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Week 9 and Week 10

  BLOG 10 I believe people tend to feel catharsis at tragic and unfortunate events because these unlock hidden and repressed moral, spiritual, and emotional instincts that humans feel are too impolite to share or express. These true and genuine feelings are taboo, and only come out in the most inappropriate and inauspicious of times. Thus, when watching the worst events happen, especially to people or places removed from us, we feel confirmed and grounded. We see that life not only has a capacity to harm our highest officers, but that forces of nature can and will assign misfortune at a moment’s notice. This powerful and wholesome feeling gives us pleasure because it makes life more realistic and meaningful. It gives us a certain pleasure that we have inimical flaws that keep us from ascending to the Garden of Eden. We are addicted to our own tribal, animalistic instincts. I felt this most acutely when several conservative leaders started to contract serious coronavirus infection...
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Week 8

 Already knowing Martin Luther King's famous speeches and half knowing his later shift to economic justice (some would say, socialistic politics), what shocked me the most was King's deep disapproval from the American public. In early 1968, Martin Luther King was disapproved by 75% of the American Public. The same Harris Poll shown than 60% of Black citizens in America believed that he was irrelevant. In the final years of his life, he was 25 points more unpopular than he was in 1963 when he gave his historic address. Of course, there are some situational factors, such as the race riots, but nothing surprised me more than seeing King's popularity declined as he kept pushing for more achievements. The statistics only speak for themselves.  https://news.gallup.com/poll/20920/martin-luther-king-jr-revered-more-after-death-than-before.aspx
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Week 7

 Susan B Anthony's Civil Disobedience (Natural Rights) In 1872, Susan B Anthony went on a barnstorming speaking tour throughout the 29 and 21 towns and villages of Monroe and Ontario County. While opinion polling did not exist in the late 19th century, her speechifying was effective enough for the prosecution to transfer her to the United States Circuit Court at Canandaigua for a less sympathetic jury to hear her case.  Susan B Anthony's speech and the case for disobedience is already persuasive enough with her title, but what set apart her rhetoric from standard suffragette beliefs was her arguments rooted in the Natural Rights ingrained in the constitution. Despite advocating for a government intervention to change the law an existing law (and legitimize positive action in an age of negative liberty), Ms. Anthony calls for women to vote used Natural Rights and old negative libertarian arguments that appealed to the average American's skeptical dispensation against the gov...
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Week 6

" Hayim Greenberg, editor of The Jewish Frontier and an admirer of Gandhi, wrote to him, ‘a Jewish Gandhi in Germany, should one arise, could function for about five minutes and would be promptly taken to the guillotine.’ Gandhi replied that Hitler too was a human being, that the Jews, who were going to be slaughtered anyway, should have asserted their dignity and freely chosen their way of death, and that such an action was bound to have an effect on ordinary Germans, if not immediately at least a little later (lxviii. 137–41). His reply had a point, but it rested on an uncritical faith in the power of non-violence and showed little understanding of the complex ways in which totalitarian systems brutalized the community, demoralized the victims, distorted public discourse, and undermined the basic preconditions of satyagraha. (Bikhu Parekh,  Gandhi, A short Introduction,  p.75)" Gandhi's peaceful means have not worked everywhere. While his methods have not been followed ...
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Week 5

  Do you agree with Thoreau's argument that action according to conscience (i.e moral action) is not compatible with living in a representative democracy  where decisions are based on collective agreement?     Thoreau's essay uses several persuasive arguments to proposition. His most persuasive argument is his detestation of those whom " disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support, are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform." Thoreau implores these conscientious patriots to intellectually secede from the state and refuse to pay taxes. Above all, Thoreau asks, "Do not they stand in the same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union?" Thoreau's argument rests upon two chief assumptions: people are more likely to obey a government because of coercion. This coercion is so strong because most people are unwilling and unlikely to ...
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Week 4 Blog Prompt

  In Book 7, Socrates describes education as a 'turning around' of the soul. How do you think education today would look different if this was the guiding idea? Also, what else is wrong with education today? Are there any radical changes you would like to see in education (K-12 or college)  today? Explain why. Socratic Education Plato's Socratic Education is described as an elitist molding program that shapes the morals and logical powers of said Philosopher Kings. Since the Rulers (gold souls) of Kallipolis aren't allowed to own property and own wealth, the city's elite (presumably the richest producers and most talented Auxlillaries) are to train the prospective leaders physically (Gymnastics), intellectually (Astronomy, Geometry) and philosophically (Modern-day Science and Philosophy were one and the same in ancient times. There was no hard/soft science split either). Philosopher-kings would be excellently able to steer the ship of state.  Modern-day political po...
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Books 5 and 6 Plato's Republic

 Books 5 and 6 concentrated on the Just City (Kallipolis). Professor Foster makes it a point to INTERPRET the text rather than to passively accept the text. Books 5 and 6 are arguably the two chapters that readers must differentiate between Plato and Socrates and rigorously interpret the words rather than passively accept Bloom's translation. Socrates or Plato, perhaps even Bloom, construct Kallitopolis through intense storytelling. Not only are we treated towards "waves" (communism of women and children, eugenics, and the like) we also have rapid and compelling rhetoric. Unlike other books, Socrates takes center stage. Instead of playing the fool to reveal foolishness, he is now in full command of his powers. In my opinion, Plato is baring his soul and giving us his personal reasons as to why his life must not be repeated and why Athenian democracy and Athenian excess has led to where the Greek Peninsula is the state it is in now. Reading this in 2020, it's not hard ...
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