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You just gave the Socratic critique of the sophists.

When I say "conceptual thought" I don't mean "literary conceptual thought". I am, after all, a mathematical physicist.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 12th, 2006 at 05:32:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You just gave the Socratic critique of the sophists

I am, after all, a mathematical physicist.

Methinks you doth protest too much. Somebody who even knows what a sophist is, let alone what a socratic response to them might be, has got a good grounding in the formulation of of literary argument.


keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Jun 12th, 2006 at 05:56:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, I did get a perfect score in the History of Philosophy paper when I took the university access examinations.

But I do protest too much because I was referring to conceptual though outside of the literary sense.

By the way, what the french call litteraire is arts in English, I think, or more generally humanities.

When I was in my last year in high school, two people came from the university to give us a presentation about the access examinations. It turns out they were husband and wife, him a mathematician and she from the humanities. At one point she said something to the effect that "of course" writing well was not that important for a math exam. You should have seen the man's face.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 12th, 2006 at 06:00:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Goes back to my argument a couple of weeks ago that science is not viewed as an intellectual discipline. You can study arts and be respected even if you can't do basic arithmetic. However, whatever your achievements in science, you can never be an intellectual until you understand literature, history and art.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Jun 12th, 2006 at 06:15:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
In the UK you don't get taught much about any of those.

The idea of teaching philosophy to 18 year olds would make a lot of heads explode here. What possible relevance could philosophy have to the corporate job market? (And so on.)

And yes, a lot of what we take for granted intellectually is socially maintained and not intrinsic. And that makes it terrifylngly fragile.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Mon Jun 12th, 2006 at 07:27:50 AM EST
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