Plato seems to be unique among the philosophers,
1. he is the sole owner of the socratic character
2. He has a philosophy is inextricably intertwined with socrates
3. He was a poet
4. Western philosophy is almost entirely founded on him
We have convered 2 dialogues and a part of the republic. I think that is only a small chunk of Plato. The idea of getting more Platonic dialogues is interesting... but I would prefer readings the profs. themselves pick out, Plato or not.
I agree that the presentation should incorporate a lot of Plato but I am not sure as too how we should. Plato is more like a rock on which everything else we have read stands on. But I would like to see if there is anything that we have today that is beyond Plato.... or is the rest just elaborations on the suttle points in the dialogues? I don't exactly know what "beyond Plato" means...
Also, a theme that has been prevalent throughout our discussion has been on the question of knowledge. How do you get it? what is it? is it a turning around? memory, creativity and knowledge? what do they mean? what am I talking about? hmm... I feeel this is very inadequate discription, but I will try to add more later this week.
Posted by pranab at May 12, 2005 01:15 PM