I want to share with everyone this fun and informative powerpoint presentation that I ran across recently.

I don't know who created it, but I imagine that the lecture that probably accompanied this was similarly engaging.

Some things I like about it is that it spells out the different branches of philosophy, and it also brings up the importance of the dialectic in philosophy. Dialectic, debate, dialogue, [insert other D-word here] is something very useful in philosophy and will come up again, I'm sure. :)

What I don't agree with in this lecture is the portrayal of Chaos towards the end (or as it looks in ancient Greek, Xaos). To the modern mind, those might be fitting images of chaos in the modern sense, but to the ancient Greeks, Xaos was simply a void, or a gap. It was a space of potentiality where nothing existed and nothing had occurred... YET. Xaos was the first primordial Divinity, the "Prime Mover", in Hesiod's creation myth. This void of pure space held infinite possibility for the future, and is regarded as such even today by some modern Chaotes.

The slides in the presentation depicting "Xaos" might have been better attributed to "Enyo", the city-sacking Goddess of war and female counterpart of Ares Enyalios. Destructive Perses might also fit the bill.

What helpful, provoking, interesting, or even maddening things stood out for you in the powerpoint?

Coming soon: a philosophical riddle.......