From jbutrica@morgan.ucs.mun.ca Tue Oct 1 05:32:20 2002 Received: from mailscan3.cac.washington.edu (mailscan3.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.15]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.09) with SMTP id g91CWHFD170910 for ; Tue, 1 Oct 2002 05:32:17 -0700 Received: FROM mxu1.u.washington.edu BY mailscan3.cac.washington.edu ; Tue Oct 01 05:32:17 2002 -0700 Received: from cerberus.ucs.mun.ca (cerberus.ucs.mun.ca [134.153.2.162]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.09) with ESMTP id g91CWGdX029508 for ; Tue, 1 Oct 2002 05:32:16 -0700 Received: from [134.153.128.98] (drusus.clas.mun.ca [134.153.128.98]) by cerberus.ucs.mun.ca (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g91CWAHh006207 for ; Tue, 1 Oct 2002 10:02:12 -0230 (NDT) X-Sender: jbutrica@pop.morgan.ucs.mun.ca Message-Id: In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 10:02:12 +0100 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: James Butrica Subject: Re: Charmides & Critias, Call Your Office! >http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/25/education/25WEST.html >forward by >Christian Kopff >University of Colorado, Boulder >kopff@spot.colorado.edu >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >After Storm, Scholar Starts at Princeton With a Whisper >September 25, 2002 By KAREN W. ARENSON > >PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 24 - Cornel West hurried into the >seminar room with a fat volume of Plato tucked under his >arm, nodded to the students and without ceremony started to ........ Mr. Summers had suggested that he was >grading too easily and not producing enough scholarly work. Personally, I find grading one of the hardest aspects of the job. >"Evil," he said. "Oh, lord. It's a lifetime project." > Not *there's* something you could take out of context and have fun with! >He did not try to explain the more than 300 pages of >Plato's "Republic" that the students read this week, so >much as to introduce them to Plato as a human being known >by his nickname Does anyone know what he's talking about? Plato wasn't Plato's real name? > >"I can imagine that Socrates's disciples were as taken with >him as we are with Professor West," she said. "While >Professor West mentioned the molding of individuals and >fostering of original ideas, I also thought of how every >one of us in the class probably is just waiting to offer >something special to the rest of world and that Professor >West is the very means to that. Here he is, one of the >greatest minds and educators of this day, giving us the >tools we need to become strong individuals. Very cool to >think about." Strength through sycophancy, it would appear. > >But Plato the person was just the base. Professor West went >on to talk about Plato's conception of how philosopher >kings should rule the world and how he believed that they >also must also return to the cave after they are educated. >He tried to get the students to think about that in terms >of their own lives. > >"For those few persons who make it out of the cave and are >educated, down they must go again," he said. "Who would >want to go back? But Plato says that this is for the public >good. They can't live on a mountain, isolated and >insulated." Let's hope nobody introduces this guy to the *Laws*. But at least now we know what the myth of the cave was all about: it was about leaving the library for the cafeteria, where "others" make your food. >By then, the students, who had listened hard for more than >two hours, were ready to jump in. "What is the ordinary >world?" one asked. > Only at an Ivy League university! The only question funnier than this one would be, "Professor, what does the Greek say in this passage?" James L. P. Butrica Department of Classics The Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's NL A1C 5S7 (709) 737-7914 / (709) 753-5799 (home) .