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"for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written

by natrik 8y ago

"for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality." - Socrates on writing/reading The existence of hard and pressing problems does not mean all resources should be diverted to them - capitalism. I feel you're exaggerating a bit much, though I get what you're trying to say.

decebalus1 8y ago
re-reading my post and I agree with you, I think I'm exaggerating. Perhaps I'm having a depressing “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” moment. I feel like all this money and energy is being thrown at crap that will eventually work against our best interests as a society.
throw11a 8y ago
To put this in context [1], Socrates is repeating a story about an Egyptian king responding to an Egyptian god who invented writing. Socrates does mostly agree with the king. I disagree with Socrates that wise teachers would only put their thoughts down in writing for amusement, but his general point is that you can't ask books questions and they can't defend themselves, and that they aren't the best way of transferring knowledge from person to person. If you ever read a book critically, or if you appreciate a lecture or a live teacher to understand material instead of a textbook, you agree with him in ways. Also, the entire world has had oral traditions outside of writing for the millennia since Socrates that have only been recently stamped down by radio and TV. [1] http://www.units.miamioh.edu/technologyandhumanities/plato.htm http://www.units.miamioh.edu/technologyandhumanities/plato.h... edit: There was more time between the invention of Egyptian writing (which the Greek alphabet was ultimately derived from) and Socrates than between the death of Socrates and today, so it's not like he didn't understand the use of writing, or thought it was some new-fangled thing.

by natrik 8y ago

decebalus1 8y ago

re-reading my post and I agree with you, I think I'm exaggerating. Perhaps I'm having a depressing “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” moment. I feel like all this money and energy is being thrown at crap that will eventually work against our best interests as a society.

throw11a 8y ago

To put this in context [1], Socrates is repeating a story about an Egyptian king responding to an Egyptian god who invented writing. Socrates does mostly agree with the king. I disagree with Socrates that wise teachers would only put their thoughts down in writing for amusement, but his general point is that you can't ask books questions and they can't defend themselves, and that they aren't the best way of transferring knowledge from person to person. If you ever read a book critically, or if you appreciate a lecture or a live teacher to understand material instead of a textbook, you agree with him in ways. Also, the entire world has had oral traditions outside of writing for the millennia since Socrates that have only been recently stamped down by radio and TV. [1] http://www.units.miamioh.edu/technologyandhumanities/plato.htm http://www.units.miamioh.edu/technologyandhumanities/plato.h... edit: There was more time between the invention of Egyptian writing (which the Greek alphabet was ultimately derived from) and Socrates than between the death of Socrates and today, so it's not like he didn't understand the use of writing, or thought it was some new-fangled thing.