Teachers...Teachers...and Teachers...
ὁ νοῦν ἔχων γεωργός, ὧν σπερμάτων κήδοιτο καὶ ἔγκαρπα βούλοιτο γενέσθαι, πότερα σπουδῇ ἂν θέρους εἰς Ἀδώνιδος κήπους ἀρῶν χαίροι θεωρῶν καλοὺς ἐν ἡμέραισιν ὀκτὼ γιγνομένους, ἢ ταῦτα μὲν δὴ παιδιᾶς τε καὶ ἑορτῆς χάριν δρῴη ἄν, ὅτε καὶ ποιοῖ· ἐφ' οἷς δὲ ἐσπούδακεν, τῇ γεωργικῇ χρώμενος ἂν τέχνῃ, σπείρας εἰς τὸ προσῆκον, ἀγαπῴη ἂν ἐν ὀγδόῳ μηνὶ ὅσα ἔσπειρεν τέλος λαβόντα; (Phdr. 276b2-8). Plato's words for the philosopher as a patient farmer against the background of Van Gogh's Sower.
Thinking of teachers, I remember Lesley Brown at Somerville Oxford (thanks to her piece on totalitarianism in Plato's Republic that I am reading for my Republic seminar), someone who taught me (among other things) what it means to be a teacher in many ways, and she still does, in written work and beyond. How much I would like to turn back time (and I do not say this so often) and read the Nicomachean Ethics or the Republic and the Sophist with her, and experience again her delight in her student's progress, even if the student disagrees with her or Ackrill, the combination of her confidence and humility, and her analytical virtue for detail and her charisma to draw attention to details that change entire pictures and readings. How much I would like to turn back time for some more time at Somerville!
PS: We have been developing some solidarity with polar bears as of late. Finally, some real Canadian winter came to town. Plenty of opera in Toronto in the New Year. And lots of fun in Plato's Republic and other texts.
PPS1: On other Teachers...Daniel Day-Lewis plays in a new film by Anderson (second time working with him after his film There Will Be Blood), the Phantom Thread, and says it will be his last one. This is sufficient for the film happiness of the year, and may he, one of our dearest darling actors, play his first and last films again and again. For they are all his first and last films!
PPS2: Apropos teaching as learning and acting vs. mere imitating, and while waiting for Daniel to come to this province called London Ontario (now screened in Toronto)...Peter o' Toole as Lawrence of Arabia, which we enjoyed watching with the wonderful London cine-gang, made me think throughout the entire blooming length of the old epic film by David Lean (1963) that he must have been best on stage and, in particular, Shakespeare. I found out afterwards that he was a blessed stage actor and he did a lot of Shakespeare, for which he was ready already 1963. Alas, his version of Hamlet (directed by Olivier: just imagine that collaboration!) was not filmed. Fate in both the history of philosophy and art can be really ferocious!
And we, greedy hunters of beauty and truth, have to learn not only how to chase beauty or truth, that is *not* like a piece of meat to be grasped and consumed (in a not musical manner, Plato would add) but also to take a step back and admire the beauty we have and the truth we attain, and also learn how to miss the beauty that is not accessible to us and how to anticipate the truth to be gained tomorrow and in the years to come, again in a musical manner. Greediness is not a sign of lovers of knowledge and beauty, even if they focus on the intelligible realm. This is not a statement about the ontology and epistemology of Plato's Line but a note to his sensitivity to beauty, which we so very much lack. And to lack such a good can only be...bad, right? And how worse do things become when we do not even notice?
PS: We have been developing some solidarity with polar bears as of late. Finally, some real Canadian winter came to town. Plenty of opera in Toronto in the New Year. And lots of fun in Plato's Republic and other texts.
PPS1: On other Teachers...Daniel Day-Lewis plays in a new film by Anderson (second time working with him after his film There Will Be Blood), the Phantom Thread, and says it will be his last one. This is sufficient for the film happiness of the year, and may he, one of our dearest darling actors, play his first and last films again and again. For they are all his first and last films!
PPS2: Apropos teaching as learning and acting vs. mere imitating, and while waiting for Daniel to come to this province called London Ontario (now screened in Toronto)...Peter o' Toole as Lawrence of Arabia, which we enjoyed watching with the wonderful London cine-gang, made me think throughout the entire blooming length of the old epic film by David Lean (1963) that he must have been best on stage and, in particular, Shakespeare. I found out afterwards that he was a blessed stage actor and he did a lot of Shakespeare, for which he was ready already 1963. Alas, his version of Hamlet (directed by Olivier: just imagine that collaboration!) was not filmed. Fate in both the history of philosophy and art can be really ferocious!
And we, greedy hunters of beauty and truth, have to learn not only how to chase beauty or truth, that is *not* like a piece of meat to be grasped and consumed (in a not musical manner, Plato would add) but also to take a step back and admire the beauty we have and the truth we attain, and also learn how to miss the beauty that is not accessible to us and how to anticipate the truth to be gained tomorrow and in the years to come, again in a musical manner. Greediness is not a sign of lovers of knowledge and beauty, even if they focus on the intelligible realm. This is not a statement about the ontology and epistemology of Plato's Line but a note to his sensitivity to beauty, which we so very much lack. And to lack such a good can only be...bad, right? And how worse do things become when we do not even notice?
posted by Georgia Mouroutsou | 10:03 pm
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