Description
This lecture explores several views on what astrology is, what the universe could be like, and freedom of the will and determinism. Benjamin Dykes discusses the difference between metaphysics and epistemology, astrology as a technology of knowledge and whether astrology itself can tell us what astrology is, the views of Ptolemy on astrology, the metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle, and a signification theory of the Stoics. Some problems with Ptolemy’s astrology are discussed as well as astrology’s advantage in being able to interpret Fortune. Dykes then addresses what “free will” originally meant, and poses some problems that suggests freedom of the will (in this original sense) is not as moral or praiseworthy as we might think. The lecture concludes with suggestions for how we might embrace an astrological view of a “determinism of types” (developed in his Traditional Astrology for Today, choice rather than free will, and a tiered metaphysics. Length 1:21:00, 37MB.
