Letters to the Editor
Jkalos
Published Letters: 486 Editor's Choice: 3
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Yeah, WT
[Read the article: The ongoing exclusion of war opponents from the Iraq debate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"This, of course, is going on right here, right now. It's not an academic discussion at all, despite fortuitous appearances to the contrary."
"And here, my dear Glaucon, is the supreme peril of our human state; and therefore the utmost care should be taken. Let each one of us leave every other kind of knowledge and seek and follow one thing only, if peradventure he may be able to learn and may find some one who will make him able to learn and discern between good and evil, and so to choose always and everywhere the better life as he has opportunity.
He should consider the bearing of all these things which have been mentioned severally and collectively upon virtue; he should know what the effect of beauty is when combined with poverty or wealth in a particular soul, and what are the good and evil consequences of noble and humble birth, of private and public station, of strength and weakness, of cleverness and dullness, and of all the soul, and the operation of them when conjoined; he will then look at the nature of the soul, and from the consideration of all these qualities he will be able to determine which is the better and which is the worse; and so he will choose, giving the name of evil to the life which will make his soul more unjust, and good to the life which will make his soul more just; all else he will disregard. For we have seen and know that this is the best choice both in life and after death.
A man must take with him into the world below an adamantine faith in truth and right, that there too he may be undazzled by the desire of wealth or the other allurements of evil, lest, coming upon tyrannies and similar villainies, he do irremediable wrongs to others and suffer yet worse himself; but let him know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible, not only in this life but in all that which is to come. For this is the way of happiness."
Let's keep looking. Who knows what we will find.
Thanks to all for an interesting group of conversations this weekend in this and the previous few threads. What a strange and interesting conjunction of voices. Its like participating in some surreal Platonic dialogue. Off to bed I go, for I must teach logic bright and early tomorrow.
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Academia
[Read the article: What can and cannot be spoken on television]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]creates a space for possible free thinking: whether or not that possibility is realized is found on a case by case basis. What is valuable in the structure of tenure and academic freedom is that is does give a real space that can be taken advantage of. That is perhaps why the right wing has been such a fierce critic of tenure and the traditional university structure. The ongoing battle now is to prevent what is called the "corporate model" of the university. That many or maybe even most do not take advantage of the still free space (indeed, how many take advantage of much anyway?) does not decrease my delighted appreciation for being able to teach courses which raises questions such as Chomsky raises, and to do so in detail and with a thoroughness not possible elsewhere.
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bamage
[Read the article: What can and cannot be spoken on television]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I guess what I mean is I regularly teach people about the frame: I point to it around us in the institution we are in and in our culture. And I do this slowly and in depth. The institution makes a space for me to do that. As long as it allows that, there is something good and alive in it, I think.
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There are good things
[Read the article: What can and cannot be spoken on television]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]in the world too! Plato pointed out basically that is bad news and good news. The bad news is that "evils are many and good things are few". The good news is that there are a few good things. Goodness is real, though apparently heavily outnumbered. But there it still is.
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correction
[Read the article: What can and cannot be spoken on television]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Plato pointed out basically that THERE is bad news and good news, etc.
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ah well, omoexx
[Read the article: What can and cannot be spoken on television]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wish you could take a class with me!
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anonymust
[Read the article: What can and cannot be spoken on television]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]ya I came up the lower class way. i was the first one in my family to ever go to college, and it took me ten years to get my undergraduate degree, primarily for financial reasons. I was always dropping out to go to work--especially after marriage and kids! Grad school, thank goodness, was a scholarship thing (and a very good one: thank you Emory University!).
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bucky1
[Read the article: What can and cannot be spoken on television]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As I read him, for Plato religion was what he called a "mythos", a way to frame truth that are inexpressible: to use a zen metaphor, a finger pointing at the moon. What was primary for him was the idea of the good, of quality, a qualitative universe in which quantity was not the defining factor. He seemed convinced you could experience an apprehension of goodness that could only be verbalized through analogy and metaphor. He once wrote that the truth could not be written down, but only developed in a dialogue between two living beings. There is also always an element of playfulness and room for doubt; always he has Socrates say, if these things are true, then these things follow. He has Socrates in the Phaedo say that religous matters cannot be strictly proven, but instead must be approached in a dialectical manner. Religous movements following Plato, from the neoplatonists like Plotinus to christianity, judaism, islam, and all their various subgroups and permutations, all grabbed parts of plato, part of his mythos, for themselves and twisted them to their own ends. Plato stands alone, smiling at them all.
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tempus
[Read the article: What can and cannot be spoken on television]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I really admire you saying what you did, having the courage to say that. I don't know what else to say but that I respect your honesty.
A buddha bow to you.