Professor Bonevac, I also wanted to ask you: can you recommend any philosophical writings by Plutarch? I like his historical texts, but I haven’t read his philosophical works.
Is the image of the young man that can be seen 6 minutes and 20 seconds into the video AI-generated? Is it patterned after a painting or something like that?
All the images I could find of Valla were from portraits done late in his life, when he was papal secretary. But he worked out his philosophical ideas in his twenties. So I wanted something that would show him at a younger age. Midjourney and Stable Diffusion did fairly well at that.
Is morality a concensus or an outlier? Is Valla's aim of love rational or irrational? I can see how "love" can be used to make someone suffer, but believe their suffering is holy. Should one fit in or follow their prodigal urge? Virtue is not acceptable as a means. Why? When fighting an evil, demon Virtue keeps you from being inveigled by the demon but it doesn't give you power over evil. Virtue can keep one away from trouble, but it can't conquer your troubles. For that one needs conviction. Is conviction the mean between two opposites? Every monster movie can tell you what conviction looks like.
