Skip to main content

Socrates and Piano Notes-Rachael Gregson

 


While Books I and II had Socrates and his travel companions going back and forth about the definition of justice, it was a breath of fresh air to read in Books III and IV about how they wanted to permeate justice and regulations in literally everything-from sports to music. This type of society-building that Socrates presented was unheard at the time-the belief that bettering the virtue in an individual positively advanced the virtue in the community as a whole and that change needed to start in the people's everyday activities. What people find pleasure and joy in says a lot about their character; how they go about that certain activity says further. Even what's enjoyable should be taken into moderation and key, because in Socrates's eyes, the line between 'healthy' and 'excessive' could be blurred very quickly. Games, music, and the arts were luxuries that if dabbled in long enough, could degrade the integrity of the guardians. It reminded me a lot about what C.S. Lewis wrote on sin. He compared it to piano notes. He writes, "Strictly speaking, there are no such thing as good and bad impulses. Think once again of a piano. It has not got two kinds on it, the 'right' notes and the 'wrong' ones. Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another". Sin isn't always 'bad' things. Sometimes, sin can be things intended for good done for the wrong reasons or at the wrong time. So is the case with the common things that Socrates is trying to moralize in his society. He's not being a nay-sayer about games, music, and arts. He just doesn't want something good to become something bad, and he urges his companions to keep tabs on their excess. Now I do NOT believe in censorship most cases, but that's a whole other post to itself, I believe. I'm mainly just focusing on the positives of Books III and IV. 

What do you think? 

I commented on posts by Jacob Clabo and Lily Caswell.

Comments

  1. ClaboSeptember 28, 2020 at 11:26 PM

    I definitely agree with your post in that the intentions of the republic would be truly remarkable if they were able to pull it all off. However, I just feel as if the life in the "just city" would be very oppressive and dreadful after a bit of time. I feel as if it would only be a life of restraint.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haley RiddleSeptember 29, 2020 at 11:07 PM

      I agree that it would become oppressive. I do like your attempt to highlight the good, however, because it really does seem like a good idea that if acted on correctly could produce good results.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Word Painting in Vesta—Lily Caswell

  Word painting in Weelkes’s As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending is quite interesting. And because that is a really long title, I’m calling it Vesta from now on. Word painting is basically when the melody matches up with the lyrics. So in Vesta, when it says “ascending” and “descending”, there are obviously scales going up and down. The madrigal was written for six voices to sing unaccompanied, so when they start to come together, it matches with the lyrics; so if the lyric says “two by two”, there are only two voices; “three by three” there is another voice added, and so forth. All the parts combine in exclamation before Vesta before it is left “all alone” to the highest soprano. All the way to the end of the piece, word painting continues when shouts of “Long live fair Oriana” with the bass sustaining long notes. Word painting in and of itself is a highly interesting topic because a musician takes the words of a poem or a sonnet and writes a melody line that pertains to cer...
4 comments
Read more

Welcome to Honors! (Please Read This)

     Welcome to Honors! My name is Abbie Hedden and I serve as President of Honors. Jamie Peters is our Vice President, and Caroline Tucker is our Secretary. I look forward to getting to know all of you in class during this upcoming year! There are a few things you need to know about Honors.      There are no quizzes or tests in Honors. Grades are provided based on attendance/class participation, blogs, explication papers, and the research paper. The papers will be addressed at a later date, as they aren't due until later in the semester. However, there is a blog post due every week. Bearing that in mind, here are the requirements! Criteria Blog posts are due Monday at 11:59PM , and comments are due Tuesday at 9:29AM . DO NOT BE LATE ON ASSIGNMENTS. Points WILL be deducted from late assignments! Be sure to have your name in your Blogger profile Blog posts should include at least one to two paragraphs on that week’s reading assignment.  Blog posts shoul...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Dark Side of Justice // Jessef Leslie

  When we hear the word justice we think of righteousness, piety, and triumph. The feeling it brings is one of the good guy winning and the bad guy being put in his place. The issue in these definitions and connotations is they leave out vengeance. Vengeance is a part of justice just like odd numbers are a part math and it isn't to be left out. In The Eumenides by Aeschylus, vengeance is personified as three female deities called Furies " Apollo: 'Gorgons I'd call them; but then with Gorgons you'd see the grim, inhuman... These have no wings, I looked. But black they are, and so repulsive. Their heavy, rasping breath makes me cringe. And their eyes ooze a discharge, sickening, and what they wear - … sacrilege!'" (Aeschylus, (Robert Fagles, 232). They are described as nasty almost human like creatures seen as evil. They chase Orestes, Agamemnon's son, for murdering his mother. The Furies represent his mother's, Clytemnestra, rage and revenge as he...
Post a Comment
Read more