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cjet79  3mo ago (text post)   1194 thread views

Tinker Tuesday

This was really popular last week, I was really impressed with how many hardworking hobbyist type people we have here. It got me motivated to do some of my own things.

As a reminder, this thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers. We can coordinate weekly standup type meetings if their is interest.

Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.

Also naming the thread. Tinker Tuesday or taskmaster Tuesday, or something else? I switched the thread to Tuesday instead of Monday because the culture war thread refreshes on Monday.

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The Ancient literature plan seems like a solid list, although I'm curious if you will just be doing readings from some of the longer works. Even for me as a fairly motivated reader, I found the Republic to be quite daunting just to get through, let alone begin to comprehend. At least for a intro class, a collection of Plato's shorter dialogues seems more optimal and a better introduction. Hard to go wrong with the classic Trial and Death sequence (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo). Lots of good discussion to be had in those four.

Also interested to know why you went for Antigone instead of starting with Oedipus Rex.

Here are a couple cool websites for Dante specifically; commentary and illustrations that might be helpful for students: http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/ (this one has study questions at the bottom of each section) https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/ (commentary, side-by-side Italian/English)

Second the recommendation of the trial and death sequence. The Republic is a very daunting text, whereas those are more engaging and comprehensible. I'd suggest, if that frees up space, to add Xenophon's Apology alongside Plato's. That can start a discussion about how to read Plato's portrayal of Socrates critically - e.g. Xenophon's Socrates is much funnier, explicitly making jokes. A couple possible questions that could get students reading critically, particularly regarding the dramatic framing of the dialogues (which often goes unquestioned, but is extremely important):

  • Why does Socrates decide, right before his trial for impiety, to publicly play games with a priest?
  • Did Socrates want to die, and if so, why? (This connects to the themes of glory in the Iliad, if you raise the explanation that perhaps Socrates wanted a death that was glorious in its own way, which would ensure the immortality of his legend and of philosophy itself. Also to the Job/Antigone question of bad things happening to good people, if Socrates has found a way to turn the bad to his good)
  • How serious is Socrates? Is it different from the way we would think of a philosopher or teacher as serious? Can joking or even trolling be a way to be serious about something higher?
  • Plato was the founder of the Academy (and, in some ways, closer to a startup founder than the dean of a modern university), whereas Xenophon was a military man who lived outside Athens and had little fear of their authorities. Does that show up in the way they write their Apologies? E.g. Plato provides a magnificent speech showing off his rhetoric (which could be yours, for a small fee), whereas Xenophon makes Socrates more relatable.
  • Were the authorities right, from their perspective, to execute Socrates? Was philosophy destabilizing to Athens? Is youthful ambition inherently dangerous to the powerful? (connects to Iliad and to some extent Antigone)

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