Continuing on essays from Lear’s Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1988).
More about reading Plato as comedy and tragedy. Then, which part of the soul (if any) is fundamental? Finally, we consider Plato’s take against poetry.
Ep. 266: Jonathan Lear’s Plato: Psyche and Society (Part One for Supporters)
On essays from Lear’s Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1988): “Inside and Outside the Republic,” “Eros and Unknowing: The Psychoanalytic Significance of Plato’s Symposium,” and “An Interpretation of Transference,” which compares Socrates’ questioning with psychotherapy.
Is Plato’s analogy between mind and state in The Republic a good one? What can we learn from it about what makes for a stable, healthy character? How does eros (desire) fit into this picture? Lear gives a creative, helpful reading of Plato informed by psychoanalysis.
Philosophy and Film: Logan on Life
What would it be like to live forever? The question has been addressed in dramatic form both in Karel Capek’s play The Makropulos Affair and in the movie Logan. The eminent philosopher Bernard Williams wrote an article about Elina Makropulos, who’s become bored with it all. How is Logan different?
Blaming Buried Prejudice: Neil Levy on implicit bias and moral responsibility
Science shows that though a person accused of discrimination may sincerely deny harboring any kind of prejudice, their choices and actions may have been modulated by implicit biases operating below the level of conscious intention. Are people morally responsible for such acts and attitudes?