Comments on seek echo: doubling a square

Yes you are right. Im sure that Socrates' expositi...

2008-12-20T14:38:00.000-08:00

Yes you are right. Im sure that Socrates' exposition of an argument was electrifying and in itself generated some of the trance state suggested by the stylised text. People must have felt in the presence of something enthralling and compelling.

It must be a very "hypnotic" experience to go on T...

2008-11-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

It must be a very "hypnotic" experience to go on TV for the first time. Maybe a bit like going to the doctor's. I become a bit of an automaton when I go to my GP. I can carry news of one ailment in, but any more is not possible. There's a kind of hypnotic ritual and agreeableness that takes over: yes, doctor, no doctor, thank you doctor.

It's hard to believe that Socrates really had such a hypnotic personality, or that people were ever so sheeplike in their willingness to patiently follow the steps of someone else's argument. Especially as Socrates often picked strong personalities, and ones not necessarily in agreement with him.

But, even if people were not quite so well behaved, he did get people to follow a arguement through , that I believe. Xenophon's symposium shows that it isn't just Plato that tidied things up.

However if there was a "Michael" dialogue, it would be a very short one. There is no chance of him taking you in the same direction he set out in...

Yes, very appealing.It reminds me of a TV show fro...

2008-11-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, very appealing.

It reminds me of a TV show from the late sixties called 'Double Your Money' with Michael Miles.
The game began with a question and answer format where the contestant was not allowed to say Yes or No.If the contestant gave a Yes or No they could not continue. Michael Miles would rattle through a series of mundane questions and suddenly would drop in an assertion such as You are married aren't you?
It was an age where TV dialogue was more rigid and conventions of speech less flexible. Most people were discovering a telephone voice.A craven courtesy seemed to make the game harder to play; formal politeness drove people to quick agreement.
Like the Sneetches on those wild screaming beaches,victims of transient fashion, maybe Plato's superbly turned dialogues in part reflect fashionable speech patterns of the day.

It is stunning, I agree.And that idea, that ideal,...

2008-10-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

It is stunning, I agree.

And that idea, that ideal, of leading students to have their own opinions based on the facts of the case is an excellent one, isn't it?

As I said in this post:
http://seekecho.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-maths.html

- "And so there is a path you follow, a footpath - only one person at a time. But it could be sociable too if other people were doing that kind of walking.

It's not unique to maths. It could be hunting. Or poetry..."

(Have a look at my next post for the less-than-ideal!)

The gods come into the Meno dialogue:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Meno
but I'd need to reread it to comment properly on that.

This is a beautiful dialogue. Stunning!But I wonde...

2008-10-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful dialogue. Stunning!

But I wonder if instead of mathmatical - rational and logical thought the boy was asked about God?