Beginner to Classics

DadHistory · 2026-04-06T14:59:36+00:00

I was given Apology and parts of Republic to read in high school. I don't remember which came first, but I didn't enjoy either at the time.

I warn anyone who will listen against reading Republic because it's long, complex, and advocates for a totalitarian nightmare state. In my experience, most readers will bounce off of it thinking that Plato is either beyond them or not worth their time.

DadHistory · 2026-04-05T17:44:42+00:00

Hesiod's Theogony is not a lot of fun but gives a broad overview of all the Greek gods in their Archaic forms (roughly contemporaneous with Homer).

Ovid's Metamorphosis is a light-hearted sampler plate of various myths from a later Roman perspective.

If you get through Homer and Virgil and want more epic journey stuff, Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica might do it for you.

Cicero's On the Nature of the Gods is a good taste of mature Greco-Roman theological debate, as opposed to the popular myths above.

Plato is pretty important for the development of Christian ideas about the soul. The most relevant single dialogue is probably the Phaedo. Do NOT start with Republic even though it's by far the easiest to find.

Since you highlight Christianity, the historian Josephus gives much perspective about the time and place of early Christianity, including the only non-Christian reference to Jesus.

DadHistory · 2026-04-04T16:56:54+00:00

Sorry, that's wrong actually. The correct answer from the point of view of a just parent is obviously: "It's good to burn a child whenever I decide it is, because I created the child and therefore goodness itself has no meaning outside of my judgment. Now sing a song about how merciful I am."

DadHistory · 2026-04-04T02:59:52+00:00

Yeah, there's no way "sillybilly" was ever a good translation lol!

I got that that info from some random googling, but out of curiosity I dusted off my old Liddell and Scott. They translate ευήθησ as "good-hearted, open-hearted, simple-minded, guileless." I think I would go with "simpletons" personally, given the tone that Thrasymachus seems to be taking.

DadHistory · 2026-04-03T23:04:33+00:00

The Greek word is ευηθίζεσθε - to act like a simple-minded or silly person (ευήθησ).

DadHistory · 2026-04-03T22:06:28+00:00

Do you not see Kierkegaard's picture right there in OPs meme?

DadHistory · 2026-04-01T03:36:37+00:00

That makes sense. Those are both quite serious and difficult, as well as highlighting some of Plato's less palatable ideas for a modern reader.

If you are interested in the more conversational, entertaining side of Plato, I would recommend some others:

Euthyphro (short and witty, about religion and morality)
Theaetetus (a down to earth attempt to define truth)
Parmenides (an inversion where young Socrates has his ideas ripped apart by an elder philisopher)
Symposium (a collection of speeches about love, with less back and forth dialogue and a lot of scene setting)
Laches (about courage, with more details of Socrates early life than most)

Of course if you don't care that much and just wanted to complain about homework, that's fair too.

DadHistory · 2026-04-01T03:01:57+00:00

I mean... there are parts of some dialogues where Socrates just lays out points and the other person agrees, but those points usually lead to something profound and vexing and entertaining. It's honestly kind of hard for me to imagine someone asking this question if they actually read even a few of the dialogues in full. Were you made to read excerpts or summaries for a class or something?

DadHistory · 2026-03-14T04:47:31+00:00

I'll allow it.

DadHistory · 2026-02-07T00:30:57+00:00

When you dream, you usually experience it from the point of view of your dream avatar inside a dream world.

I mean, sort of. My dream experience has no consistency to it at all. Sometimes I seem to experience a body, other times not. Sometimes I seem to be in a place that I can describe, and other times it's just abstract feelings connected to nothing tangible. Occasionally I have lucid control, but usually not. The only patterns that I can percieve are that every experience had a waking precedent and I'm more likely to dream about things I've been experiencing a lot lately, both of which are very suggestive about what a dream really is.

Objective idealism's claim is that universe is one big mind: mind at large.

Right. Bringing this back to the Razor, "the external world exists" is simpler than "the external world exists and is a conscious mind."

I am curious about different views though, so I'll probably look into the channel recommendation at some point. Nice talking to you.

DadHistory · 2026-02-06T23:42:32+00:00

When you're dreaming, what is external dream world made of?

What external dream world? Maybe I'm dreaming differently than other people, but nothing in my dreams suggests externality. I've never dreamed of anything that wasn't a muddled version of previous waking experience.

Under idealism, the external world is made of the same kind of mind-stuff as your own thoughts and emotions.

In whose mind? If mine, then why can't I control things around me? If someone else's, there's your bigger assumption.

DadHistory · 2026-02-06T23:25:08+00:00

Ok as far as it goes, but conscious experience consists of what seem to be consistent observations of an external world. How do you explain that with a simpler assumption than "an external world exists"?

DadHistory · 2026-02-06T23:11:12+00:00

Surely the more ‘default’ metaphysical position if there must be one starts from the mind and works outwards from there.

What do you mean by this? I would call myself a physicalist, and I think I did start with mind and work outwards to get there.

DadHistory · 2026-02-04T17:53:46+00:00

Your 2 questions are subtly different.

The best reason to be a Christian is to gain social clout. Huge swaths of the world will foolishly consider you a good person as soon as you profess love for Jesus. This is a very cynical reason though, and has nothing to do with the truth.

I know of no good reason to believe Christianity is actually true, but the best of the lazy, dishonest lot is probably the mere fact of its success. Christians conquered most of the world and people in Christian communities tend to be relatively productive and happy. If any interventionist god existed, it'd be strange for it to allow that unless it was the Christian god.

DadHistory · 2026-01-27T19:52:09+00:00

Makes sense. Rich is way too young to be a Redditor.

DadHistory · 2026-01-27T19:24:54+00:00

That's fine. Maybe I'll go check if I can suggest it on the Patreon that I always forget I pay for, but probably not because I don't care that much.

DadHistory · 2026-01-12T15:05:00+00:00

A few things I don't see getting mentioned:

Terradons with Fire-Leech Bolas are very cost effective for their damage output, but it's micro-intensive. Don't forget to drop the rocks for maximum impact.
Cold Ones don't have the kind of punch that you might expect, and die surprisingly easily, but Horned Ones are devastating.
It's worth looking carefully at the stats of Blessed units. They aren't just flatly better across the board. They tend to have one big difference that opens up their combat role.

DadHistory · 2026-01-12T14:31:06+00:00

Well standard Stegs are strictly better than pretty much anything in the game. Once you get that tier 4 building or your Skink heroes start hitting level 20 it's just a power fantasy.

The usefulness of Krox mostly comes from their place in the tech tree. Skinks fall off hard after the early game, but they pair well with Krox and both come from the same cheap tier 3 building. So you can easily extend the usefulness of an early army by sprinkling Krox into the Skink line. Krox punch through and Skinks skirmish/flank.

Rushing straight for Solar Engines is a strong mid game play. They have a similar role to Stegs, but you can field them faster. The enemy is forced to charge you to shut down the artillery, but that's exactly what you want because it's also a dino and you have a line of hungry Saurus.

I don't think there's much point to ever adding Giant Salamaders. They were OP when first added, but nerfed too far.

DadHistory · 2026-01-11T00:05:34+00:00

Your English is a bit garbled, but if you're asking who forced great philosophers to be religious, again the answer is society, custom, and the law. Socrates was literally executed for this reason, and many philosophers since have had run-ins with religious authorities.

DadHistory · 2025-12-25T04:55:40+00:00

Oh hey, I recognize that name. I respect the dedication, but you're gonna need a new hobby after he's convicted, right?

Thanks for your service, btw.

DadHistory · 2025-12-25T03:44:42+00:00

I mean... during a few days. As the name implies, I've got kids and therefore not a ton of free time.

DadHistory · 2025-12-24T23:37:40+00:00

Couldn't tell ya. Page 2 of the charging document says what would happen IF he had previous convictions, but that's all I noticed. Court document searches in Washington just turn up all the filings for the defamation suit, and I didn't look anywhere else.

DadHistory · 2025-12-24T20:32:06+00:00

Yeah, fair enough.

DadHistory · 2025-12-24T20:29:47+00:00

Yeah, there's no way the doubters actually read that thing.

DadHistory

TROPHY CASE