition, Revelation and the Impossibility of Revolution (pt. 2)

We present second part in the series on relationship of Christianity and high culture of antiquity, summarized in the notion of the palaios logos. Here, by interpreting one remarkable passage from Origen's classical apologetic work Contra Celsum, we draw some distinctions in understanding of time, knowledge of future, human conscience and the relationship of God to man that are unique for Christianity. Our inquiry leads us before the specific problem - a pitfall most characteristic of our own age: human urge to posses the knowledge of the future, which will be treated in detail in the third part of the series. 

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Knowledge / Podcast

Basic Notions of Metaphysics: A Given

It may seem odd to pick out "a given" as one of the basic notions of metaphysics. However, as soon as one recalls terms like "sense data", "object" being "given" to subject, etc. the question arises: who does the giving?

In this podcast we'll talk about the origin of the term "given" in the metaphysics of creation and its modern inversion, i.e. its detachment from the said origin, above all exemplified in the works of Immanuel Kant and Martin Heidegger.

Also we touch upon childishness of "new atheism", the nature of thr relationship of ancient philosophy and Christianity, ending the podcast with lively description of the beautiful blue and white vistas of KT's Paypal account.

2

Essay / Knowledge

The Word of Old: Tradition, Revelation and the Impossibility of Revolution (pt. 1)

It is said that "Christianity is against human nature". Well, if you think that unspoken reason for saying this was originally: "because it prevents people of wanting to conquer and shag each other, thus at the same time deadening their more creative impulses", you would be quite wrong. The original intellectual objections to Christianity came from people who denounced Christians for rejecting the palaios logos - "the word of old" - that is, ancient metaphysical tradition and civilization built around it, and thus ushering a sort of, what we would now call, a revolutionary new beginning. In this series of essays we'll attempt to indicate not only how and why this was a fundamental misunderstanding, but how Christians who in turn unequivocally rejected the proverbial "Athens" for the sake of absolute - in fact: isolated - "Jerusalem" committed quite a congenial mistake.

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Knowledge / Podcast

Deprivation and Depravity: The Difference Between Traditional and Modern Notions of Evil

In this podcast we inspect the differences between traditional and modern understanding of evil as metaphysical notion; we point out the  crucial difference in mentality displayed by this differentiation - the one considering man's place in the world.

It is customarily to take the traditional notion of Evil as corruption of Good, as naive, not realistic enough or plain childish.

We argue that this belief is a tell tale sign of modernity coming to blows with its historical ancestry, because this idea dawns only when attempt is being made to understand evil as a real, positive, principle, i.e. in itself, as opposed to trying to understand it on the basis of the reality of Good, whose privation it in fact is.

Through some examples, a bit of analysis and even an anecdote or two, we point out how dangerous, vain and wrong headed this belief is.

2

Knowledge

Beyond the Horizon: Plotinus on Eternity and Time

Kali Tribune's Department for Philosophy in conjunction with Laboratory of Broken Mics and Fractured English proudly presents an interpretative reading of Ennead III, 7. "On Eternity and Time" by Plotinus. The purpose of our inquiry is to demonstrate a peculiarities of the method of what we call "traditional metaphysics".