Four Causes

"Four Causes" | Login/Create an Account | 6

Threshold -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Nested Flat Thread Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First

The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

I read this yesterday Hugh but I didn’t comment at first. I thought I would wait to see what others thought of it. I have had several passes now and I can’t help but really enjoy the simplicity of the limerick style rhymes, but at the same time I became engulfed by the word play….Excellent

Re: Four Causes (Score: 1 ) by fogglethorpe on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 (09:18:35)

Wayne..thank you. The rhymes just came out this way, and I was concerned that it might be too sing-songy or similar to a limerick, especially given the subject matter. But it seems to work anyway.


| Parent


Re: Four Causes (Score: 1 ) by wordsmithwannabe on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 (01:07:33)

yes, it does remind me of a series of limericks, but not in a sing-songy way at all. i think the poem is very clean and concise in it's exploration of Aristotelian text.

of the Four Causes, my favorite is teleology, simply because it seems to cue the hottest debates in my Philosophy courses at university; connecting the dots from Aristotle to Saint Anselm to Bacon to Kant to Hegel can be rather tiresome but fascinating in the end.

i enjoyed this very much, H.


| Parent


Re: Four Causes (Score: 1 ) by fogglethorpe on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 (10:21:26)

Chris..thanks. Aristotle is one of my heroes. I like Anselm's use of metaphysical arguments for the existence of God. And Bacon's empiricism..both were groundbreaking, especially the latter. Kant is an enigma to me..I am on the fence about him. But I don't think any of them would have accomplished what they did without Aristotle's assertion that reality is objective.

That being said, my favorite cause is "material" because, if one can account for the existence of matter in the first place (i.e. a "causeless cause" or prime mover) the mystery of the universe is essentially solved.


| Parent

Inviting philosophy into poetry or, rather, making philosophy overt in poetry is a fresh approach. This poem's cleverness and witty wordplay invited several re-readings. The greatest voice in the line of theists discussed by you and your comment posters may be St. Augustine, and its latest great voice is a German thinker named Hans Kung. As to the issue of whether limerick form is appropriate for a weighty theological piece, I will quote another philosopher (Ludwig Wittenstein): "A great thesis may be written consisting entirely of jokes."

Re: Four Causes (Score: 1 ) by fogglethorpe on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 (11:33:30)

Thank you for your encouraging comment. I do not know of Hans Kung, but since you mentioned him I will look him up.

I'm glad you took the time. Be well.


| Parent