Manny’s answer to “When viewing your book "The New Adventures of Socrates", Amazon lists three Ayn Rand books as "prod…” > Likes and Comments

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message 1: by Jim (new)

Jim As an "undergrad philosopher" (who only read a few "Dialogs" as a teen) I have mostly only read commentaries/summaries of "works". Even more distant, I've only read snippets of commentaries on The Republic and "philosopher kings".

Given the implications of "kings" and the alleged top-down control in The Republic, it's a sure bet that Rand loathed The Republic.

As for Objectivists, who cares? Without power or general misbehavior (or, given the non-aggression principle, simple rhetorical influence/persuasion) extreme fringes are properly ignored.

Off to find commentaries on New Adventures


message 2: by Jim (new)

Jim Not so "fringy" (and all too common) see Kamelkatt above, who thinks that extreme wealth implies "minimum wage" workers - and who may well be wearing shoes/clothes produced by grateful 3rd-World workers (as I am - also grateful).

Good thing HE is not a "king" in the Platonic mold.


message 3: by Manny (new)

Manny Given the implications of "kings" and the alleged top-down control in The Republic, it's a sure bet that Rand loathed The Republic.

Given that Socrates is using the Republic as a metaphor for the mind, that would be rather wonderfully ironic. But I wouldn't be at all surprised to find it was true.


message 4: by Jim (new)

Jim "Metaphor for the mind" - it seems that some have taken Plato's thought-experiment as more prescriptive than metaphorical - though that may be a series of invalid inferences on my part.

I once had an older colleague that said the Darwin has be similarly misused. He would say:

"Everyone has an axe to grind. Darwin gave them an edge"

(more metaphors)

I will definitely buy your book - perhaps you can recommend a modern-English translation - annotated and/or otherwise? Have Amazon ship that, too.


message 5: by Manny (new)

Manny I'll be interested to see what you think of the New Adventures!

I'm afraid to say I used the now universally scorned Jowett translation. I kind of like the nineteenth century language, but experts (which, alas, I am not), say there are much better ones as far as accuracy goes.


message 6: by Jim (new)

Jim I'll look for the Jowett - though as a "modern" lazy reader - now lazier as I get older (1958 was a very good year for us both) - I may "bail" and get a more "colloquial" one. For sure, I'll enjoy yours - and may forgo "further study". Next stop - Project Gutenberg.


message 7: by Manny (new)

Manny I must admit that one of the reasons I read the Jowett edition was being lucky enough to find a high quality two volume bound edition at a reasonable price.


message 8: by Jim (new)

Jim Well, THAT was EASY - now have a text file of the Jowett - can now readily read it on a laptop. Sampling - it seems to be fine - not too tough. If I really get interested, I'll edit parts of it meself. Thanks!


message 9: by Manny (new)

Manny Delighted to hear that you and the estimable Professor Jowett are already on good terms!


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