We had a wonderful conversation with these bright men September 27th. We talked about the book "How to Read a Book", and the conversation bloomed amazingly.
When is the book right? How are we sure we don't interpret?
Scott told us an interesting story of an ancient Greek philosopher who didn't like written speeches. (Guess who?) Why? Because you couldn't question them, because you couldn't change them. Is that something valid? Then why do we read? Well, in my opinion, it's not just for knowledge but also and most of all, for understanding. It even opens the chance to articulate new ideas by mixing and recreating. Oh, and by the way.. the Greek philosopher was Socrates.
Then we got to one important question that was formulated at the beginning of the dialogue:
"What is it that we look for in the Greeks and what do we look for in the Romans in today's education?"
The ability to question, the amazing facts of how they communicate and how they were so curious. Our culture is so based in ideas the Greeks elaborated centuries ago. Their way of speaking, according to Scott, was like poetry, music and dance. I wish I could have just been there and saw that.
The Romans were forming a different culture and even if they were being taught by Greek professors, they had a politic tradition which changed many characteristics of the further nations that evolved.
I must say, this conversation was rich and full of new things for me to learn. The dialogue was fluent and people respected the rubric. We listened and learned from Scott and Richard certain ethics like eye contact, sticking to the question and being aware of others.
When is the book right? How are we sure we don't interpret?
Scott told us an interesting story of an ancient Greek philosopher who didn't like written speeches. (Guess who?) Why? Because you couldn't question them, because you couldn't change them. Is that something valid? Then why do we read? Well, in my opinion, it's not just for knowledge but also and most of all, for understanding. It even opens the chance to articulate new ideas by mixing and recreating. Oh, and by the way.. the Greek philosopher was Socrates.
Then we got to one important question that was formulated at the beginning of the dialogue:
"What is it that we look for in the Greeks and what do we look for in the Romans in today's education?"
The ability to question, the amazing facts of how they communicate and how they were so curious. Our culture is so based in ideas the Greeks elaborated centuries ago. Their way of speaking, according to Scott, was like poetry, music and dance. I wish I could have just been there and saw that.
The Romans were forming a different culture and even if they were being taught by Greek professors, they had a politic tradition which changed many characteristics of the further nations that evolved.
I must say, this conversation was rich and full of new things for me to learn. The dialogue was fluent and people respected the rubric. We listened and learned from Scott and Richard certain ethics like eye contact, sticking to the question and being aware of others.
RSS Feed