Post

Cornel West describes The Republic as "Plato's... critique of Athenian democracy as inevitably corrupted by the ignorance and passions of the masses" (preface to Race Matters 1993 xxiv).
What do people think of this description?

Music

My favorite thing to do is listen to music and Socrates' arguments concerning music in the city in speech unnerve me greatly. So I want to pose a question that I don't even conceptually have an answer to.
Does music shape our experience of the world or does the world shape our experience of music? (or some combination of the two.) This is meant to flesh out the ideas put forward of what kind of music or art can be within the city in speech, because it is argued that certain types of artful expression would corrupt the guardian class.

Tools of Order

I was recently reading an essay by Lucius Outlaw which was attempting to lay the foundations for a classification of Africana Philosophy and in it he said, "The greater the historical distance from objects being ordered the more our tools are used for order." This is in reference to trying to analyze very traditional African thought but I think it also holds an application for thinkers like Plato.

Are we so far from him historically that all our attempts to put his work into some kind of order (in the sense of coherence) fail due to improper tools. Which is to say wouldn't a true and most useful analysis require a frame of mind that is centered on the ancient greek way of thinking?

My first post

I’ve been reflecting on what we talked about the class and the discussion we had over the pedagogy of expectations and I waited so long to post something about it because I was trying to think of something profound and insightful to say. Since a majority of class on Thursday was taken up by the discussion sparked by it. I find myself unable to come up with any kind of meaningful reaction over it, I guess to me I just expect to receive some kind list of rules or expectations from teachers or employers or anyone in that type of relation to me. I did not find the list Matt gave us surprising or rude at all; I would even go so far as to say I appreciated the bluntness of it. I agree with Josh when he says he sees respect as something that should be earned and I find the willingness to put out his expectations in such a blunt way very worthy of respect.

            I believe a list of expectations is something absolutely necessary to explain how one must act in a given social environment especially when that is a formal classroom. In addition I think the way the pedagogy of expectations delivers itself is the best way to go because there is no confusion of how I need to act in this given setting.