What effect my accusers have had on you, o men of Athens, I do not know: but for my part, even I almost forgot who I was because of them, so persuasively were they speaking. And yet, in a word, they have said not one true thing. I marveled most of all at one of the many lies they told, the one in which they said that you should be careful not to be deceived by me, because I am clever at speaking—the fact that they are not ashamed to be immediately contradicted by me in action, when it becomes obvious that I am not even remotely clever at speaking, this seemed to me the most shameful of all, unless of course they call clever at speaking a person who speaks the truth: if this is what they mean, then I would have to admit that I am an orator; just not their kind.
This is curious: my browser knows some of your Greek, but not all of it. You'd think they'd have taught it the whole alphabet, if they were going to teach it any... (Unless it just knows Greek on account of knowing mathematics, and those damn' idle mathematicians don't use the whole alphabet, he speculated...?)
Glad to hear this. I had to tape the convention to watch this weekend.
Thanks for the translation. It has been quite a while since I've read Plato. On the good side--though I'm no longer in college, Jenny is, and she has her first philosophy class this semester. Yay. I can't wait to get my hands on the textbooks, and to see what she thinks about it all.
I had to tape the convention to watch this weekend.
I caught most of the major speeches, I think—Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama. Most of them were worth hearing.
I can't wait to get my hands on the textbooks, and to see what she thinks about it all.
It doesn't make me love unreservedly all the current positions of the Democratic Party, but it goes some way toward mitigating the escalating feeling that the total utility of language in modern politics had shrunk to the lowest common soundbite.
I'm not in love with all the current positions of the Democratic Party, either. (My political identity on Facebook is listed as "Jacobite," and I'm probably not quite as much joking in that as I think I am.)
but it goes some way toward mitigating the escalating feeling that the total utility of language in modern politics had shrunk to the lowest common soundbite.
Exactly. I'm hoping that this is a harbinger of things to come, although I amn't over-optomistic. Then again, it's not my nature to be very much so.
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It was really quite pleasant! We could see some more complex speechwriting over the next few months; that would make me happy.
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It's from the very beginning of Plato's Apology of Sokrates:
ὅτι μὲν ὑμεῖς, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, πεπόνθατε ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν κατηγόρων, οὐκ οἶδα: ἐγὼ δ' οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπ' αὐτῶν ὀλίγου ἐμαυτοῦ ἐπελαθόμην, οὕτω πιθανῶς ἔλεγον. καίτοι ἀληθές γε ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οὐδὲν εἰρήκασιν. μάλιστα δὲ αὐτῶν ἓν ἐθαύμασα τῶν πολλῶν ὧν ἐψεύσαντο, τοῦτο ἐν ᾧ ἔλεγον ὡς χρῆν ὑμᾶς εὐλαβεῖσθαι μὴ ὑπ' ἐμοῦ ἐξαπατηθῆτε ὡς δεινοῦ ὄντος λέγειν. τὸ γὰρ μὴ αἰσχυνθῆναι ὅτι αὐτίκα ὑπ' ἐμοῦ ἐξελεγχθήσονται ἔργῳ, ἐπειδὰν μηδ' ὁπωστιοῦν φαίνωμαι δεινὸς λέγειν, τοῦτό μοι ἔδοξεν αὐτῶν ἀναισχυντότατον εἶναι, εἰ μὴ ἄρα δεινὸν καλοῦσιν οὗτοι λέγειν τὸν τἀληθῆ λέγοντα: εἰ μὲν γὰρ τοῦτο λέγουσιν, ὁμολογοίην ἂν ἔγωγε οὐ κατὰ τούτους εἶναι ῥήτωρ.
What effect my accusers have had on you, o men of Athens, I do not know: but for my part, even I almost forgot who I was because of them, so persuasively were they speaking. And yet, in a word, they have said not one true thing. I marveled most of all at one of the many lies they told, the one in which they said that you should be careful not to be deceived by me, because I am clever at speaking—the fact that they are not ashamed to be immediately contradicted by me in action, when it becomes obvious that I am not even remotely clever at speaking, this seemed to me the most shameful of all, unless of course they call clever at speaking a person who speaks the truth: if this is what they mean, then I would have to admit that I am an orator; just not their kind.
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Fascinating. I shall have to post some complex equations and see what it thinks . . .
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Thanks for the translation. It has been quite a while since I've read Plato. On the good side--though I'm no longer in college, Jenny is, and she has her first philosophy class this semester. Yay. I can't wait to get my hands on the textbooks, and to see what she thinks about it all.
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I caught most of the major speeches, I think—Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama. Most of them were worth hearing.
I can't wait to get my hands on the textbooks, and to see what she thinks about it all.
Yay, philosophy!
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It doesn't make me love unreservedly all the current positions of the Democratic Party, but it goes some way toward mitigating the escalating feeling that the total utility of language in modern politics had shrunk to the lowest common soundbite.
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but it goes some way toward mitigating the escalating feeling that the total utility of language in modern politics had shrunk to the lowest common soundbite.
Exactly. I'm hoping that this is a harbinger of things to come, although I amn't over-optomistic. Then again, it's not my nature to be very much so.