In an effort to get a sense of what philosophers are doing day-to-day, the blog been asking them to share what they are teaching with us. What have they just lectured on in class?
SocratesWe have amused ourselves with talk about words long enough. Go and tell Lysias that you and I came down to the fountain and sacred place of the nymphs, and heard words which they told us to repeat to Lysias and anyone else who composed speeches, and to Homer or any other who has composed poetry with or without musical accompaniment, and third to Solon and whoever has written political compositions which he calls laws: If he has composed his writings with knowledge of the truth, and is able to support them by discussion of that which he has written, and has the power to show by his own speech that the written words are of little worth, such a man ought not to derive his title from such writings, but from the serious pursuit which underlies them.Phaedrus
What titles do you grant them then?Socrates
I think, Phaedrus, that the epithet “wise” is too great and befits God alone; but the name “philosopher,” that is, “lover of wisdom,” or something of the sort would be more fitting and modest for such a man.Phaedrus
And quite appropriate.
Lori Keleher, associate professor in the philosophy department at New Mexico State University, taught Plato’s Symposium last term.
