This is NOT Over
Here is a life in desperate need of a rimshotJune 27, 2012
Wednesday June 27, 1990 A
Shoddy-Ass Court
How does Socrates ask the
question “How should I live?”? Did I use
question marks correctly in that last sentence with the quote? Hmmm…as time goes on the questions seem less
important, at least if they come from me they are unimportant not to say
utterly inconsequential.
Hmmm….?
According to both Frisch and
Mr. S., our study of Plato’s and Xenophon’s Socrates is an antidote to
philosophies and philosophers that have affected or infected our times. The Socrates we get from these authors, if we
understand what we are reading is a thinker who both understands the city and
lives in tension with the city. This
understanding is a big part of what draws me to these things in these classes I
am taking now.
Once upon a time, I was at a
party with PSBFH where one of her philosophy professors was holding court. Oh, and at a party like that, trust me, it
was a shoddy-ass court. But this
professor from the 9th floor (that’s the Phil Dept) was making the
same BS ‘let’s try to see ourselves outside the bonds and shackles of civil
society and social convention’ to what end,
I don’t know.
Now, if he was saying that
stupid shit just to get in some coed’s pants, I’ve got no problem with
that. But if he really means it then he
is dumber than he looks…and this dumbass was sporting big, gray feathered hair,
small wire-rimmed specs and a John Lennon “Imagine” t-shirt.
Come to think of it, if he
gets in a coed’s pants with that look he can have her.
His main point, whatever it
was, whatever its purpose could only be understood once we imagine men and
women being truly human, truly natural and living without imposed social
learning and institutions.
I remember asking him, “And
where were you living when you thought of this?”
PSBFH rolled her eyes at
me. Sadly no one else got the joke, not
even the philosophy prof (or he didn’t want to give me the satisfaction of
thinking he cared about the joke). He
just said, “Stuttgart.”
Maybe he did get the joke and
that was his half-hearted effort at a retort.
If that’s the case, both of us were jerks. And not very funny jerks…but that’s the kind
of party it was.
Loser parties with philosophy
professors aside, what attracts me to some of the things I find in the POLS
Dept is they examine these theories put forth in the context of the way men
live, the way we live. There’s none of
this ‘to begin understanding humans we must understand being in the
abstract.’ No one lives in the
abstract. They live in close (some would
say too close) quarters with other people, in families, neighborhoods, cities
and countries…AND all of these have some sort of structure and or expectations
that are part of living conditions therein.
Did I use therein correctly?
Let’s hope not.
I’m not saying I’m crazy
about all or any of the components of family, neighborhood, city, country
etc…but to “imagine” man without these things either misses the point entirely
or yields a thought that is not very useful to actual people living in actual
places.
Maybe Frisch and the rest have
to emphasize the city in an Intro to Political Philosophy class (or Sorrenson
with the floor class) because they want to make a case for POLITICAL philosophy
and distinguish it from the idea of philosophy in the ivory tower. But it’s a case worth making as we all live
together in these, sometimes very necessary, sometimes very messy situations.
posted by edP # 9:29 AM 
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