I am less persuaded by Mark's reference to Margaret Wilcox in Howards End. I think Margaret is a fundamentally intolerant busy-body.... Plato might be thought of as a religious thinker for our times. He has no doctrines, only powerful suggestions. He does not advocate belief, but rather good judgment. He is never authoritarian, instead inviting his readers to cultivate a way of life. Alongside questions about the transcendent, Plato places others about values, the good life and love – additional great concerns that are pressing for us today. "In the strange cosmic astronomy of the wandering zeitgeist," Iris Murdoch reflected, "we are closer to Plato now than in many previous centuries."
Monday, September 21, 2009
... Plato's Dialogues, part 8: A man for all seasons. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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Plato likewise. A strong liking for the totalitarian twisted regime of Sparta, idolatry of the intelelct - supremacy of the world of ideas, i.e. bowing down to the words you yourself have produced, no poets in his ideal state, selective infanticide if I remember right, no music in ideal state. Not quite sure of the appeal myself.
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