Popular views of intellectuals (or Aristotle & Big Data?)The goal for these readings is to come away with a view of the different *types* of intellectuals (sophist, proto-scientist, philosopher), and how they were depicted in unsympathetic sources
The Comic poets: Aristophanes, Clouds (in BOX): read only the front of this comedy, pages 11 to the top of page 30 to see how “Socrates” is depicted, and to get a sense of the raw stuff that was Athenian comedy
The Sophists: Read the beginnings of these two Platonic works, Protagoras, pp. 27-46 (only!) [coming], Gorgias (also, on the beginning, as found in our BOX folder).
Take notes and isolate three animating questions that are either confusions, remarkable bits (oddities/peculiarities), or productive to a group conversation in class. Be prepared also to answer the implicit question: what ARE the types of intellectual highlighted by these works, and what criticisms are implicit to their depictions.
The Comic poets: Aristophanes, Clouds (in BOX): read only the front of this comedy, pages 11 to the top of page 30 to see how “Socrates” is depicted, and to get a sense of the raw stuff that was Athenian comedy
The Sophists: Read the beginnings of these two Platonic works, Protagoras, pp. 27-46 (only!) [coming], Gorgias (also, on the beginning, as found in our BOX folder).
Take notes and isolate three animating questions that are either confusions, remarkable bits (oddities/peculiarities), or productive to a group conversation in class. Be prepared also to answer the implicit question: what ARE the types of intellectual highlighted by these works, and what criticisms are implicit to their depictions.
