If you pick up the biography that the third-century Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry wrote about his teacher Plotinus, you may be struck by just how slight it is on actual facts and details. It’s less a biography and more a few personal notes.Porphyry explains that because Plotinus despised his own bodily existence–true to his philosophy–he was…
An insightful essay by Joe D. Burchfield entitled “The Age of the Earth and the Invention of Geological Time” [mfn]Burchfield, Joe D. “The Age of the Earth and the Invention of Geological Time.” Lyell: The Past is the Key to the Present (Geological Society, London, Special Publications) 143, no. 1 (1998): 137–43. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1998.143.01.12[/mfn] discusses the concepts…