December 6, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Prof. Samons: “How would Plato describe America? We are primed for tyranny.” “Plato would be so appalled by the television and internet that he would commend us for keeping it together this long.” Prof. Esposito: “Plato wants to know what Sophocles is trying to teach us in Ajax or Hecuba. It is not quite clear […]
November 29, 2011 at 11:54 am
“I went back to all the advice I’ve been given about talking to a big group, and they said I have to tell a joke. I don’t know many jokes and all the ones I do know are math jokes. [. . . ] That was a joke.” “Math trains you to see what is […]
November 22, 2011 at 3:20 pm
“Socrates is proposing radical censorship so the young receive the right message from a very young age.” “The best soul will be ruled by reason or calculation. Justice is when each part of the soul — calculating, spiritedness, and desire — is minding its own business.” “Can you know about politics in the same way […]
November 15, 2011 at 12:20 pm
“Is” is the simplest word in the English language and yet it is the hardest to understand in The Republic. Intelligible reality, what we think with our minds, is more real than the individual instances we attribute to our reality. What is clear about American politics, whether you are Democrat or Republican, is that knowledge […]
October 27, 2011 at 9:51 am
“Triremes were built to kill. You can’t have fun on a trireme. You can’t water-ski behind one. You can’t hold an afternoon BBQ on one. You can’t do anything but kill on a trireme.” “Why did the Athenians beat the Persians? Because the Persians showed up to the wars with wicker shields. Wicker. The Persians […]
October 26, 2011 at 8:29 am
“When you go into the Acropolis, why are all the great buildings off to the left? In the archaic day there was the greatest temple erected right before you. This was the temple the Persians burned down and which prompted Pericles and the Athenians to rebuild.” “Despite the agony on the centaur’s face, the whole […]
October 12, 2011 at 10:21 am
“Isn’t it amazing that the first major work of western civilization — Gilgamesh — depicts the destruction of a human city?” “Menelaus is about to kill Helen, but (smart lady), she bares her breast to him, and he throws his sword down. Some things never change.” “Calypso’s name means concealment and while Odysseus is with […]
September 22, 2011 at 5:23 pm
“We can think of Genesis, not as a book with a beginning and an end, but rather as an archive.” “God’s covenant with Noah is one-sided. God does not ask for anything in return but he makes a rule that no one is to kill each other but the covenant is not dependent on the […]
September 13, 2011 at 1:59 pm
“Genesis starts with ‘In the beginning’; and that is always a great place to start.” “The Bible’s stories, laws, and beliefs decisively influenced the western imagination; biblical heroes became models for kings and commoners, and taught westerners how to act, what to pursue, how to govern and rule.” “The Bible has been many a person’s […]
