his death I'm not even kidding has left a hole in my heart, the fact we will never see or hear anyone like him again really makes me sad, there was only one professor Michael sugrue now he is no more.
This is beautiful: "The source of war is luxurious life. Trying to get more than you have a need for, which means extending your borders to satisfy your desires."
I just turned 21 and I have such a burning desire for these deep conversations and revelations. I hope to someday dedicate my life to these questions and my own questions, not for money but for the truth! I started a company and I’m on track to retire early so I can! I’m so so excited and this channel has taken my interest to another level and I greatly appreciate these posts, thank you so much❤️ you’re helping people develop their own path through this crazy life and I so appreciate it
Absolutely brilliant. Tried to read the republic a few times but gave up because never could make head or tail of it. All I needed was a brilliant teacher like you. Thank you, Sir.
Hey if this guy is still alive, I want to say thank you for this. It has been really helpful in understanding this book. I read the first book and was unimpressed by socrates arguements, I thought they were flimsy and seemingly overrated. But then I watched this video and you called me out perfectly, saying that it was to invite glaucon and adeimantus to engage. You also said that if you think plato is making a bad agrument, read it again and your probably wrong, which I also really appriciate. I just finished book 5 and I'm looking forward to the rest. Thank you for your work
Is he stilll allive??is that the question??and if sooooo,and if so, if so,if soooo I HEARDDDD Sugrue's STILLLLL ALIVVVVE OHHHH IIIII HEARDDDDD Sugrue's STILL ALIVE...YEA YEA YEA OHHH OHHH...keep giving Cancer a bombastic lecture ,Doc
Dr. Sugrue--Thank You for clarifying and integrating ideas that enrich our lives! Without you and your brilliant efforts the world would have remained a complete mystery but you have provided a path to understanding!!!
Dr Sugrue, Thank you for your kindness and your generosity to upload this exceptional lecture of yours, for us all to benefit from it. Your summary and analysis of the four books of the Republic is brilliant. Thank you again.
I came here to watch the video after reading the book. Super impressed with how Prof. does it like story telling. Would’ve been privileged to attend one of his lectures and hear him speak in real life
Dr. Sugrue, your lectures are overwhelming brilliant, entertaining, and digestible. I can not thank you enough for making them publicly available. You are a philosopher king among men, & I am so grateful.
I dove into western philosophy at Descartes. I had many questions, the answers to which I found in the Republic. It took several reads and read-reads to understand. I then discovered This series of lectures and it all came clear. Many thanks for uploading. This is pure gold.
There's a lot of lectures and responses and analysis to Plato's Republic, even just here on TH-cam you can find several college lectures. This is the best one! He explains so much of it and so quickly, cutting out too many digressions.
Thank you, so concise and knowledgeable. Love the clear enthusiasm and attention to detail. Very easy to follow but thought provoking and not dumbed down. This is what the internet’s for and we all appreciate this 🙏
I searched high & low to get used copies of the originals years ago; this man is a genius communicator & teacher. Professor Sugrue was the first person who, for me, could even begin to unlock what all the fuss has been about for 2,500 years! BTW, one of the keys to the entire Platonic project is at 23'30"; replacing Homeric Heroes with Socratic ones. When you are told this, and also understand (again, from this professor, the first to make the connection explicit AFAIK) that Plato wrote "in a cold rage" at Athenian democracy (because it murdered Socrates unjustly [the parallels with the Crucifixion are unnerving]), then reading the Republic today is worthwhile. I just want to add that reading the Republic without a great teacher can, as a minimum, lead to abandonment or, worse, lead to fundamental misunderstanding, even for intelligent and well-read people. I say this because I heard Carl Sagan, a great mind if ever there as one, make crass & stupid comments about Plato and the Republic; if only Sagan had studied his philosophy under Sugrue he would have known better and therefore been the better for it. FWIW, I put Sugrue on the same level as Sagan when it comes to the combination of deep subject matter expertise combined with their personal, intellectual "awe"; a compelling combination in comparison with the majority of 'experts' who are either intellectually lightweight or terminally cynical....or both. Sagan is well-known as one of the most compelling communicators we've ever had, and I put Professor Sugrue up there with him.
Thanks to this Sage I can now add Philosophy, psychology and the general prisms that generate the boundaries of modern intellectual discussion to the list of things I love, along with my Cat, oatmilk and raspberry jam, mysticism/gnosis.
This is the best philosophy lecture I have I have watched on youtube. The very last comment in the lecture that there is something wrong in the world seems closed-ended to me. I like the (much less poetic I am sure) ideas around Popper's "Evolutionary Epistemology" that we will always have problems because the solution to each problem will reveal new problems. All knowledge, most importantly, moral knowledge, comes from within.
I am currently using these to aid in reading and understanding the “Republic”, your lectures on the dialogues have been of unquestionable value to this neophyte!
Just. Wow. Thank you for these fiercely relevant and crystal clear lectures! 35:45 Where is Socrates' soul and city today?! The only way out globally - not to continue to play or retaliate within our existing broken systems, but to create soul, city, harmony, and true justice. I try to have deep conversations with others at large because truth is the only valuable substance in this life, and the intellectual void and resistance I am met with is staggering. Perhaps I'll cross paths with a member of this community some day. 36:37 Dr. Sugrue, your passion and joy is both palpable and contagious. And yes! what a cliffhanger at 44:30 ! I can't wait for the next lecture in sequence!
Within the first 2 minutes my mind is on fire. The difference between the way things seem and the way they are is central to Buddhist philosophy. Another reaction: You can see something similar to the Sophists' intent in today's issues. As long as you dutifully mouth the dogma you won't get canceled, even though hardly anyone actually believes it.
27:40 Myth of Metals 32:46 Happy Ruling Elite? The Point of The Regime Is The Good of The Nation 36:20 Harmony 41:18 Mind over Body, Superior Eugenics 43:19 Philosopher King
Einstein said that you don’t truly understand something until you can explain it to a 6 year old. Or something like that. To understand the Republic this well is truly brilliant.
prof, how are you able to lecture at such length seemingly without any reference? do you have these memorized or is it the powers of your time studying these topics?
My Dad laughed when he heard the question because memorizing would mean the lecture was a mimesis of a man who knew what he is talking about. He says that he is the Ding an sich, a man who knows what he is talking about, not a digital representation. He says only speaks extemporaneously and says he's just thinking out loud when he lectures and he has no idea what he said in any of them because 3 seconds after its over he forgets what he said. Dad finished with, study Chuang Tzu's parable of the cook and the emperor. Learn to focus like Coltrane, Beethoven, Santana and they may teach you how to become a human superconductor of the Holy Spirit: pure flow, zero impedance.
Thank you, you are a great inspiration, I watched a video of you lecturing on the symposium were you say that "love is the yearning for eternity" and you give a great example, I can't find this video, can you please help and point me in the right direction, I need this inspiration again
If I understand correctly, Plato's argument that justice is inherently good is based on an argument that justice is necessary to create a good society. Please let me know if I've misunderstood.
The ending of this video is hilarious. I watched the video before this one and was intrigued. Then, in this video I watched Plato just go off the rails. And then it ends with, “clearly, there’s something wrong with the world.” Hilarious. The brick wall of (almost) every great thinker.
The problem with his interpretation, IMHO, is that Socrates debunks Thrasymchus' view that 'Justice' is defined as: "treating my friends good and my enemies bad." This, and the fact that Socrates forbids the style of literature that Plato is using in the dialogues, leads me to believe that the project is a satire - a feverish dystopia growing from the economic expansionism from base desires and egoism. The censorship maps onto personal psychology as an individual who won't listen to anyone (or won't dialogue). This refusal to dialogues is foreshadowed in the opening scene with Polemarchus and Socrates. The old-man, Cephalus (meaning "head") is concerned about his afterlife because he was preoccupied with moneymaking and comparing himself to previous and subsequent generations. Incidentally, the festival of Bendis was a mystery involving a relay race with torches passed from rider to rider. Intergenerational inheritance in all forms is a major theme.
In one lecture Michael made an aside mentioning that Genesis has sexual over-or-under tones. But in that lecture he did not teach about Genesis. I would love to see, hear or read Sugrue on Genesis. I wish the Teaching Company gave him that lecture rather than to the other lecturers that covered Genesis. Sugure was never pedestrian in his subjects, he was always deep in his analysis.
I am wondering, was Socrates arrested because he is just and wanted to ascend the mind and soul to a higher level of sensation for justice, and by proving the injustice of the wicked through his personal justice he was challenging the human psyche, or human nature. Society is a creation of man, and it bears all the virtues and inconsistencies of the never ending battle between right and wrong. By sacrificing the unjust part of himself, was he trying to win a battle that was lost even before it started because no man can live in a perpetual realm of absolute truth?
I’d like to ask a question here because I was confused on my first reading of The Republic (I only got 1/3 in and I’m going to finish the rest later this year), I know he mentioned the pig society as being the society which doesn’t have luxury but my assumption when I was reading that part of the text was that Plato’s defense of luxury in rebuttal to Glaucons comments on it being the city of pigs was that to placate peoples complaints about the way they’re living providing them with luxury and the desire to obtain or increase luxury which plays into the nature of desire was necessary for a perfect city because it makes people invested in the preservation of the city and that the city of pigs was one governed by pigs (people who don’t produce anything outside of themselves and their minds, I was under the assumption the philosopher was the pigs because they create something non-physical which is philosophy whereas a cow makes milk and a shoemaker makes shoes.) Also did the meaning of “luxury” change between time, because I thought that the use of the word luxury was deliberate in saying that some only people can have the luxuries of this city? The expansion of territory was something I thought was set up as necessary for the preservation of this type of city because it needs to continually expand economically in order to preserve itself, and I thought that the physical guards as opposed to the philosophical guards of the city were supposed to be induced to some level or propaganda which reinforced the morality of the city. I disagreed with a lot of it as I was reading it, but I didn’t understand it as it was written clearly but I want to know what way it was written that made it clear Plato/Socrates felt the city of pigs was a transitionary stage or something else entirely which wasn’t meant to be replicated? Also if the nature of the city/society is expansion then isn’t the city itself inherently unstable? You would need a city which isn’t predisposed to physical growth so much as the development of defense against external pressure and the development of internal systems which allow for stability in regards to larger structures like economy, health, housing, etc. with some growth. This world has a finite amount of space and eventually there won’t be any more space left to expand to.
The city of pigs is a transitionary stage because we know that the base pleasures are bronze in socrates' system, indicating something greater (silver, gold). As for the other comments, I did feel you are reading into it too much, for instance the pig/cow distinction
@@goofyahhh254 I kind of realized after watching the video that I got a lot of what I said completely wrong and I just couldn’t find my comment lol, although I’m more skeptical on completely disregarding the pig thing
@@cassiopeiathew7406 the pig seems to me just symbolism again of being base, like animals, although not saying it directly, indicating through calling it pig city in which people primarily pursue cessation of desire like mere animals (pigs).
@@goofyahhh254 i think it’s dual edged, people of the pig class who are able to pursue that pleasure aren’t obligated to participate in society the same capacity as other people because they have the means to subsist and have been trained. They’re pigs because they get to chase pleasure like pigs but they’re pigs because they don’t produce anything of not which can enrich their surroundings, like how Plato emphasizes shoemakers, what things like horses can provide, or institutions like health. Pigs are only meat, they are only themselves. I don’t have to agree with people to hold my opinion ardently.
Can you put the audio of everything you have especially these lectures from the 80s or whatever time this is on Spotify or somewhere where I can just listen to it? Because I would listen to it all the time. And you would have I’m sure a ton more audience engagement. Thanks
35 minute mark: 'the reason we lost the Peloponnesian war is because the Spartans are more virtuous than we are, their institutions are better conceived' this is fascinating: the values that make a culture supreme influence the quality of the institutions and thereby contribute the the rise and fall of empires, and virtue lays the foundation for all of this.
never have I heard an argument like this before: never has virtue been asserted to be the reason the Nazis lost the war. never have I heard the argument that the Western world was able to overcome the Germans because their virtues were better and their institutions better conceived.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
![[#2024MAMA] ROSÉ (로제), Bruno Mars - APT. | Mnet 241122 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dgGqD28J6aQ/mqdefault.jpg)
let's pause one second and appreciate the work of the cameramen trying to follow him back and forth for 40 minutes
LOL
What about the Michael surgue who is speaking non stop with passion for 45 mint, that's some thing that's valuable.
Exactly what I was thinking. True perseverance 😄
@@huzaifa2772 that goes without saying dummy, the cameraperson on the other hand does not.
In middle school I had the job of video recording basketball games and the coach wanted as much close up footage as possible, you gotta stay on it🤣
Dr. Sugrue, uploading your lectures is an invaluable contribution to society. Thank you!
Indeed. They are gems.
RIP Mr Sugrue your passion and intellect will live through those you have touched ❤
his death I'm not even kidding has left a hole in my heart, the fact we will never see or hear anyone like him again really makes me sad, there was only one professor Michael sugrue now he is no more.
This is beautiful: "The source of war is luxurious life. Trying to get more than you have a need for, which means extending your borders to satisfy your desires."
Vikings with fabulous grave goods.
I deeply appreciate you uploading these lectures
@@zainkhalid7212 44:41
I am Kenyan,a philosophy and psychology student,,,this here is gold.
I'm kenyan, concerned bystander. Have you watched the Machiavelli and Aurelius one?
I just turned 21 and I have such a burning desire for these deep conversations and revelations. I hope to someday dedicate my life to these questions and my own questions, not for money but for the truth! I started a company and I’m on track to retire early so I can! I’m so so excited and this channel has taken my interest to another level and I greatly appreciate these posts, thank you so much❤️ you’re helping people develop their own path through this crazy life and I so appreciate it
I sure do miss being young and naive.
I am 70 and wish I could have watched these when I was 21.
@rmwilliamsjr
I watch all of them. although I don't leave comments many times.
🙏♥️🌍🕊🎶🎵📚
Follow your desire!
Absolutely brilliant. Tried to read the republic a few times but gave up because never could make head or tail of it. All I needed was a brilliant teacher like you. Thank you, Sir.
The audiobook on youtube sounds more like a podcast, given that the entire book is just a dialogue. Much easier to digest, IMO
@@andrewryan2814 ff 8 .f fo gfcf fo info.f.fcp. fcfcf
@@andrewryan2814 c co .ff ffofcfo f yof md o f fc
Cc f. f cc off c f. fri
You have maybe read the old bad translation of it, there has been a lot newer one which is much easier to follow.
Hey if this guy is still alive, I want to say thank you for this. It has been really helpful in understanding this book. I read the first book and was unimpressed by socrates arguements, I thought they were flimsy and seemingly overrated. But then I watched this video and you called me out perfectly, saying that it was to invite glaucon and adeimantus to engage. You also said that if you think plato is making a bad agrument, read it again and your probably wrong, which I also really appriciate. I just finished book 5 and I'm looking forward to the rest. Thank you for your work
He's alive and well. This is his channel.
If you browse the channel, you see his older self giving talks 🎉 long live
@@lesbiansaregoodandch
He is not well. Dying from cancer. He has a podcast with his daughter.
@@rmwilliamsjr got half of it right. And my comment is 6 months old now, it just called me boo boo mama choo choo
Is he stilll allive??is that the question??and if sooooo,and if so, if so,if soooo I HEARDDDD Sugrue's STILLLLL ALIVVVVE OHHHH IIIII HEARDDDDD Sugrue's STILL ALIVE...YEA YEA YEA OHHH OHHH...keep giving Cancer a bombastic lecture ,Doc
Dr. Sugrue--Thank You for clarifying and integrating ideas that enrich our lives! Without you and your brilliant efforts the world would have remained a complete mystery but you have provided a path to understanding!!!
One of the great lecturer
Thank God for this professor, all the video parts and breakdowns for the Republic. I love it
Dr Sugrue, Thank you for your kindness and your generosity to upload this exceptional lecture of yours, for us all to benefit from it. Your summary and analysis of the four books of the Republic is brilliant. Thank you again.
I came here to watch the video after reading the book. Super impressed with how Prof. does it like story telling. Would’ve been privileged to attend one of his lectures and hear him speak in real life
Dr. Sugrue, your lectures are overwhelming brilliant, entertaining, and digestible. I can not thank you enough for making them publicly available. You are a philosopher king among men, & I am so grateful.
I dove into western philosophy at Descartes. I had many questions, the answers to which I found in the Republic. It took several reads and read-reads to understand. I then discovered This series of lectures and it all came clear. Many thanks for uploading. This is pure gold.
There's a lot of lectures and responses and analysis to Plato's Republic, even just here on TH-cam you can find several college lectures. This is the best one! He explains so much of it and so quickly, cutting out too many digressions.
Thank you, so concise and knowledgeable. Love the clear enthusiasm and attention to detail. Very easy to follow but thought provoking and not dumbed down. This is what the internet’s for and we all appreciate this 🙏
Thank you so much for making these lectures available. You embody Socrates love of knowledge and making it available to as many as possible.
Thank you, kindly professor. You and your lectures are forever, inspirational.
I searched high & low to get used copies of the originals years ago; this man is a genius communicator & teacher. Professor Sugrue was the first person who, for me, could even begin to unlock what all the fuss has been about for 2,500 years! BTW, one of the keys to the entire Platonic project is at 23'30"; replacing Homeric Heroes with Socratic ones. When you are told this, and also understand (again, from this professor, the first to make the connection explicit AFAIK) that Plato wrote "in a cold rage" at Athenian democracy (because it murdered Socrates unjustly [the parallels with the Crucifixion are unnerving]), then reading the Republic today is worthwhile. I just want to add that reading the Republic without a great teacher can, as a minimum, lead to abandonment or, worse, lead to fundamental misunderstanding, even for intelligent and well-read people. I say this because I heard Carl Sagan, a great mind if ever there as one, make crass & stupid comments about Plato and the Republic; if only Sagan had studied his philosophy under Sugrue he would have known better and therefore been the better for it. FWIW, I put Sugrue on the same level as Sagan when it comes to the combination of deep subject matter expertise combined with their personal, intellectual "awe"; a compelling combination in comparison with the majority of 'experts' who are either intellectually lightweight or terminally cynical....or both. Sagan is well-known as one of the most compelling communicators we've ever had, and I put Professor Sugrue up there with him.
Thanks to this Sage I can now add Philosophy, psychology and the general prisms that generate the boundaries of modern intellectual discussion to the list of things I love, along with my Cat, oatmilk and raspberry jam, mysticism/gnosis.
Unbelievable. He said "um" or "uh" MAYBE twice. Such an impressive teacher
Everyone should watch this video for real wisdom
Deeply grateful that I am able to have access to such great ideas from this lecture, and for free!
Bless your soul doctor, thank you for keeping me company once more and far from it being the first time.
Wow
This prof can speak well
And is intelligent, w superb memory. He speaks w o notes!
And he loves to teach, to explain, to help
Way to go teacher
My prof introduced me to the Republic years ago. Still studying it. Thank you
This is the best philosophy lecture I have I have watched on youtube. The very last comment in the lecture that there is something wrong in the world seems closed-ended to me. I like the (much less poetic I am sure) ideas around Popper's "Evolutionary Epistemology" that we will always have problems because the solution to each problem will reveal new problems. All knowledge, most importantly, moral knowledge, comes from within.
I'm currently feeling very sick and this lecture allows me to get through it solely because of this man his passion
Thank you so much for these lectures, outstanding quality !
What a time we live in, thank you Prof!
This is intense.
I don't think there's an amount of money I would consider too much to pay to have been taught by this man. Incredible teacher
I am currently using these to aid in reading and understanding the “Republic”, your lectures on the dialogues have been of unquestionable value to this neophyte!
If I may be bold enough to use a vernacular term to describe Dr. Michael Sugrue's oratory skills, 'he is the GOAT' :)
Thanks a lot Dr for these wonderful lectures. Most needed fo my soul now. And I am getting it for free. Truly Amazing!!
Just. Wow. Thank you for these fiercely relevant and crystal clear lectures! 35:45 Where is Socrates' soul and city today?! The only way out globally - not to continue to play or retaliate within our existing broken systems, but to create soul, city, harmony, and true justice.
I try to have deep conversations with others at large because truth is the only valuable substance in this life, and the intellectual void and resistance I am met with is staggering. Perhaps I'll cross paths with a member of this community some day. 36:37 Dr. Sugrue, your passion and joy is both palpable and contagious. And yes! what a cliffhanger at 44:30 ! I can't wait for the next lecture in sequence!
I’m learning so much in these lectures
Within the first 2 minutes my mind is on fire. The difference between the way things seem and the way they are is central to Buddhist philosophy. Another reaction: You can see something similar to the Sophists' intent in today's issues. As long as you dutifully mouth the dogma you won't get canceled, even though hardly anyone actually believes it.
I watched these before reading the Republic. highly recommend! Really helped with my understanding on a deeper level.
27:40 Myth of Metals 32:46 Happy Ruling Elite?
The Point of The Regime Is The Good of The Nation
36:20 Harmony
41:18 Mind over Body, Superior Eugenics
43:19 Philosopher King
Great lecture ! So applicable to what is happening to the Western world!
That last line was deeply moving.
This is my favourite content on TH-cam
Very much enjoy this series. I have watched it many times, thank you.
You Sir, I learn oratory from you!
THIS WAS THE MOST PROFOUND INSIGHT OF MY LIFE THANK YOU SO MUCH
Rest in peace Doctor, I have learned much from you, 💯❣️
thats a lifetime help to put out these lectures.. thank you sir!
I can’t stop bingeing these!
Michael, thank you for your work. You're really talented
1. Good man kill unjustice
2. Socrate is new Achiles
3. Control inner soul... organize ourself
Grateful ❤
I had a feeling there was something wroing with this world. Thank you for Plateo for pointing at what it is.
Thank you.
This is great. I couldn't sit still in any class in college. This is just easy Pease philosophy study. Thanks Sir profferssor!!
Thank you so much for uploading these are brilliant my friend 💙
he is a genius thanks for uploading
Inspirational.
Wish I could’ve been in one of his in person lectures. The goat.
Einstein said that you don’t truly understand something until you can explain it to a 6 year old. Or something like that. To understand the Republic this well is truly brilliant.
Fascinating!
Excellent videos. I’m glad I found your page! Thank you for all your hard work. 🤝
prof, how are you able to lecture at such length seemingly without any reference? do you have these memorized or is it the powers of your time studying these topics?
My Dad laughed when he heard the question because memorizing would mean the lecture was a mimesis of a man who knew what he is talking about. He says that he is the Ding an sich, a man who knows what he is talking about, not a digital representation. He says only speaks extemporaneously and says he's just thinking out loud when he lectures and he has no idea what he said in any of them because 3 seconds after its over he forgets what he said. Dad finished with, study Chuang Tzu's parable of the cook and the emperor. Learn to focus like Coltrane, Beethoven, Santana and they may teach you how to become a human superconductor of the Holy Spirit: pure flow, zero impedance.
@@dr.michaelsugrue even this response is poetry
@@dr.michaelsugrue I legit feel like an idiot when reading this amazing
@@dr.michaelsugrue That is one of the most elegant responses to a question I have come across. A true man of knowledge, Professor Sugrue.
@@dr.michaelsugrue : Wow!
Reading a classic like ‘the republic’ and having a Micheal Sugrue review is champagne philosophy
This is amazing
Michael is on fire in this one 🔥😳
Very Enjoyable, well done!
thank you.
Excellent. Thank you so much
Old is Gold 💛
Yo!
Yeah, you.
Sugrue.
You're a fucking legend!
Much love from Scotland. 🤟
Thank you, you are a great inspiration, I watched a video of you lecturing on the symposium were you say that "love is the yearning for eternity" and you give a great example, I can't find this video, can you please help and point me in the right direction, I need this inspiration again
Here you go: th-cam.com/video/xJBwIIeebho/w-d-xo.html
The definition of love as the yearning for eternity starts with the speech of Socrates at 33:33
Thank you so much.
If I understand correctly, Plato's argument that justice is inherently good is based on an argument that justice is necessary to create a good society. Please let me know if I've misunderstood.
Watched all of it 44:48
It's a shame that the dates of these lectures are not given. This was a merely uploaded in 2020.
Love the 1970’s graphics 😃
70s?
btw this was recorded in ~93 or 94
The ending of this video is hilarious. I watched the video before this one and was intrigued. Then, in this video I watched Plato just go off the rails. And then it ends with, “clearly, there’s something wrong with the world.” Hilarious. The brick wall of (almost) every great thinker.
Edit: I maybe I should qualify, every great western thinker.
The gnostics can explain it.
Marvelous, thanks.
I'm confused. Dr Michael Sugrue seems to be actively uploading recent lectures, but they look like they were tapped in the 80's with VHS.
We’re lucky he’s finally making them available on this media, indeed they were recorded a few decades ago. Enjoy these jewels.
great video lecture. I prefer this look on him without the beard.
couldnt have let my lady around professor back in the day 😂 woulda stole her heart from me 🤣
The problem with his interpretation, IMHO, is that Socrates debunks Thrasymchus' view that 'Justice' is defined as: "treating my friends good and my enemies bad." This, and the fact that Socrates forbids the style of literature that Plato is using in the dialogues, leads me to believe that the project is a satire - a feverish dystopia growing from the economic expansionism from base desires and egoism. The censorship maps onto personal psychology as an individual who won't listen to anyone (or won't dialogue). This refusal to dialogues is foreshadowed in the opening scene with Polemarchus and Socrates. The old-man, Cephalus (meaning "head") is concerned about his afterlife because he was preoccupied with moneymaking and comparing himself to previous and subsequent generations. Incidentally, the festival of Bendis was a mystery involving a relay race with torches passed from rider to rider. Intergenerational inheritance in all forms is a major theme.
thanks for uplaoding
I love these! Thank you for sharing them. Where could I find the entire video series? Is it available for purchase?
I think pretty much all/most are on TH-cam. But I believe you can find them through Amazon...I think
Thankyou.
Wow what a great talk
Excellent 👏
In one lecture Michael made an aside mentioning that Genesis has sexual over-or-under tones. But in that lecture he did not teach about Genesis. I would love to see, hear or read Sugrue on Genesis. I wish the Teaching Company gave him that lecture rather than to the other lecturers that covered Genesis. Sugure was never pedestrian in his subjects, he was always deep in his analysis.
I am wondering, was Socrates arrested because he is just and wanted to ascend the mind and soul to a higher level of sensation for justice, and by proving the injustice of the wicked through his personal justice he was challenging the human psyche, or human nature. Society is a creation of man, and it bears all the virtues and inconsistencies of the never ending battle between right and wrong. By sacrificing the unjust part of himself, was he trying to win a battle that was lost even before it started because no man can live in a perpetual realm of absolute truth?
I’d like to ask a question here because I was confused on my first reading of The Republic (I only got 1/3 in and I’m going to finish the rest later this year), I know he mentioned the pig society as being the society which doesn’t have luxury but my assumption when I was reading that part of the text was that Plato’s defense of luxury in rebuttal to Glaucons comments on it being the city of pigs was that to placate peoples complaints about the way they’re living providing them with luxury and the desire to obtain or increase luxury which plays into the nature of desire was necessary for a perfect city because it makes people invested in the preservation of the city and that the city of pigs was one governed by pigs (people who don’t produce anything outside of themselves and their minds, I was under the assumption the philosopher was the pigs because they create something non-physical which is philosophy whereas a cow makes milk and a shoemaker makes shoes.) Also did the meaning of “luxury” change between time, because I thought that the use of the word luxury was deliberate in saying that some only people can have the luxuries of this city? The expansion of territory was something I thought was set up as necessary for the preservation of this type of city because it needs to continually expand economically in order to preserve itself, and I thought that the physical guards as opposed to the philosophical guards of the city were supposed to be induced to some level or propaganda which reinforced the morality of the city. I disagreed with a lot of it as I was reading it, but I didn’t understand it as it was written clearly but I want to know what way it was written that made it clear Plato/Socrates felt the city of pigs was a transitionary stage or something else entirely which wasn’t meant to be replicated? Also if the nature of the city/society is expansion then isn’t the city itself inherently unstable? You would need a city which isn’t predisposed to physical growth so much as the development of defense against external pressure and the development of internal systems which allow for stability in regards to larger structures like economy, health, housing, etc. with some growth. This world has a finite amount of space and eventually there won’t be any more space left to expand to.
The city of pigs is a transitionary stage because we know that the base pleasures are bronze in socrates' system, indicating something greater (silver, gold). As for the other comments, I did feel you are reading into it too much, for instance the pig/cow distinction
@@goofyahhh254 I kind of realized after watching the video that I got a lot of what I said completely wrong and I just couldn’t find my comment lol, although I’m more skeptical on completely disregarding the pig thing
@@cassiopeiathew7406 the pig seems to me just symbolism again of being base, like animals, although not saying it directly, indicating through calling it pig city in which people primarily pursue cessation of desire like mere animals (pigs).
@@goofyahhh254 i think it’s dual edged, people of the pig class who are able to pursue that pleasure aren’t obligated to participate in society the same capacity as other people because they have the means to subsist and have been trained. They’re pigs because they get to chase pleasure like pigs but they’re pigs because they don’t produce anything of not which can enrich their surroundings, like how Plato emphasizes shoemakers, what things like horses can provide, or institutions like health. Pigs are only meat, they are only themselves. I don’t have to agree with people to hold my opinion ardently.
The intro music put me straight into academia mode.
Can you put the audio of everything you have especially these lectures from the 80s or whatever time this is on Spotify or somewhere where I can just listen to it? Because I would listen to it all the time. And you would have I’m sure a ton more audience engagement. Thanks
What’s the outro song big dog? Great essay btw, well earned subscribe from me
Great lecture, this is why I prefer Aristotle's politics
Aristotle is a step down from Plato
"city of pigs!" Beautiful... Oh that's 🤣😂🤣.... Love it!!
I missed so much symbolism that you mentioned here, i.e the bronze horse etc..., on my first read through.
35 minute mark: 'the reason we lost the Peloponnesian war is because the Spartans are more virtuous than we are, their institutions are better conceived'
this is fascinating: the values that make a culture supreme influence the quality of the institutions and thereby contribute the the rise and fall of empires, and virtue lays the foundation for all of this.
never have I heard an argument like this before: never has virtue been asserted to be the reason the Nazis lost the war.
never have I heard the argument that the Western world was able to overcome the Germans because their virtues were better and their institutions better conceived.
I shall entertain this idea thoroughly; thank you
Watching 1:03