DM> The Socratic- "knowledge is virtue", eludes me. I've read the supposed
 DM> extensions of this from Plato's "bringing the three part soul into
 DM> balance = virtuous contentment ....yet nevertheless feel it might take
 DM> another lifetime to fully digest (unless it turns out to be untrue or
 DM> simple and I've overcomplicated it).
 DM> As repeated from earlier postings, I *feel* more comfortable as per the
 DM> "greatest good for the greatest number". The Utilitarianism of the
 DM> modern English styles of philosophy seeming more to their point and
 DM> within reach of my own gentle (quantitative) hedonism (live and let live
 DM> with as much fun as can be contained within a life's passing). I do not
 DM> find any clues to life having any specific meanings beyond some vague of
 DM> Nature's agenda and/or our silly seeming "hard wired" obsession with an
 DM> own importance....! I do poke about to see where I might be wrong, but
 DM> none of the (importance) arguments stand very tall or attractive when
 DM> the lights are on!
   That's a big dose for me to deal with in a post, David but so far as I 
now
you are quite right about our being unable to pontificate that life or 
istory
has an eidos or meaning.   It surely is significant for us, however, to
understand the implications of that and eschew ideologies enforced by secular
or religious leaders upon populations of human beings.  Despite our inability
to know the totality of reality we are still faced with the task of providing
the best human order we can discover as against forces ALWAYS engaged in
efforts to prevent such by attempting to destroy the very necessary
foundations of such an order.  Those foundations are pretty well known.  
Come
let us reason together" isn't a bad statement of the need followed by the
necessity to study and to listen within the human family. It is quite easy to
lose even the foothold on order that we have by sheer neglect or by following
some individual or group with a certainty that it or they know ALL of the
answers.   
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
--- PPoint 2.05
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