Thoughts on philosophy and literature

  1. Literature and philosophy are both very loose terms. How do they relate to each other?
  2. Citizenship in ancient Greece = upper class men with property = minority of the public able to participate in democracy.
  3. Plato’s disenchantment with Athenian politics emphasised by Socrates’ death.
  4. Philosophy for Plato = search for wisdom and to reach happiness with knowledge.
  5. Republic:
    – how a republic should run
    – a utopia
    – run by philosophers because they know the truth and hence back better rulers
    – politicians = very suspicious
  6. A stick in the water looks bent. Perceptions can be distorted.
  7. The Good?
  8. Socrates: the distinction between immortal + mortal, soul + body, intelligible + sensible
  9. Binary oppositions/dualisms
  10. Pay attention to what is being said and how Plato is articulating his arguments: rhetoric, metaphors, etc
  11. Reason = philosophy
    Emotion + Appetites = poetry = dangerous for the soul
  12. Paradoxes
  13. Literature: narrative, figurative language, etc – but philosophical ideas can be discussed using these means.
  14. Ideas > Appearances > Representations
  15. Literature for Plato is third in the hierarchy: representation
  16. Plato is not a diadactic author, he uses poetic language to condemn poets
  17. If a poem makes us feel sorry we deem them a good poet; yet if we feel sorrow ourselves we pride ourselves on bearing it quietly like a man.
  18. Philosophy: rational, reasoning, masculine, restraint, serious, good
  19. Poetry: excites emotions, pleasure, bad
  20. Ironists
  21. The role of the Chorus: decision makers, get play back on track, refocus action
  22. Cycle of vengeance/bloodshed
  23. What defines ‘tragedy’? In a play, in life?
  24. Perspective
  25. Mother and son relationships
  26. Hesitations and pauses
  27. Patriarchal roles of women
  28. Are there no such thing as good and bad guys? No truly good and evil characters?
  29. Retribution
  30. Night is the daughter of Chaos
  31. Closure
  32. Tangling and untangling of ideas
  33. Tragedy can talk about things that can’t be spoken about in the marketplace, yet is still limited and demarcated
  34. Exogomous social relationships: related to each other through exchange of kin, eg daughters marrying sons so the men are related to each other
  35. Giving gifts to build relationships. Most precious gift in ancient Greece were women
  36. Patriarchal = ruled by the fathers

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