Word: plato
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Professor of History Simon M. Schama: "I'd like a year's supply of ripe mangoes" Although Professor Schama specializes in European art and politics, he would like to add a copy of Plato's Republic to President Reagan's Christmas stocking...
Professor of Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies Nar O. Yalman would like to give a book of Buddha's thought to both Reagan and Sovier leader Konstans U. Chernenko. He objects strongly to the gift of Plato's Republic because "that book has produced dictatorships." The Curator Middle Eastern Ethnology at the Peabody Musum would like for himself "a painting as marvelous Van Gogo's 'Portrait of the Peabody to hang in my office...
...entirely to his taste: a recurrent suggestion in these works is that the attempt to mix "modernist" with "traditionalist" values is at best messy and funny and at worst misguided and fatal. Iris Murdoch, to name only the most intelligent of these writers, has made a career of throwing Plato, Christ and Freud together like roosters in a ring...
...some philosophy of life must be taught, what will it be? At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, the safest bet is the philosophy of classical antiquity. It is from the thought of Plato and Aristotle that Western intellectual history grows, and most problems can still be considered in the light of their philosophy. And what if the student finds that such and education is not to his taste. In the words of Flannery O'Connor. "Well, that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed...
...Some people say that education is better when everyone is in sack cloths and ashes. That's fine when you are reading Plato by yourself," says Mason. "But you can't teach in facilities that are not up to speed...You can't get 50 students to interact well without good facilities...