Author Archives: David Vance

Following are comments on terms, many of which appear in discussions about the Platonic dialogues discussed in class.  Some of these comments argue points, others are simply technical or historical. akrasia  — Moral weakness, analyzed in the Socratic dialogues as … Continue reading →

The Idea For us, too, there was a wish to possess Something beyond the world we knew, beyond ourselves, Beyond our power to imagine, something nevertheless In which we might see ourselves; and this desire Came always in passing, in … Continue reading →

Themes on Love Grading themes on love at M.I.T., one-man Symposium at 3 a.m., across the court I saw a light; another office-holder working late. While Plato on a silver pillow rode above the waves of pre-sophistic prose, I jotted … Continue reading →

You                  The sunlight passes through the window into the room Where you are sewing a button to your blouse: outside Water in the fountain rises Toward a cloud.  This plume of water is lighter Now, for white shares of itself … Continue reading →

The Triumph of Achilles In the story of Patroclus no one survives, not even Achilles who was nearly a god. Patroclus resembled him; they wore the same armor. Always in these friendships one serves the other, one is less than … Continue reading →

The Pass Plato put it well, like so— beyond the particular’s the permanent. That is, beyond the broken arc of one dead jay I throw to the woods (it hits a pine and drops), beyond such a broken arc and … Continue reading →

A Daylight Art On the day he was to take the poison Socrates told his friends he had been writing: putting Aesop’s fables into verse. And this was not because Socrates loved wisdom and advocated the examined life. The reason … Continue reading →

I.  Commentary on the Republic, 327 to 336. The definition of justice that Polemarchus and Cephalus derive from Simonides and which Polemarchus then attempts to defend is this:  “Justice is helping your friends and harming your enemies.”  A first objection … Continue reading →

As portrayed in the Gorgias, the Republic, the Crito, and several other places, Socrates is apparently a man of strong opinions since, in his discussions with Crito, Euthyphro, Thrasymachus, Polus, and others, he is shown to have quite clear ideas … Continue reading →

Euthyphro: “What is dear to the gods is pious.” Socrates: “Is something pious because it is dear to the gods, or is it dear to the gods because it is pious?” Socrates’ question is astute because it requires Euthyphro to … Continue reading →