|
Post by Admin on Jun 21, 2020 8:00:21 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by vincent on Jul 2, 2020 11:28:32 GMT -5
So here is a summary of the discussion we had about Alan Bloom's preface last sunday :
We talked about Alan Bloom's humility first : how nice, subtle and gentle he was, even when criticizing that idiot Cornford. How he was kind of downplaying the importance of his translation, which properly highlight the dramaturgic and ironic nature of the text and put to rest several schools of platonic studies.
We stressed the difference between Bloom's approach and most of the previous ones, which treat the dialogue as a fancy way to expose a specific and more or less esoteric doctrine rather than as an invitation to philosophize.
We talked about what "literal" means for Bloom. His intent to let the text speak for itself without modernizing it and without euphemizing it. His intent to let the reader read by himself , without making it easier or prettier for him, and without removing the "outrageous nonsenses" and the "uncomfortable details" of the text, since those are often the most important part of it.
We noted that he conceived his translation as an "non-tyrannical" one, that doesn't impose his interpretation and doesn't "rob" his reader from his chance to philosophize, which is fitting for a reader of the Republic.
We also noted that Bloom's conception of translation was rooted in an underlying (and internal) critic of -positivism : "this sense of superiority is merely the perseveration of the confidence, so widespread in the nineteenth century, that science had reached a plateau overlooking broader and more comprehensible horizons than those previously known, a confidence that our intellectual progress could suffer no reverse." -and post-modernity : "The modern historical consciousness [that] has engendered a general scepticism about the truth of all "world views," except for that one of which it is itself a product."
We also noted that Bloom was kind of suggesting us to read Machiavel and Rousseau, (who are important stepstones in the history of "Enlightnement", also wrote educational texts, also wrote about virtue) after and in light of Plato's Republic.
Don't hesitate to correct and/or complete me if necessary.
|
|
|
Post by Roshan on Mar 28, 2021 11:07:24 GMT -5
We did finish this book. We just decided to do it in weekly video chats.
|
|