• counterpunch
    1.6k
    Pff. When you understand what is wrong in Plato's Republic, you will understand what is wrong in your proposal.Banno

    What is your understanding of what is wrong in Plato’s republic?Megolomania

    Good question Megolomania! Could you point me to Banno's answer! I can't seem to find it!!

    Chekhov's gun is a dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Elements should not appear to make "false promises" by never coming into play. The statement is recorded in letters by Anton Chekhov several times, with some variation:

    • Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle...
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    Could you point me to Banno's answer! I can't seem to find it!!counterpunch

    Banno likes you to think for yourself, but I prefer to spoon-feed you the right answers.

    What is wrong with The Republic is that it is a tyranny. That is, if the tyrant is always wise and benevolent then it is absolutely the best form of government. But unfortunately, the tyrant is always merely human and very often an absolute stinker.
  • counterpunch
    1.6k
    That's not exactly the right answer though! The Republic begins, a just state under the rule of a wise philosopher King, and then falls apart because people suck. It degrades toward tyranny - passing through timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and then tyranny! But what's wrong in Plato's Republic is the people - which is why I ask the question. Basically, what Banno said is that Megolomania sucks! Not that his ideas are bad - but that his best laid plans will be undone, because people are ....unwise, and slaves to their passions. So I am seeking clarification on exactly what banno meant.
  • Hanover
    12.9k
    Let’s say I believe the best way to create a better future is by raising and educating children in ways that make them have as many positive qualities as possible.Megolomania

    Two very different questions. How one ought parent is the first, how to formally educate the second. The Authoritative parenting style is considering best (as opposed to Authorative, Permissive, or uninvolved) https://www.verywellfamily.com/types-of-parenting-styles-1095045.

    This isn't to diminish the role of formal education, but it is to suggest that education begins at home and the future of our world depends far greater on the sorts of personalities we produce as opposed to how well we can all do geometry.

    Part of the problem, observed for at least the last 60 years by various observers, is that we collectively aren't even sure what education is supposed to be doing. Sorting the good boats out for lifting by the next high tide, and sinking the low quality ones? Regulating the labor pool? Conducting an enlightenment factory? Training people for dead end jobs? Educating people for a society that ceased to exist a long time ago? Giving people basic skills (to do what?)Bitter Crank

    What do you think your education was good for? Any of those things? I really don't, yet I still think it is the most significant thing I possess. I can think of no better way to say it than it allows people to live up to their full potential, to the object of their creation, whatever that might be.
  • BC
    13.6k
    What do you think your education was good for? Any of those things? I really don't, yet I still think it is the most significant thing I possess. I can think of no better way to say it than it allows people to live up to their full potential, to the object of their creation, whatever that might be.Hanover

    Yes, my education helped me achieve much more of my full potential than I would have without it. I shudder to think where I would be without it.

    Giving people the means to achieve their potential is very good work, but I'm not at all sure what form of education will serve best--today and tomorrow. I was educated in the 1950s and 60s; but that world doesn't exist (literally and figuratively speaking).
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