Time Travel and Philosophy

If you could speak to a philosopher, any philosopher from the past, who would it be? I'm sitting out on my deck and just finished smoking a cigar. The mental juices are flowing and I've been thinking a lot today about the brilliant minds that have gone before us.

In an experiment of thought, I find myself pondering, if I could talk to anyone right now, right here on my deck, who would it be and what would they think of with regard to humanity today relative to humanity during their time.

Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Pascal?

That's it. That's all. I'm enjoying a little buzz from some whiskey, the weather is perfect and the birds are singing. And, I'm thinking.

Here's my list

• Marcus Aurelius
• Plato
• Jesus Christ
• Alexander the Great
• George Washington

I know, I know. Not all of them are technically philosophers. I changed the rules while I wrote the list. It's my post and I'll do what I want. ;)

I'm fairly confident that I'm the only person reading this in any event. 

Marcus Aurelius 

I would ask you, did it take you your entire life to learn and understand Stoicism and how do you actually employ it in your life? 

Were you naturally gifted in this regard, born as such, or was it nurture not nature that molded the man you became?

Plato

Did you have any idea that you would have such a profound impact on western philosophy? Even today, many think all works after you are but a foot note or otherwise a continuation of your work.

Jesus Christ

Who are you really? What about you is true and what was a fabrication after you passed? 

Alexander the Great

Why did you die when you did? If you had continued your campaign, let's say across northern Africa and up into Spain, would the history as we know it be fundamentally different?

If you lived and continued to act in your time, would the Romans have come into power such as they did? Would Jesus have been persecuted and crucified creating the martyr that has so greatly change the history of humankind?

George Washington

What do you think of the country now, that you fought so hard to form?

Has the current political regime ruined or otherwise corrupted and distorted the vision our founding fathers had for this country.

Impossibilities and Unlikelihoods

It's most likely impossible to get this chance, to be able to talk with anyone from the past. Who knows what things are actually possible, but I highly doubt it. 

How much of our current lives is some kind of cosmic randomness that people accept without thought and how much is true?

I wager that much of what people believe or want to believe is bullshit. In other words, it is untrue. That doesn't make it unhelpful, just founded on lies.

Some of the best most effective cures that exist are lies. They are placebos that allow the power of the mind to triumph. 

The power of the mind... Now that is the unexplored space. That is a journey worth taking. How do we consciously harness the power of the mind?

-Daft Sage