I just wanted to alert our readership that two of those who have signed on to this blog are graduates from SLU who are currently graduate students in philosophy! Jeramy Gee ('01) is starting his graduate studies at the University of Washington, and John Milanese ('04) is starting his graduate studies at the University at Albany! Both have already posted comments on this blog! Thanks for joining the discussion!
Another graduate from our program, Sarah Tolcser ('03), has recently been living in New Orleans but evacuated just before Hurricane Katrina hit, and is now in Boston. Her blog is linked from the "Hurricane Katrina" web page on the SLU website.
We would like to hear from more graduates of our program! I will soon start a page on the Philosophy Department website with news from our graduates, and so please e-mail me if you have news! (I won't add it to the web page without your permission.)
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Asian Philosophy Reading Group
The Asian Philosophy Reading Group will be meeting at 5:30, October 17th, in Piskor 101 to discuss the Lotus Sutra, in Burton Watson's Translation, which happens to be online right here.
I encourage you to use the comments for this post to discuss your thoughts on the book before or after the group meets. I may also add future posts to further discussion.
Rob
I encourage you to use the comments for this post to discuss your thoughts on the book before or after the group meets. I may also add future posts to further discussion.
Rob
Monday, September 05, 2005
Did Plato Think the Body is Bad?
Students taking both "Feminist Philosophy" and "Theories of Knowledge and Reality" are very confused because today they got two very different interpretations of Plato! Was Plato disparaging about the body, and did he associate women with the body, implying that women are inferior to men, and that bodies are bad?
A good way to address this question is to look for specific passages and then interpret each passage in light of the dialogue in which that passage is found.
For starters, I am struck by the passage in Book V of the Republic in which it is argued that women are just as capable of being guardians as men (449b-457c). It is clear from the framing of this discussion that, in the context of the time, this proposal was highly controversial. Yet Socrates is portrayed as offering the argument with all seriousness. And so I do not think that Plato regarded women as inferior to men.
A good way to address this question is to look for specific passages and then interpret each passage in light of the dialogue in which that passage is found.
For starters, I am struck by the passage in Book V of the Republic in which it is argued that women are just as capable of being guardians as men (449b-457c). It is clear from the framing of this discussion that, in the context of the time, this proposal was highly controversial. Yet Socrates is portrayed as offering the argument with all seriousness. And so I do not think that Plato regarded women as inferior to men.
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