From: SQUONKSTAIL@aol.com
Date: Sat Feb 08 2003 - 12:44:48 GMT
In a message dated 2/8/03 11:43:45 AM GMT Standard Time,
elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk writes:
> At the risk of resurrecting dead threads, this is a conceit that goes back
> to Socrates, and the search for the definition of the good. When Socrates
> seeks a particular definition, he is precisely seeking that intellectual
> certainty which cannot be found - and, in fact, using his dialectical
> method
> politically, to overthrow those who articulated the values of Athenian
> society at the time.
Hello there,
Socrates used elenchus and not dialectic. Dialectic is Plato's invention.
The good cannot be defined and this is explicitly stated by Plato in The
Republic.
However, the good is the source of everything and as such begins to sound
like Quality; it is those later thinkers who wished to use the transcendent
for their own social purposes that cause perturbation and despair.
The Athenian polis was run by thugs, and Plato simply wished for these
individuals to love each other. He wished for them to 'beget in love' visions
of how things ought to be when we look the absolute in the face and delight
in its presence.
Squonk.
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