Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:00:57 -0600
From: Carrol Cox <cbcox-AT-ilstu.edu>
Subject: Re: BHA: Re: Re: Primacy of practice, sophistry, and other fun stuff




Tobin Nellhaus wrote:
> 
> 
> I wasn't exactly defending Sophism, so much as saying they made some good
> points and I share some of their concerns (and that if pressed, many of you
> would feel likewise).  You're of course quite right that in the situations I
> described, "the argument for the merits of lying is not the worse
> argument" -- but I suspect Plato would just consider that to be sophistry.
> 

Of course the rich aristocrat (and friend of terrorists) Plato would
condemn be paid for offering knowledge. But I don't see how anyone
accepting a salary from a university of school system can be equally
contemptuous of the Sophists.

And of course Plato stated that the very basis of class society (which
he defended) was a Big Lie. The Liars were supposed (in the second or
third generation) to believe The Big Lie themselves. (The popularity of
_The Bell Curve_ shows that Plato's intellectual and political
descendants are only too anxious to believe The Big Lie.)

I taught an undergraduate course in "Ancient Literature" for almost 30
years; I built the course around the contrast between the _Odyssey_ and
the _Republic_ -- and I would tell students that the purpose in reading
the _Republic_ was to understand The Enemy.

Carrol



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