On Feb 4, 2011, at 3:05 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> On 2/4/2011 2:36 PM, Angelus Novus wrote:
>>
>>> Here's a relevant quote from Chomsky:
>>> ///If you get up and say, "I don't understand why I should read
>>> Plato, I
>>> think it's nonsense," that's destroying the foundations of
>>> civilization. But maybe it's a perfectly sensible question-plenty
>>> of philosophers have said it, so why isn't it a sensible question?
Echt Chomsky. When this self-important asshole says "Plato is nonsense" and lots of "philosophers" agree with him he is simply declaring the extent of his own illiteracy. Anyone who has read any of the Platonic dialogues recognizes that they are *dramatic* works counterposing ideas expressed by diverse characters and inviting the listeners to think for themselves, ask their own questions, and evaluate the discussion in a logical way. That some of the expressed views can be considered "nonsensical" is not accidental, but even nonsensical ideas are always treated respectfully in order to help their proponents go beyond them. To say "Plato is nonsense" is no less idiotic than to say that "I don't understand why I should waste time on Shakespeare. I think its nonsense."
Shane Mage "When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly.
When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true." (N. Weiner)