UPDATE: Just note, we may likely not get to this next week just because of the other things we need to cover. Plus, I’m thinking we should come up with a set schedule of topics, a syllabus of sorts, so that it’s not just me looking around for interesting articles for discussions.
So in keeping in spirit with our goal of forming a book group, here’s the first bit of literature.
I’d like for us to be knowledgeable in history as well as philosophy, so I’ll be on the lookout for good concise summaries of the eras we’ll be studying. If you have a particular book in mind that I could photocopy pages from for the rest of the members, that would be great. I really like the fact that so many of you all are underclassmen because it’s likely this is the first time you’ll encounter what you might read here, so it’ll help you in your future studies as well as hopefully teaching you to think in an analytical and critical way.
So, from the beginning then! Plato.
Usually I’ll include a little background info on the actual individual whose work we’ll be looking at, but for the moment just bear with me with what his actual ideas were. Also, I’d like for us to read the original sources, but at times it’s difficult to read and hard to follow. So for the moment we’ll look at a very respectable source called the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
For Wednesday, take a look at the Intro paragraph as well as section three, titled The Middle Period: Justice and Other Virtues.
Think about what Plato thinks comprises the ideal society. Where do these values come from, and how are they expressed? I’d also like to draw your attention to his notion of the Philosopher-King.
Alongside Plato, here’s a very short chapter from a book titled Deeper Than You Think by Leonard Read. Chapter XV, which is only a few pages, talks generally about intellectual curiosity being the driving force behind civilization. While I think he doesn’t support his claim very well, the ideas are nice, and I’d like for you to compare what he says to Plato and this notion of the Philosopher-King.
It’s technically page 149 in the book but tell your browser to go to page 160 to start right at Chapter XV.
Leonard Read is the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, a think-tank with lots of free resources and Libertarian tendencies.
He mentions a painting by Raphael called the School of Athens, pictured below:
Looking forward to the discussion,
MP
[...] 27, 2009 by studentsforliberty Keeping in touch with my earlier post on Plato’s virtue and justice and his notion of the Philosopher-King, take a look at this [...]