Who says that Cephalus is bad or contemptible? — Amity

Various commentators suggest that he is a somewhat contemptible figure (e.g., Annas), and @Fooloso4 is less than complimentary here (the source of my exchange with Srap). I don't disagree too much with them, but there's another side to it.

It is not the case that he leaves the debate the moment he gets a difficult question. He engages with Socrates up to the point where he agrees but then he must leave to attend to religious matters. — Amity

He leaves when Socrates shows that his view of justice is inadequate, even though the discussion is continuing. (I used "gets a difficult question" loosely, to mean the question as to the meaning of justice that Socrates brings up and shows to be harder than Cephalus might have realized).

Cephalus is perhaps haunted by any wrong doings or injustice at his hands and wants to make amends. — Amity

That's possible, but I don't think it's implied, and I don't personally think Plato is hinting at it, since I think he wants to portray Cephalus as ordinarily just, but complacent.

Context needs to be understood as to why Plato might wish to banish poets, even as he wrote in such a poetic and creative manner. — Amity

This is one of the fascinating tensions in Plato. Relatedly, he denigrates mere images but uses imagery all the time.

Do you intend to widen the focus beyond Book 1 ? — Amity

Well, everything in Book 1 is relevant to the rest of the work, so even though I'm focusing on a particular passage there, I'm not intending to restrict the conversation. My point was that my particular focus, even if it's a way into the wider themes, is not itself indispensable on the way to an understanding of the work --- there are other, perhaps better, things to focus on. It's probably an eccentric focus. It's a bit like a literary easter egg, (although in the Republic you could argue it's not quite so trivial or irrelevant as that).

EDIT: Another way of saying this is that my focus is more important from a literary than from a philosophical point of view.

Thank you for your contribution, which is informed and interesting. The point about inheritance is particularly good — I hadn't thought about that much.

Quite how your post relates to the OP, though, I am struggling to understand, because you don't actually say (except to suggest that the question of attribution is secondary, and the bit about P's appeal to authority).

A better way of using quotations is to illustrate an argument you make in your own words (an interpretive argument in this case). As it is, when you do proceed to use your own words, it's contextual exegesis that does not seem to produce any relevantly pointed conclusions or questions. I'm quite a good reader, but reading the great works of philosophy is hard enough without having to struggle to understand people you're discussing them with.

In Book 2, the trio begins sorting the poets into different baskets. — Paine

Great, I'd forgotten about that.

I don't know if it's relevant, but back then, there were no academic credentials to add weight to an idea. It was common for people to pass their own ideas off as the ideas of famous people in order to gain credibility. An elaborate example of it is the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. From the text, we can tell that this book was written much later than it purports to be. They used the name of Daniel because he was a folk-figure. He was supposed to have been a wise man, but there's no record of his existence.

Plato might have been sensitive to this issue because he himself was using Socrates as a mouthpiece. So it's possible that the exchange is the sort of thing we do when we argue over sources, but the whole issue was much more wide open. There might have also been some clever subtext to it as well. — frank

In those days, poets existed [made their living] through the patronage of the rich. They penned praises for their patrons. — L'éléphant

Excellent points. Thank you.

Still, as I recall, Socrates says he's interested in talking to him precisely because of his advanced age, and seems to hope it will be a more reflective time of life, when matters of the soul might loom larger than worldly affairs. And he crosses that interest with a question about his wealth, whether he can only spare his attention because of his financial security. (Maybe he doesn't specifically ask that, I don't remember, but he's interested in how much interest he has in money and why.) — Srap Tasmaner

I don't think we get an indication that Socrates hopes old age will be a more reflective time of life. The point is different. When Cephalus says that old age brings peace and freedom from the appetites, Socrates says

I imagine when you say that, Cephalus, the masses do not accept it. On the contrary, they think you bear old age more easily, not because of the way you live, but because you are wealthy. For the wealthy, they say, have many consolations. — 329e

And this is not just or primarily about how you live when you're old but about how you have lived throughout your life and what kind of character you have, a point that Cephalus has in fact already made. So Socrates approves of Cephalus to that extent.

Socrates next focuses on wealth and seems to drop his interest in old age. It's not clear how they relate to each other, but if old age is connected to power, as it was in prominent families of Athens, then the conversation leads quite naturally to Socrates' criticism of wealth and power in relation to the tyrants (Periander, or Perdiccas, and Xerxes, and Ismenias of Thebes). In other words, in the conversation with Cephalus it's not really about old age as such, but about traditional authority.

EDIT: I've realized that what I've said above is not a clear response to you. But I'll leave it and hope you can get something out of it.

To me, the idea of old age being naturally a philosophical period strikes me as quite reasonable and very Greek, if I may say so. At the other end, Socrates tries to get at the (noble) young before they're too caught up in responsibilities and cares. Also natural and reasonable, in the same way.

By "Greek" I mean that obsession with stages of growth and development, progression toward embodying your deepest nature, that stuff. — Srap Tasmaner

Good point. You can't be a philosopher king until you're 50. However, this is a final promotion following a life of preparation directed to the most noble way of serving the community, whereas Cephalus' turn to discussion in old age seems frivolous -- he has done the important work in his life already, and since he leaves the debate the moment he gets a difficult question, it looks like he's not so interested in discussion as he claims, or else he really just wants a chat.

But yes, Cephalus is not simply a bad or contemptible character. As is often the case in the Republic, Plato is dialectical in more than just the ancient Greek sense.

His age and circumstances allow him to be more interested in less worldly matters, like talking with Socrates, which won't make him or his family any richer. — Srap Tasmaner

Implying (unintentionally) that philosophy is only good when you're old and have nothing better to do, hardly something that would enamour him to Socrates.

But I agree that F's picture of him is a little one-sided.

Well, he does hold up Simonides as a man of wisdom, and he does (on the face of it) imply that Simonides could not have been wrong.

Yes. I look forward to hearing more. As yet, I don't understand enough to participate with any confidence. — Amity

It should be noted that what I'm interested in here is a side-issue. Many introductions and guides don't even mention it, so it's not important for reaching a basic understanding of the work.

EDIT: To be clear, the side-issue is what Socrates means in this passage from Book 1, not his views of poets and tyrants.

Thank you for starting this discussion. An exceptional OP with clear thoughts, quotes and sources. — Amity

Thank you.

My first attempt at reading Plato's Republic was some time ago. I think on the OnlinePhilosophyClub site. Even with help from Fooloso4 and an online course, I found it perplexing and gave up on it. — Amity

It is rather perplexing, yes, and only gets more perplexing the closer you look. The last time I read it, a long time ago now, I read it too shallowly. What's working for me this time is the Reeve translation and secondary literature such as An Introduction to Plato's Republic by Julia Annas, which is a pretty thorough analysis that's very good for encouraging you to read more closely than the text seems to demand at first.

I haven't watched the Yale videos but I did find a series of lectures that works as a reliable introductory guide (I've found many other videos, such as those by Michael Sugrue, to be engaging but unreliable and shallow).

I considered leading a reading group here but I have mixed feelings about them.

Maybe setting up a guilt by association? The wealthy pay the piper and he plays their tune. So the poet is just a tool. — Benkei

Guilt by association, yes, and several levels of it: (1) the definition is suspect because it came from these bad guys; (2) Polemarchus is ignorant or insuffiently virtuous for the same reason; and (3) is the weird one that I'm advancing, that the poets are bad too. The trouble with (3) is that Socrates explicitly says the opposite, and that's why I'm saying it's ironic.

Or undermining any claims to authority with respect to wealthy men and poets alike. — Benkei

Yep, that's part of what I'm getting at, I think.

Other than that, I've got nothing. — Benkei

No no, you did well.

Against that interpretation, it turns out (I should have checked before) that while Simonides was a poet, the other wise men mentioned — Bias and Pittacus — seem to have been sages or philosophers. I have a feeling that this doesn't entirely destroy my interpretation, but I'm not sure.

I always have to ask lots of "are you sure about x, because I thought it was y" kind of questions, whereupon it'll often say oh sorry, you're right — although sometimes it won't budge.

ChatGPT has provided me with a veritable flood of misinformation, and I don't even use it much.

'animals' seem to cover everthing other than insects and possibly some inverterbrates — Wayfarer

Quick note: invertebrates (including insects) are animals according to standard use. That's the use I'm most familiar with, though of course I'm aware of the fading usage you mention (mammals).

The Glutton by A. K. Blakemore.

I was actually wondering which of his works to read next, but English translations are not easy to find. Many of them seem to be out of print.

I read The Invention of Morel earlier this year. It's great, and surprising in a way I can't reveal without spoiling the story.

Very nice. I've added folk to the thread title.

:up:

If you're anything like me you never log out, in which case you'll never see it.

That made me wonder about the criteria for being accepted? I didn't have to go through that process and can't find information on 'how to join'... — Amity

The following message, visible if you're not logged in, is pinned to the top under the title Joining The Philosophy Forum:

The Philosophy Forum is now invitation-only, but anyone who wants to take part in philosophical discussions and who can follow the site guidelines is very welcome to join.

If you'd like us to send you an invitation, send an email to infoatthephilosophyforumdotcom telling us something about yourself, why you'd like to join, and what you're interested in.

Those emails go to me, and if they exhibit a genuine interest in philosophy and an ability to write reasonably well in English, I usually send an invitation.

Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges — javi2541997

Great book. I had some difficulty with it in the beginning: I read the first two or three stories in part one, The Garden of Forking Paths, and thought they were just mildly interesting thought experiments, written in a frustratingly terse manner, so I skipped over the rest and started part two, Artifices. I liked that much more, and when I finished it I went back to part one and for some reason I got on with it much better this time. I guess I had to get used to his writing.


I’ve just read the Republic by Plato, trans. C. D. C. Reeve. Now reading An Introduction to Plato’s Republic by Julia Annas. More than just an introduction, it’s a pretty thorough analysis of the whole work. Recommended.

And we're back. This time it was nothing to do with disk space. The data centre had a power outage.

No, mate. I don't participate in guiri things. — javi2541997

I once was aggressively called "Guiri" by a drunken Spanishman. Ironically, he was the one who was being uncouth; I was a perfect gentleman.

@BC @Amity @everyone

To clarify: if you don't join the Discord server you won't be left behind; the forum will always be at thephilosophyforum.com, and even if it did go down for an extended period, we'd bring it back as soon as possible.

So the Discord server will not replace this forum. It's somewhere to go in TPF emergencies, but also an optional social space for different kinds of interactions — we'll see if and how that develops.

I'll leave this discussion pinned for a few days so all frequently participating members can see it.

I don’t know if we’re safe and sound yet — Jamal

I wanted to say I didn’t know if we were out of the woods yet but I was worried that was just a Britishism that nobody else would understand. I was just referring to what seemed to be ongoing problems when I wrote the post.

Adrian thinks it's partly because the posts on this forum are especially large. But it's mostly uploads. When I deleted the big ones I freed up some space but not enough.

Update: the disk was full again. I'll have to clear out a lot more files than I did last time. With uploads turned off I didn't think we'd fill up the disk again so quickly.

This is something of a relief, as it means there is nothing more worrying happening than what happened last time.

There's a risk that Plush, our current platform, will cease operating before we manage to set up a new forum and move all the data across, so I've tried to ensure the community doesn't fall apart. The downtime this morning made me worry enough to set up the Discord server.

(In case anyone's wondering, I don't think there's a significant risk of our losing all our data, i.e., the posts.)

It's not a replacement for TPF or the place that TPF is moving to. It's to make sure nobody gets lost if the worst happens, or just somewhere to hang out whether or not the site happens to be down.

Also note that voice chat is merely an option.

Take pleasure in it while you have the chance, for a storm is brewing on yonder horizon.

I'd be interested to hear your views on using 'Aesthetics' as a category or sub-category? It seems broader in scope with non-argumentative approaches as to what we find beautiful and valuable in human experience. Also, our aesthetic experience, response or attitude to works of art, including objects and nature. — Amity

Aesthetics is cool. It comes under philosophy of art, and we have a category for that. There's no requirement for elaborate argumentation; there just has to be some philosophical meat. More than just a mention of an idea.

As @javi2541997 has just said, his aim was not really to discuss the aesthetic ideas, but to share his appreciation with others, so the Lounge was the right place for it. But as I said, I likely would not have removed it from the philosophy of art category if it had originally been placed there.

:up:

If started by anyone else other than the site owner, then it 'probably' would have been moved!
The privilege of power, huh?! :smile: — Amity

I don't think so. If I recall correctly, I started it because there had been one on the old forum, and if anyone else had done it that would've also been fine.

Isn't that 'philosophical' enough? — Amity

It certainly would be if explicated and developed, because it's a good thought.

Yes, but I think he wasn't in that theoretical frame of mind. He primarily just wanted to share poems, thoughts or recommendations — Amity

It's because it's non-theoretical that it probably doesn't belong in a philosophy category.

just as he does in the Main Page 'Currently Reading' thread — Amity

Yes, that thread is something of an anomaly, though I'm happy with where it is.

It probably doesn't fit in Philosophy of Art, but I might not have moved it to the Lounge if it had been placed there originally, because I just like to see threads about art, literature, etc.

Anyway, the germ of some possible philosophical content in the OP is probably this bit:

that's precisely what I feel when I read poems: Unbearable nostalgia — javi2541997

If Javi had made a brief argument as to how and why this is an important part of the appreciation of literature, that would have been enough to make it belong unambiguously on the main page, in my opinion.