shogol

Series · PHIL

Ancient Answers

The arguments that outlived their authors — Socratic refutation, Aristotle's causes, the Stoic recipe, and the questions still open twenty-four centuries later. Argument-first, with diagrams.

  • 18 parts
  • 116 min end to end
  • 11 sections
  • Latest Aug 26, 2026

Contents

  1. 01The Socratic MethodNot asking questions — a demolition procedure, and why Athens killed the man who ran it.Method · 6 min
  2. 02The Euthyphro DilemmaA fork with two painful horns that cuts any ethics grounded in authority — including the modern kind.Ethics · 6 min
  3. 03The Cave & the Divided LineEveryone quotes the cave. The line is the actual argument — four grades of knowing, and a gap nobody has closed.Knowledge · 7 min
  4. 04The Ship of TheseusReplace every plank and the puzzle dissolves — once you notice "same" is doing two different jobs.Identity · 6 min
  5. 05Aristotle's LogicThe one move that made two thousand years of logic possible: separating form from content.Logic · 7 min
  6. 06The Four Causes"Why?" has four answers. Science kept one and a half — and the rest never actually left.Metaphysics · 6 min
  7. 07Virtue & the Golden MeanThe mean is not the average, and that is exactly why it cannot be written down as a rule.Ethics · 6 min
  8. 08Phronesis: Practical WisdomKnowing what this situation calls for — the ancestor of every argument about what can't be proceduralized.Ethics · 6 min
  9. 09Eudaimonia Is Not HappinessA life assessable only as a whole, and possibly ruinable after your death. The opposite of a wellbeing metric.Ethics · 6 min
  10. 10What Modern Stoicism DeletesThe dichotomy of control rests on a rational, deterministic cosmos. Strip that out and you get productivity tips in a toga.Stoicism · 7 min
  11. 11Amor Fati & the View From AboveMarcus Aurelius' two exercises — and why they are training, not belief.Stoicism · 6 min
  12. 12Stoicism vs EpicureanismOne goal, two opposite routes — and a school whose name now means the reverse of what it taught.Stoicism · 6 min
  13. 13Skepticism & the RegressEvery justification needs a justification. The regress was never solved — only managed, three ways.Knowledge · 7 min
  14. 14Zeno's ParadoxesCalculus answered the arithmetic. Whether an infinity can be completed is still open.Paradox · 6 min
  15. 15What Is Justice?The Ring of Gyges and the veil of ignorance are the same move, made twenty-four centuries apart.Justice · 7 min
  16. 16Free Will & CompatibilismThe Stoics were determinists who held you responsible anyway. That is not a dodge.Free Will · 7 min
  17. 17The Chinese Room & the Hard ProblemTwo objections that get conflated: one about understanding, one about experience. The ancient question, asked of a machine.Mind · 7 min
  18. 18Mary's Room & the Knowledge ArgumentPhysical completeness is not knowledge-completeness. Jackson's thought experiment is a third cut, not a restatement of the hard problem.Mind · 7 min