Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Pilot
Throughout The Republic Socrates has provided us with a string of analogies and stories in an attempt to illustrate his ideas. Towards the beginning of book VI he compares the philosopher to the true pilot of the ship. Not the sailor who quarrels with the others and has never actually learned the art of navigation... but the one who pays attention to the "year and season and sky and stars and winds and whatever else belongs to his art." I found this parable to be clever and extremely effective in promoting the philosopher king. As I continued reading I could not help but have that all-knowing pilot in the back of my head. This was probably the strongest connection I have made between Socrates' ideas and his amusing analogies.
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I agree with what Miss Ashker is stating in her blog about The Pilot and Socrates. I see the resemblence of the two. This was probably the best illustration which made alot of sense to me. It helped with my understanding of the Republic & Socrates.
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