Class #2 Review

Despite the time we had to devote to housekeeping issues, we accomplished quite a bit today. We even learned (some of) each other's names. I want to praise you guys for asking so many good questions and contributing so much to the dialogue. That's what we're here for.

Concepts we addressed pretty well
-Thinking/making/doing overlap in all but the most hypothetical real-life scenarios, but the way that we define their interaction is what matters. Plato, Aristotle, Schwab, you, me, etc. are going to define them in somewhat different ways.
-Speaking of defining things, philosophy (a.k.a. thinking) means trying to produce more coherent and accurate definitions of concepts. This is what Socrates wants his buddies at the party to do, this is what Schwab wants us to do, etc.
-How do we do that? It's messy. It won't follow a set order in the way that the conventional symposium ritual is supposed to. It will be digressive rather than successive in other words. It will have a proper medium, which is dialogue, or what Plato terms "dialectic." Not every kind of conversation is a dialectic. A dialectic is when smart people (for Plato, men only) talk about abstract concepts like "love" and attempt to reach better definitions of them.

Concepts we didn't address
-Which of these guys would you prefer to hang out with if you had to choose?
-Is this a dialogue about sex or about philosophy? (Hannah's q.)
-Is this dialogue supposed to be funny or philosophical? (Shae's q.)

Agenda for Wednesday
-Finish meeting each other
-Close analysis of Introduction, Phaedrus, Pausanius, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates-Agathon... as much as we can

Concepts we didn't address
-Complete survey (Bryan & Florence only)
-If you haven't successfully posted the listserv and/or to this blog, try again
-Re-read Symposium 1-44 and answer one of the questions assigned to your row. Pick the one you actually find most interesting, not the one that's fastest to answer, OK? Also, it would be helpful if you print out all the study questions and bring them to class.
-Read Guide 21-22
-Do Discovery Task #1