Tagged: Socrates

A Little Platonic Advertising

Summer’s in full swing, and we’ve all settled into our lazy summer habits, which include the constant struggle trying to keep warm for those of us staying in Boston. For those of you missing the Core office, don’t worry, we miss all of you too. To keep your spirits up, we found this wonderful comedic […]

Lecture: Plato’s Republic

On November 20th, Professor Greg Fried (Suffolk University, Department of Philosophy), a long-time friend and colleague of the Core, lectured to the students of CC101 about Plato’s Republic. Here we offer an excerpt from his lecture: MORPHEUS: Do you want to know what it is, Neo? The Matrix is everywhere; it’s all around us, even now in […]

Philosophy as civic education in Brazil

Erin McDonagh (Core ’08, CAS ’10), a member of the EnCore steering committee, writes: In this article by Carlos Fraenkel of Boston Review, we learn that Brazil’s public education policy has surprising stipulation: According to a 2008 law, students are required to study philosophy for three years in high school. The law is a political […]

Picturing a Core discussion

In May 2011, a photographer visited Prof. Eckel’s CC102 seminar classroom. His pictures capture, vividly, the thrill and pleasure of deep, intellectual engagement that shows in the faces of Prof. Eckel and his students as they discuss Socrates. Photos by Kal Zabarsky (c) BU Photo Services. Click here to see the full set of photos […]

From a CC101 debate on democracy

The problem with storytelling is that it appeals to the desirous part of the soul and not the rational — that’s why Socrates has such a problem with it. So, my question is: Would it be just to ban Sophocles and his plays in the city of Athens, when they clearly show a deep understanding […]

Analects of the Core: Plato on the idea of good

Liken the domain revealed through sight to the prison home, and the light of the fire in it to the sun’s power; and, in applying the going up and the seeing of what’s above to the soul’s journey up to the intelligible place… A god doubtless knows if it happens to be true.  At all […]