Letter to Aristotle

To
Agent Smith
C/O TPF
The Internet



Dear Mr Smith,

????' ????? ??????, ? ????.

Mr Aristoteles (???????????) has asked me to let you know how much he appreciated your well wishes and modest idea. As you may imagine, he receives many letters from admirers, cranks, poe-faced Scholastics, cardigan wearing academic bores, and dipsomaniacal metaphysicians every day of the year and can't possibly reply in person to all.

He wishes to let you know that in his latest discovery, the human brain is really just a ventilation system to help us to dispense with extra heat. Note, it's not the same with slaves, who are inferior beasts and women who are even more inferior and also have fewer teeth than men.

Ithi eutukh?s!

Paris Drakos
PA to ???????????

Quoting Agent Smith

Also, I met your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grand daughter in Osaka, Japan.

What?

Quoting javi2541997

What?

:rofl:

Reply to Tom Storm :rofl:

To,

Aristotle,
Head of the Lyceum.
Greece

Dear sir,

Gracias for the prompt reply. It's heartening to know even your PA', Mr. Paris Drakos', knowledge & wisdom are as extensive as the contents of his correspondence would indicate.

However, the letter doesn't critique the argument as such although I admit I did enjoy the rather colorful caricature of people it presents.

With the hope that you'll address my argument directly - I'm fairly certain it's flawed in some way - focusing on how and where it goes wrong, I respectfully end this message.

Yours faithfully,

:cool:
Agent Smith
TPF

Quoting Agent Smith

That means ?? time has elapsed and the now we find ourselves experiencing is the termination of this particular infinity

But Parmenides said: "Then the one always both is and becomes older and younger than itself?"

Aristotle was too busy looking at how creatures lived to get stuck in that bottle.

Reply to Paine The site you linked me to requires authorization which I don't know how to get. Can you provide more, a paragraph or two, for me to work on.

I know Aristotle was (also) a naturalist - an A1 polymath, that's what he was.

It is from the dialogue of Plato named Parmenides. Here is the bit about time:

Does the one also partake of time? And is it and does it become older and younger than itself and others, and again, neither younger nor older than itself and others, by virtue of participation in time?

How do you mean?
If one is, being must be predicated of it?
Yes.
But to be (einai) is only participation of being in present time, and to have been is the participation of being at a past time, and to be about to be is the participation of being at a future time?

Very true.
Then the one, since it partakes of being, partakes of time?
Certainly.
And is not time always moving forward?
Yes.
Then the one is always becoming older than itself, since it moves forward in time?

Certainly.
And do you remember that the older becomes older than that which becomes younger?

I remember.
Then since the one becomes older than itself, it becomes younger at the same time?

Certainly.
Thus, then, the one becomes older as well as younger than itself?
Yes.
And it is older (is it not?) when in becoming, it gets to the point of time. between "was" and "will be," which is "now": for surely in going from the past to the future, it cannot skip the present?

No.
And when it arrives at the present it stops from becoming older, and no longer becomes, but is older, for if it went on it would never be reached by the present, for it is the nature of that which goes on, to touch both the present and the future, letting go the present and seizing the future, while in process of becoming between them.

True.
But that which is becoming cannot skip the present; when it reaches the present it ceases to become, and is then whatever it may happen to be becoming.

Clearly.
And so the one, when in becoming older it reaches the present, ceases to become, and is then older.

Certainly.
And it is older than that than which it was becoming older, and it was becoming older than itself.

Yes.
And that which is older is older than that which is younger?
True.
Then the one is younger than itself, when in becoming older it reaches the present?

Certainly.
But the present is always present with the one during all its being; for whenever it is it is always now.

Certainly.
Then the one always both is and becomes older and younger than itself?

Truly.
And is it or does it become a longer time than itself or an equal time with itself?

An equal time.
But if it becomes or is for an equal time with itself, it is of the same age with itself?

Of course.
And that which is of the same age, is neither older nor younger?
No.
The one, then, becoming and being the same time with itself, neither is nor becomes older or younger than itself?

I should say not.
And what are its relations to other things? Is it or does it become older or younger than they?

I cannot tell you.

Quoting Tom Storm

human brain is really just a ventilation system

Not entirely impossible - the sulci and gyri (folds) of our brains do resemble radiator fins.

The Radiator fins are surfaces that extend from the radiator to increase the rate of heat transfer to or from the environment by increasing convection. They are the zig zag metal strips found between the radiator panels.

Reply to Paine Arguing like children and that speaks volumes. A is at time T1 and later at time T2. A's age changes but A = A. If A is older/younger than itself A must be at both times T1 and T2, but that's incorrect, A is at time T2 presently, A was at time T2. . We can say A is older now, at time T2, compared to A at time T1.