Tuesday, June 24
Book 8 at last
Hey all, sorry I'm a bit late, of course, someone else could've posted a question on Book 8. (any volunteers for Book 9??) As of now, I am realiziing it is taking me a whole heck of a lot longer to do the readings since I started reading 40+ pages of War and Peace every day... hmm. I am quite fine however at a nice slow pace...
So, Book 8!
It is so exciting, don't ya'll think?? Well, I was loving sections 2 and 3... and all the Plato stuff. In section 3, Augustine recaps the history of the life of Socrates. He remarks, "that very city of the Athenians, which had publicly condemned him, did publicly bewail him- the popular indignation having turned with such vehemence on his accusers, that one of them perished by the violence of the multitude...." I found this event quite interesting, as a parallel to Jesus. Jesus too was condemned by the city to die, though the disciples in "bewailing" Jesus never resorted to violence. While Jesus was still living, that had been their initial reaction (ex: Peter chopping off a guard's ear when Judas hands Jesus over, etc.), but were rebuked for violence. As a result, after Jesus' death (and resurrection) His followers only preached and healed and never used violence in the way that Augustine describes with Athens. I thought this was very interesting, as Jesus also had many followers, that only increased in number after His death, and we can say the same about Socrates and the Socratic philosophy.
the reason I am so interested in this section, incase anyone was wondering, was beacsue i am thinking about writing my senior essay on this, namely, contrasting the philosophies of Socrates and Jesus. Any thoughts to this end would be most appreciated. :)
So I don't really have a question, but, wanted to point some things out that I enjoyed and found interesting.
also, at the end of section 8, it says "But the true and highest good, according to Plato, is God, and therefore he would call him a philosopher who loves God; for philosophy is directed to the obtaining of the blessed life, and he who loves God is blessed in the enjoyment of God."
so we really are philosophers! (haha)
Re:Dwight on Will
I have the same tendency to think of God as Big Guy in the Sky... you put our conundrum nicely ;)
