I read a book, “The Socratic Method” by Ward Farnsworth. In this book, he recounts a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams after reading “The Republic. Which I thought was interesting;
He writes: “While wading thro’ the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?... With the moderns, I think, it is rather a matter of fashion and authority. Education is chiefly in the hands of persons who, from their profession, have an interest in the reputation and the dreams of Plato. They give the tone while at school, and few in their after-years have occasion to revise their college opinions.”
He goes on to say that Jefferson was well-versed in Greek and loved Epictetus, Epicurus, and other philosophers from antiquity.
I guess each to their own.
I found Plato’s Apology is completely different from Xenophon’s recollections of Socrates.
I read a book, “The Socratic Method” by Ward Farnsworth. In this book, he recounts a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams after reading “The Republic. Which I thought was interesting;
He writes: “While wading thro’ the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?... With the moderns, I think, it is rather a matter of fashion and authority. Education is chiefly in the hands of persons who, from their profession, have an interest in the reputation and the dreams of Plato. They give the tone while at school, and few in their after-years have occasion to revise their college opinions.”
He goes on to say that Jefferson was well-versed in Greek and loved Epictetus, Epicurus, and other philosophers from antiquity.
I guess each to their own.
I found Plato’s Apology is completely different from Xenophon’s recollections of Socrates.
Oh well...