Great Books
Primary text passages from the history of western thought.
@tldr
“You blessed fellow. You are trying to refute me rhetorically, doing what people in the law courts consider refuting, when they bring up lots of well regarded witnesses in favor of the speeches they are making. But that sort of refutation is worth nothing for getting at the truth.
As for me, if I don’t bring you yourself forward as one witness to agree with the things I’m saying, I consider myself as having accomplished nothing regarding the truth of the things we are speaking about.
And I consider that you haven’t either, unless I, only one though I am, am a witness for your side.
We may let go of all those others.”
- Socrates, in Plato’s Gorgias
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@tldr
My first time in a couple years that I’m sitting down and reading Plato in the daylight.
It’s like reuniting with an old friend.
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@tldr
This is so cool — a day in the life of going to free Shakespeare in Central Park! (You gotta work for it but it’s so fun)
@zenshortz I think it would also be great to see the video itself in feed (without having to follow the link)
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@tldr
You will probably have to get in line at Central Park at 7am to ensure you can get tickets to see Peter Dinklage as Malvolio in Twelfth Night in the ✨newly renovated✨Delacorte Theater.
(It should be worth it)
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@tako-unik
Next book to read (most likely). Who read it before? Is it good?
It promises black comedy
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@tldr
Q: "How does studying Plato and Aristotle in grad school have any relation to being a tech entreprenuer?"
A: (non ironically)
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@tldr
Plato’s greatest lesson hides in plain sight:
If you are not willing to live like Socrates (poor, prone, and always questioning), you are not actually a “Philosopher”
You may be philosophical; you may be friendly toward philosophy; you may admire philosophers.
But mistaking yourself for a Philosopher can do a lot of harm to yourself, your city, and to real philosophy.
(This is one of the big things that’s overlooked when people implicitly equate Plato’s Socrates with Plato.)
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@tldr
You’ve never really read Shakespeare until you’ve asked in earnest:
“How would we stage this?”
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@tldr
Yaweh: "I am what I am."
Iago: "I am not what I am."
I've been re-reading Shakespeare's Othello, and I'm blown away by Iago like never before. 10x deeper and more troubling than Milton's Lucifer (in 1/10th the lines).
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@tldr
To be fair, the first 4 Books of the Odyssey are Iliad cameos (Nestor, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Helen) before we actually get to meet Odysseus himself in Book 5.
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