Dian asked:

What if someone falls for her mentor? Could Platonic eros be "true" love? What do the "roots" of
Empedocles, the Platonic fluids and the Wiccan elements have in common? why is Plotinus
described as the last great pagan philosopher? Generally, how is Ancient Greek philosophy related to
magick?

What are the principles of religious atheism? If one is too respectful of the world to be an atheist but
also too faithless to be a theist or a pantheist, where does one stand?

Are emotions "real"? I'm using myself; meaning that I choose to become depressed and I end up
crying, I then command myself to feel enthusiastic or irritated and it happens until I get bored enough
to give a new order. Where is my consciousness when I do this? Who is commanding and who's
obeying? I can't feel unless I choose to. So is our world an acting stage? Who are we behind the
masks we choose to wear? Is there a face at all behind these masks or are we just a big nothing?

Is the soul a part of our brain? Wouldn't that mean when our brain stops functioning,the soul gets
lost? Then what in case of severe brain damage?

Why can't I stop the flow of thoughts until I drop from tiredness? Could you quit philosophy? It seems,
one can't claim he likes philosophizing; maybe there's something seriously wrong with his mind and
he can't do otherwise! Do we find it great because we can't help it?

============

You should never fall for your mentor. It's always a mistake. The other way round, though, is quite
acceptable. Socrates was a better teacher for having fallen for Alcibiades. When you love someone,
you have all the more reason to nurture and care for their soul. But Alcibiades was a worse pupil for
having fallen for Socrates, as his subsequent behaviour seems to have borne out. — For those who
are wondering what I'm talking about, it's all in Plato's dialogue Symposium.

What are the principles of religious atheism? There are various positions you can try to defend. You
can say that what you mean by 'God' is simply The Good.In other words, you believe, without being
able to offer any further justification for that belief, that there is an objective difference between 'right'
and 'wrong'. Not everyone has sufficient faithfor that. (For some, doing the right thing is simply the
easiest option, it gets us into the least trouble in the long run.) Or you can say that you have a sense
of aweat the existence of the world. You experience something that might be called the religious
attitudein the absence of any religious belief. Not every would understand what you were talking
about. There is a third option:

Respect for other persons is the recognition of their essential otherness, the fact that they occupy a
standpoint that I can never attain, a standpoint that gives them the authority to evaluate my
judgements. In this sense, all other persons are equal in my eyes, and may indeed be thought of as
ultimately one: the Other. If I permit myself to harm this person, say, the leering tramp waving his
angry fist at me, if I fail to respect his otherness, then I have in effect committed a crime against the
Other as such, a crime against 'the Deity'. We have argued that it is only through my recognition of
the Other that there comes to be an objective world for me. In that metaphorical or mythical sense,
therefore, that philosophy vindicates the religious view of the world and all the things in it as 'God's
creation'.

Pathways Program B. Searching for the Soul Unit 15.

The difficult part is knowing what you have to do.I mean, it is hard enough deciding what is best for
our own selves. If a junkie asks me for money, which I know is going to be used on drugs, do I give
them what they want, or refuse, and give them my packed lunch instead? Which is the moral thing to
do? Which is more respectful of their 'otherness'?

I'll skip the other questions this time, if you don't mind!

Geoffrey Klempner