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Like in all world conquering movements in history, the Islamic followers of Mohammed developed, from the 8^th century to the 13^th century, two tendencies that had two opposite effects on the world as a whole, one was an all-exclusive imperial tendency to impose their beliefs on the world, and the other was an all-inclusive movement of collaboration among different religions and peoples for the purpose of creating a universal dialogue of civilizations.

AL-MASUDI’S UNIVERSAL HISTORY: A DIALOGUE OF CIVILIZATIONS

As I reported in Part I of this report, since the primary function of Plato’s Phaedrus is to solve the paradox of the unity of opposites in opportune time (kairios), Part II demonstrates how the epistemological pathway of truth (aletheia) that Plato constructed for that purpose inevitably requires the development of the beautiful soul.

THE PERFORMATIVE TIMELINESS OF PLATO’S PHAEDRUS PART II

We have entered into a period similar to the end of the Middle Ages in which the European population had gone into an uncontrolled frenzy over death because of the total insecurity of the world caused by oligarchism. In the past, people who indulged in such a cult of death did it because they were uncertain about their immortality.

The cult of death dominated all and everything because people were afraid of the future. This was a period of madness because people were afraid to change. So, the new trend was to celebrate madness and dying.

No thank you, that’s not for me; I am not going to dance on your graves. I invite you to a Renaissance because I prefer to sing and dance to your future.

The Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut, from the Liber chronicarum by Hartmann Schedel.

How do you deal with a world that is both Divine and Satanic, hopeful and degenerate, truthful and lying at the same time? This is the question that Socrates grappled with in Plato’s Phaedrus dialogue.

The answer that Plato gave has generally been misunderstood, because most historians thought this was a rhetorical question. This report is an attempt to correct that mistake and show that the issue is an axiomatic matter of solving the paradox of the unity of the opposites in time.

THE PERFORMATIVE TIMELINESS OF PLATO’S PHAEDRUS PART I

Click this link to view and/or download pamphlet