On Apr 30, 2012, at 10:08 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
> Ravi: "The real problem IMHO is that unless the student is suitably
> informed that Plato (and Rand) is (are) caricatured version(s) of
> thinking, they might quite likely take him (them) very seriously, as
> many do, and the results are dangerous....
>
> [WS:] An interesting thought, but I think it is the other way around.
> Impressionable minds are attracted to Plato, Rand & Co. because they
> find in them the confirmation of the conclusions at which they have
> already arrived - about their own special place in the universe...
Lumping Plato and Rand is, of course, utterly nonsensical. The irony of these natterings is that, as regards Plato, they are in fact dittoing...Plato! In the Republic Sokrates (and the aware listener will sense the Sokratic irony there) tells Glaucon that the "young and impressionable" should not be introduced to the study of dialectic until they are mature enough to argue constructively and not merely play at tearing down the teachings of their elders!
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)