9/23 Notes and Commentary

• Weird vibes today, just particularly not feeling class, maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been playing NBA Street V3 on the GameCube all afternoon…and becoming a streetball legend!
  • Seriously, I’m too nice at that game
• Despite how much of a fuckboy Plato still is, the cave analogy was pretty cool, I’ll give him that
• Powell seems to really love those polo shirts a bit tight on the arms; actually his entire outfit (polo, slim-fit khakis/corduroys, sperries) is akin to a one Mr. Hoxie
• Kingsbury a bit rushed, looks a bit frazzled, hopefully he’s chillin alright
• A class list, so that we can know each other’s’ first names? My god, it’s a miracle
• There’s no way that he expects us to read that first part on the board as “class list”; the “-st” looks like a goddamn “d”
• 3 Images of Philosophy: sun, divided line, cave; within Book 6
• Book 7: education of the philosopher (topics and age)
• Final Blow: banishing everyone over the age of 10 and then teaching the philosophies of the city
• Murray just hit tapped shoe…I’ll take it I suppose
• Books 5-7 are a digression from an examination of the question “what is justice and is it trustworthy?”
• The one necessity for a just city and for this city to be actualized is the philosopher-king
  • Difficult for people to give themselves up to philosophic rule, to allow for the banishment of everyone over age of 10, and to give up freedom to choose mate
• Idea of the Good=The Good
  • Form has a distinctive philosophic meaning; Forms are intelligible but not always visible
• We should put a bust of Dry in that empty rectangular space above the chalkboard
• Socrates acknowledges that philosophy will be a hard sell, and those with the correct nature will be swayed in many directions
• Jesus H Christ there’s still 45 minutes (at least) left; you’d think this class would go by somewhat faster, I’m yawning up a storm
• Dialectic: philosophic thought; relative things make us think
• Brann: Republic is best criticism of political idealism; Socrates’ city is pure meritocracy
  • We’re the source of the problem: human desire for one’s own
• Just start talking about what we read Murray, Jesus FUCKING Christ this is so fucking boring
• Perfect justice cannot be attained because it goes against what they stand for
• The purity of the cause is the success of the cause: that’s the reformers position: I will not compromise with my principles and I measure my success by lack of compromise
• He finally got Ms. Fehmiu’s name right! Quite funny how he waited there for her to validate his correct pronunciation and he just said nothing
• Ever wonder what it would be like to live in the Midwest, like Indiana or someplace like that? Probably would be hella weird
• Difference between philosopher and logical alternative: a tyrant, someone who takes advantage of others for own good
• I originally started taking notes like these to prevent myself from falling asleep: after Week 2 U learned that this is not possible
• Philosopher as ruler must need 15 years in experiential learning after 20-30 years of learning and after 5-10 years of dialectic
• It is possible to find the just man because Socrates is a perfectly just man; Mr. Brockelman just got Dry GOING, got damn haven’t seen that in a while
• It really bugs me that Dry’s collar doesn’t fully cover his tie in the back, irksome to no end
• Socrates hadn’t talked about true virtue because he hadn’t talked about ruler in the precise sense (philosopher): 2 different understandings of virtue
  • Some professors believe that it is their educational mission to make you sensitive to requirements of morality and social justice; others believe that educational activity should focus on cultivation of the mind (intellectual virtue)
• The precise philosopher is focused solely on the latter, the intellectual; as a ruler though he must develop proper virtue as well
• 197 (518 b-e): education is not simply putting knowledge into people, but directing people towards knowledge (turning people around towards the sun out of the cave) because the capacity to learn is already there
• Sun: offspring of the Good, visible vs. intelligible
• The comprehensive dialectic put together 2 types of knowledge, the quantitative and the qualitative (mathematics and poetry in Platonic terms)
• Divided Line: attempt to describe 4 different types of apprehension (2 visible, 2 intelligible)
• Cave: 4 levels of apprehension all within the visible that correspond to the 4 segments on the line and some other shit
• 2 different adjustments of eyes correspond to 2 different problems of intellect
  • Man who escaped from cave goes back to cave to bring principles into city, harmonize it
  • The cave is the city: going back into the cave is to force him to rule
  • Perfectly just man given choice to rule: they will choose to rule because he has an obligation because they had the benefit of the education; they were given opportunity to get education so now you have the obligation to give back
• Justice isn’t choiceworthy