On Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 7:00:41 PM UTC-5, hvt...@xs4all.nl wrote:
> Op zondag 5 december 2021 om 00:52:32 UTC+1 schreef dan....@gmail.com:
> > On Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 6:44:56 PM UTC-5, hvt...@xs4all.nl wrote:
> > >
> > > Without Aristotle the scientist,
> > > our world would look different.
> > >
> > Do you seriously mean the laws
> > of physics and nature would be
> > different but for Aristotle?
>
> The world would "look" different, not
> "be" different. That would be too much
> praise.

"Looks" are in the eyes of the beholders.
Sorry to say I am not convinced by your
argument. And if I did, I would probably
be inclined to think Aristotle's influence
was mostly negative.

dk

On Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 12:44:56 AM UTC+1, hvt...@xs4all.nl wrote:
> Op zaterdag 4 december 2021 om 22:37:34 UTC+1 schreef Todd M. McComb:
> > In article <af372cae-51e7-481b...@googlegroups.com>,
> > HT <hvt...@xs4all.nl> wrote:
> > >Philosophy is far less important than philosophers believe it to
> > >be. Socrates' notion of a philosopher king, followed by Plato's
> > >ill-fated attempts in Syracuse to practice what he preached, says
> > >it all.
> > Philosophy *is* sophistry. But Plato was only "sort of" a philosopher.
> > Much of what he wrote were "reductio" arguments -- you're supposed
> > to find the results to be absurd. I'm remarking on this because
> > curiosity regarding what Wikipedia had to say about this Syracuse
> > incident led me to note their basic description of Plato as founder
> > Platonism, which I found to be funny not so much for its tautology
> > but for its falsity! Anyway, I'm sure that Plato would have been
> > much more agreeable to the tyrant of Syracuse had he actually
> > believed literally -- note thread Subject! -- what he wrote! (No
> > worries, though, because Aristotle believed what *he* had to say,
> > and it suited Alexander just fine....)
> In his "La Carte Postale", Derrida discusses a postcard depicting Plato writing. The angelic figure looking over his shoulder is Socrates. Who has which part to play, asks Derrida? With that proviso, I have no problem with "Platonism", as I have no problem with "Cartesianism".
>
> From his seventh letter, I gather that Plato sincerely believed in his theory of the state. After his experiences, according to some, he lost that belief.
>
> Aristotle was a scientist and systematic philosopher, with followers in both the Islamic and Christian worlds. Without Aristotle the scientist, our world would look different.
>
> Henk

The authenticity of 'Plato's' Letters has been subject to debate forever. In ancient times writing a letter in the supposed character of a king or a philosopher, or indeed Helena, was a hip thing to do.
Other than that Plato is very special since he is one of them few ancient writers whose work has been handed down to us complete and in very good shape, so we can see that his his thought is not entirely consistent. There is not one single theory of politics in Plato.
With Aristotle, the works we have are really a mess.