Have you ever studied, "The Allegory of the Cave?"

[Eric39]

It seems you are only getting comments from people that have studied it. I haven't. I probably won't either since I would rather study the Bible.

You should probably expand your sources. The bible is only good for so much. If you want to gain an understanding of the world that you can't find in yourself, you have to look in more than one place. Only studying the bible is like only getting your news from CNN or only studying one school of economics. You need to go out of your usual boundaries to truly find your convictions. For all you know you could be just another prisoner in the caves if you refuse to go look around.

 

[milo10]

The Republic itself was one of the worst books I can recall reading. The Allegory of the Cave was nice, but I suspect it's more of an eye into the Eleusinian Mysteries and the esoteric mysticism that was prevalent in the West before the unfortunate rise of the Abrahamic religions. This and the related discussion on universals was the only thing I got from the book.

 

[dcjones]

Have you guys ever read..... "It all started with Plato" by S. Harcourt-Rivington. Its short and sweet. Here it is in audio form:

http://mises.org/media/4038/It-All-Started-with-Plato

 

[bolil]

I do not see how it flies in the face of Libertarianism. Considering that the interpretation completely fits to our modern day scenario.

Then you have, evidently, not read the book. If you would like examples I can get to them... heres one for free: The noble lie.

 

[Eric39]

The point is, studying philosophy is overrated, pfft. Anything Socrates ever said, you should be able to figure out yourself, but alas, that is optimistic given the average mindset of the people, and that's why we have college courses on it.

No, but seriously, I find it funny that whenever I take a course about psychology, philosophy, or even English, simple ideas I state are apparently on par with the greats and people who had to describe such ideas in 800 page books. Philosophy isnt about knowing a bunch of facts or coming up with graphs, it's about thinking about things to yourself. I'm inherently good at this type of thinking, and since I'm a jackass, I can in no way take it that seriously.