Ah, to understand this joke, you must first read Plato. Then you are on your way to understand the true essence of shitposts. Must there be a post so shit as to compare all shitposts to?
Wasn’t that Socrates though, not Plato? Socrates is the one who had that those kinds of words of wisdom. His other good one was “like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”
But a lot of that content is credited to Plato instead, and in many cases it probably is his own stuff being put into the mouth of his more famous teacher at the time.
(In particular, I tend to get the sense the parts that end up as long monologues that are unequivocally being agreed with by the other person tend to be Plato’s own stuff, as Socrates seemed to like nothing better than disagreement and in the genuine strong parts will even be his own devil’s advocate if no one else stepped up.)
We know Socrates from Plato’s writings, as he himself prefered to just talk to people. The way I understand it early works of Plato are Socrates, late works are Plato’s own philosophies, and there’s a mix in between. But we don’t know for sure where Socrates ends and Plato begins.
You are correct, although Plato wasn’t the only source on Socrates. Another student named Xenophon also featured Socrates in a few of his works. That dude had quite a different style than Plato. Instead of going all in on philosophy, he commanded a few armies.
He’s a bit of a fascist who managed to not carry forward his teacher’s most valuable and allegedly highly regarded lesson of knowing the limits to one’s own knowledge.
It gets even worse with his student Aristotle, but Plato kind of sucks compared to the more likely original aspects of his teacher.
It’s a bit dizzying even, going from Socrates saying something like “all that I know is that I know nothing” or attacking his own assertion immediately after getting the other person to agree with it in some dialogues, to these long winded monologues that go on nearly forever making wildly illogical claims that go unchallenged by the other parties who instead agree wholeheartedly “certainly that must be the case that we should limit what information children can be raised with and get rid of music we don’t approve of” or “some people say the universe wasn’t intelligently designed but we won’t even consider that because it’d be impious” (when the person allegedly saying this was executed for the charge of impiety).
Frankly, claiming that Plato is fascist is pure nonsense. It’s ignoring the history of political thought (including, notably, Plato) and the economical and societal background that led to fascism.
You can argue that he inspired fascism or that he was a kind of proto-fascist. That would be weird (since it would exclude all the modern causes and influences for fascism), but arguable. But calling him a fascist is just an anachronism.
The Republic is undoubtedly influential in Western philosophy, but you won’t find many contemporary political scientists or philosophers referencing it directly without a very heavy dose of qualification. In this context it’s most often used as a primary historical work more than a philosophical one.
Pretty much the only time you will see someone engaging with it as a work of authoritative or relevant philosophy (and really, just, a handful of notable passages) is in the context of anti-liberal rhetoric which is intentionally exploiting the assumption that the reader does not have a broad background in contemporary politics, but might know the name “Plato.”
It’s kind of like the difference between quoting Newton in the context of general relativity, versus quoting Newton in support of the luminiferous aether.
I’m out of the loop, what’s wrong with plato?
My interpretation was “Plato is read by people still on their way” and anon didn’t take their meaning. People aren’t always clear. I know I’m not.
Ah, to understand this joke, you must first read Plato. Then you are on your way to understand the true essence of shitposts. Must there be a post so shit as to compare all shitposts to?
To be fair, you need a very high IQ to understand Plato shitposts…
Couldn’t tell a man from a plucked chicken.
Youd think a man as smart as people think he is would be able to tell the difference, but no. Makes me think he isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.
My read is basically the quote “the only thing I know is that I know nothing”
Wasn’t that Socrates though, not Plato? Socrates is the one who had that those kinds of words of wisdom. His other good one was “like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”
There’s not really any ‘Plato.’
It’s all allegedly Socrates in his dialogues.
But a lot of that content is credited to Plato instead, and in many cases it probably is his own stuff being put into the mouth of his more famous teacher at the time.
(In particular, I tend to get the sense the parts that end up as long monologues that are unequivocally being agreed with by the other person tend to be Plato’s own stuff, as Socrates seemed to like nothing better than disagreement and in the genuine strong parts will even be his own devil’s advocate if no one else stepped up.)
Unless it was actually really all Plato. And Socrates was just made up.
Then Xenophon, who also wrote Socratic dialogues including an account of his trial and execution, had to be in on it too.
Those Greeks were devious, I wouldn’t be surprised.
So-crates!
We know Socrates from Plato’s writings, as he himself prefered to just talk to people. The way I understand it early works of Plato are Socrates, late works are Plato’s own philosophies, and there’s a mix in between. But we don’t know for sure where Socrates ends and Plato begins.
You are correct, although Plato wasn’t the only source on Socrates. Another student named Xenophon also featured Socrates in a few of his works. That dude had quite a different style than Plato. Instead of going all in on philosophy, he commanded a few armies.
No, I’m pretty sure that’s from a TV show my mom used to watch. /s
Wisdom comes in many different forms, across many different media.
I got this one from this old history documentary
Pretty middle of the road opinion, to be fair.
He’s a bit of a fascist who managed to not carry forward his teacher’s most valuable and allegedly highly regarded lesson of knowing the limits to one’s own knowledge.
It gets even worse with his student Aristotle, but Plato kind of sucks compared to the more likely original aspects of his teacher.
It’s a bit dizzying even, going from Socrates saying something like “all that I know is that I know nothing” or attacking his own assertion immediately after getting the other person to agree with it in some dialogues, to these long winded monologues that go on nearly forever making wildly illogical claims that go unchallenged by the other parties who instead agree wholeheartedly “certainly that must be the case that we should limit what information children can be raised with and get rid of music we don’t approve of” or “some people say the universe wasn’t intelligently designed but we won’t even consider that because it’d be impious” (when the person allegedly saying this was executed for the charge of impiety).
Wake up babe, new ancient Greek metapolitical lore just dropped
Not so new. For example, see Acton, The Alleged Fascism of Plato (1938).
Frankly, claiming that Plato is fascist is pure nonsense. It’s ignoring the history of political thought (including, notably, Plato) and the economical and societal background that led to fascism.
You can argue that he inspired fascism or that he was a kind of proto-fascist. That would be weird (since it would exclude all the modern causes and influences for fascism), but arguable. But calling him a fascist is just an anachronism.
That’s why I called him “a bit of a fascist.”
You edited my comment to remove the “bit of a.”
The Republic is well known and cited by pretty much every burgeoning autocrat throughout history.
The Republic is cited by everyone.
The Republic is undoubtedly influential in Western philosophy, but you won’t find many contemporary political scientists or philosophers referencing it directly without a very heavy dose of qualification. In this context it’s most often used as a primary historical work more than a philosophical one.
Pretty much the only time you will see someone engaging with it as a work of authoritative or relevant philosophy (and really, just, a handful of notable passages) is in the context of anti-liberal rhetoric which is intentionally exploiting the assumption that the reader does not have a broad background in contemporary politics, but might know the name “Plato.”
It’s kind of like the difference between quoting Newton in the context of general relativity, versus quoting Newton in support of the luminiferous aether.
everyone pushing a western centric from Rome is civilization viewpoint
He had some important ideas, but he was a bit of a reactionary.
If I were that black man and I’d said that, it would’ve just been because it sounded funny in my head.
He rides the bus.
A man of the people imparting unwanted wisdom on the stupefied and