Category Archives: philosophy

Socrates in Hades: On Plato’s Protagoras, Part III

Part 1 | Part 2 From Part 1: there may be a con­flict between poetry and the city. Poetry often­times works on the assump­tion “virtue is knowl­edge:” isn’t it the case if you read a poem well, you will be bet­ter for it? The city, on the other hand, has laws and enforcers of the

Maimonides, “Letter to Obadiah the Proselyte”

Let­ter to Oba­diah the Pros­e­lyte (from A Mai­monides Reader, ed. Isadore Twer­sky. West Orange: Behrman House, 1972) Mai­monides Thus says Moses, the son of Rabbi Mai­mon, one of the exiles from Jerusalem, who lived in Spain: I received the ques­tion of the mas­ter Oba­diah, the wise and learned pros­e­lyte, may the Lord reward him for his

Socrates in Hades: On Plato’s Protagoras, Part II

Below is an out­line of the Pro­tago­ras that should make things clearer even to those who have not read the dia­logue. If you are really pressed for time, the most impor­tant sec­tions are “Pro­tago­ras’ myth,” fol­lowed by “Pro­tago­ras’ logos,” and the Socratic con­cerns about virtue which pre­cede Pro­tago­ras’ myth. This post is about 1400 words. Out­line

Socrates in Hades: On Plato’s Protagoras, Part I

Orig­i­nally, I wanted to post com­ments regard­ing a reread of the Repub­lic I am sup­pos­edly doing. But so many issues went over my head I broke away from the reread and started read­ing the Greater Hip­pias. While a shorter dia­logue, the dis­cus­sion of “the beau­ti­ful” and how it relates to how we use “both” and

An Introduction to Political Philosophy

All of us in the lib­eral arts are in the busi­ness of being asked what it is we study, and upon answer­ing, get­ting a “pfft. What are you going to do with that?” For polit­i­cal sci­ence, the usual dis­mis­sive ques­tion is “Are you going to be a politi­cian?” It seemed to me at first that