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Angry birds 2 мо‚е‚Œ онлайн4/28/2024 ![]() Christianity's rapid ideological invasion of Western Europe in the Dark Ages left an annoying dislocation when the Classic Greek Philosophical traditions were rooted out along with any hint of paganism in this particular spiritual jihad. While Plato has been proven wrong about a lot of stuff, his influence has endured. Highly recommended if you liked Grave's I Claudius. Renault has a clear writing style and a dry wit, and her evocation of Classic Antiquity captures with both passion and dispassion the exoticism and gritty human political realities of times long passed. Her interpretation of Plato's exploits in Syracuse are described in the book The Mask of Apollo. Even so, twas not a shining moment in his CV.įor more details on this particular story, we could throw in a book-plug for a favourite under-rated 20th century writer of Historical fiction, Mary Renault. ![]() ![]() From accounts, this experiment went quite badly, but we could concede in poor Plato's defence that his innovations were poorly implemented in bits and pieces by his fickle young patron. He was invited by the boy-king Dionysius, heir to Syracusian Empire. Plato had the real-life opportunity to experiment with his political theories in an actual government administration. Any artistic expression which excites the senses is banned, and any critics of this perfect world (which would probably include Plato's inspiration Socrates, as has often been pointed out) are harassed, arrested, exiled or otherwise dispatched in accordance with the secret dictates of the sinister "Nocturnal Council." The Guardians, those who control the military, are naively expected to defer to the dictates of this artificial elite. BF Skinnerseque selective breeding programs create the pool of aristotechnocrats of merit from whom the philosopher-kings are chosen. Plato's perfect Idealist Spartan Republic is a stupid place to live. But Plato lacked a touch of perspective: had he lived long enough, he would have seen victorious Sparta's newly acquired empire collapse completely within a generation, while the imperfect inefficient loser Athens managed to survive defeat, and continue to bumble along to our present day. The foundation for his distrust of The Institution of Democracy comes from his first-hand observations of the unstable Athenian Forums' bungled micro-mismanagement of the disastrous Peloponnesian War against the ruthless efficiency of fascist Sparta. Plato's political dabblings are laid out in detail in his epic document The Republic, a proto-fascist blueprint for clumsy totalitarian regimes ever since. I get the nagging vibe that he thinks he is the one who is perfect, and everybody else has to strive to measure up. (Plato's student Aristotle later loosely applied this theory of forms and hierarchies with somewhat less bold imagination, but with much more functionality and focus). This concept has no basis in reality, and limited practical usefulness. He had this weird theory of ideal forms, where he presented the premise that any physical object, such as a horse, for example, shares common characteristics with all other horses, but whoa hold on, he also goes on to say that these common traits are all imperfect reflections of a perfect horse which only exists in his imagination. Of course we learn useful tidbits data and factoids from various authorities teachers sages and gurus, but the truly profound insights we gather in our voyage to the sublime are the ones which we teach ourselves, those often involving suffering, and frequently from unexpected sources. The protagonist of this drama makes a claim to exalted insight based upon his moral superiority: he is better than the average cave-dweller, but why? Based upon his experience, and really, only because he says so. Plato's Cave is the perfect example of a flawed imperfect philosophical metaphor. ![]() Only the natural born enlightened philosopher king has the moral strength to turn his back upon this cozy little society of the spectacle and grope his way out of the cavern to the blinding light of the sun, and once his eyes adjust, perceive the real world in startling clarity, the one on which the artificial entertainment of the cave is merely a perverse parody. A bunch of people are sitting in a cave watching a puppet show.
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