work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3414,"",Reading,2004-01-14 00:00:00 UTC,"Why then are they more powerful than you? Because they utter these useless words from their real opinions: but you utter your elegant words only from your lips; for this reason they are without strength and dead, and it is nauseous1 to listen to your exhortations and your miserable virtue, which is talked of every where (up and down). In this way the vulgar have the advantage over you: for every opinion (δόγμα) is strong and invincible. Until then the good (κομψαί) sentiments (ὑπολήψεις) are fixed in you, and you shall have acquired a certain power for your security, I advise you to be careful in your association with common persons: if you are not, every day like wax in the sun there will be melted away whatever you inscribe on your minds in the school. Withdraw then yourselves far from the sun so long as you have these waxen sentiments. For this reason also philosophers advise men to leave their native country, because antient habits distract them and do not allow a beginning to be made of a different habit; nor can we tolerate those who meet us and say: See such a one is now a philosopher, who was once so and so. Thus also physicians send those who have lingering diseases to a different country and a different air; and they do right. Do you also introduce other habits than those which you have: fix your opinions and exercise yourselves in them. But you do not so: you go hence to a spectacle, to a show of gladiators, to a place of exercise (ξυστόν), to a circus; then you come back hither, and again from this place you go to those places, and still the same persons. And there is no pleasing (good) habit, nor attention, nor care about self and observation of this kind, How shall I use the appearances presented to me? according to nature, or contrary to nature? how do I answer to them? as I ought, or as I ought not? Do I say to those things which are independent of the will, that they do not concern me? For if you are not yet in this state, fly from your former habits, fly from the common sort, if you intend ever to begin to be something.
(III.xvi)",,8712,"•Is there a misprint here (the syntax is strange). REVISIT.
• Revisited. The MIT text is riddled with errors... REVISIT and fix.","""Until then the good sentiments are fixed in you, and you shall have acquired a certain power for your security, I advise you to be careful in your association with common persons: if you are not, every day like wax in the sun there will be melted away whatever you inscribe on your minds in the school.""","",2011-06-06 19:27:22 UTC,"Book III, Chapter xvi: That we ought with caution to enter, into familiar intercourse with men "
6412,"",Reading the Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy (210),2004-04-19 00:00:00 UTC,"It is not necessary to ask whether the soul and its body are one, just as we do not ask about wax and its shape.
(412b6-7)",,16910,•REVISIT.,"""It is not necessary to ask whether the soul and its body are one, just as we do not ask about wax and its shape.""","",2010-10-02 21:50:03 UTC,""
6412,Blank Slate,"Found again reading Yolton's Locke Dictionary (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993): 288.",2005-03-21 00:00:00 UTC,"Have not we already disposed of the difficulty about interaction involving a common element, when we said that mind is in a sense potentially whatever is thinkable, though actually it is nothing until it has thought? What it thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing-tablet on which as yet nothing actually stands written: this is exactly what happens with mind.
(429b, 30-430a3)",,16911,"","""What it thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing-tablet on which as yet nothing actually stands written: this is exactly what happens with mind.""","",2010-10-02 21:52:26 UTC,""
6414,"","Reading. Found again in Margreta de Grazia’s ""Imprints: Shakespeare, Gutenberg, and Descartes,"" in Printing and Parenting in Early Modern England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005): 29-58, p. 30. Christopher Collins points out a pun on wax (kêros) and heart (kêr), in Neopoetics: The Evolution of the Literate Imagination (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017), 229.
",2005-05-09 00:00:00 UTC,"SOCRATES: Well, they say the differences arise in this way. When a man has in his mind a good thick slab of wax, smooth and kneaded to the right consistency, and the impressions that come through the senses are stamped on these tables of the 'heart'--Homer's word hints at the mind's likeness to wax--then the imprints are clear and deep enough to last a long time. Such people are quick to learn and also have good memories, and besides they do not interchange the imprints of their perceptions but think truly. These imprints being distinct and well spaced are quickly assigned to their several stamps--the 'real things' as they are called--and such men are said to be clever. Do you agree?
(194b-d, pp. 900-1)",2009-03-20,16915,"","""When a man has in his mind a good thick slab of wax, smooth and kneaded to the right consistency, and the impressions that come through the senses are stamped on these tables of the 'heart'--Homer's word hints at the mind's likeness to wax--then the imprints are clear and deep enough to last a long time.""",Impressions,2017-01-09 03:43:08 UTC,""
7195,"",Reading,2012-02-29 19:17:37 UTC,"Soc. Is there not another kind of word or speech far better than this, and having far greater power--a son of the same family, but lawfully begotten?
Phaedr. Whom do you mean, and what is his origin?
Soc. I mean an intelligent word graven in the soul of the learner, which can defend itself, and knows with whom to speak and with whom to be silent.
Phaedr. You mean the living word of knowledge which has a soul, and of which the written word is properly no more than an image?
Soc. Yes, of course that is what I mean. And now may I be allowed to ask you a question?: Would a husbandman, who is a man of sense, take seeds which he values and which he wishes to bear fruit, and in sober seriousness plant them during the heat of summer, in some garden of Adonis, that he may rejoice when he sees them in eight days appearing in beauty? At least he would do so, if at all, only for the sake of amusement and for show. But when he is in earnest he employs his art of husbandry and sows in fitting soil, and is satisfied if in eight months the seeds which he has sown arrive at perfection?
Phaedr. Yes, Socrates, that will be his way when he is in earnest; he might act otherwise for the reasons which you give.
Soc. And can we suppose that he who knows the just and good and honourable has less understanding than the husbandman about his own seeds?
Phaedr. Certainly not.
Soc. Then he will not seriously incline to 'write' his thoughts 'in water' with pen and ink, sowing words which can neither speak for themselves nor teach the truth adequately to others?
Phaedr. No, that is not likely.
Soc. No, that is not likely—in the garden of letters he will sow and plant, but only for the sake of recreation and amusement; he will write them down as memorials to be treasured against the forgetfulness of old age, by himself, or by any other man who is treading the same path. He will rejoice in beholding their tender growth; and while others are refreshing their souls with banqueting and the like, this will be the pastime in which his days are spent.
Phaedr. A pastime, Socrates, as noble as the other is ignoble, the pastime of a man who can be amused by serious talk, and can discourse merrily about justice and the like.
Soc. True, Phaedrus. But nobler far is the serious pursuit of the dialectician, who, finding a congenial soul , by the help of science sows and plants therein words which are able to defend themselves and him who planted them, and are not unfruitful, but have in them a seed which others brought up in different soils render immortal, making the possessors of it happy to the utmost extent of human happiness.
(276a-277a)",,19610,"","""I mean an intelligent word graven in the soul of the learner, which can defend itself, and knows with whom to speak and with whom to be silent.""","",2012-02-29 19:17:37 UTC,""
7195,"",Reading,2012-02-29 19:18:49 UTC,"Soc. Is there not another kind of word or speech far better than this, and having far greater power--a son of the same family, but lawfully begotten?
Phaedr. Whom do you mean, and what is his origin?
Soc. I mean an intelligent word graven in the soul of the learner, which can defend itself, and knows with whom to speak and with whom to be silent.
Phaedr. You mean the living word of knowledge which has a soul, and of which the written word is properly no more than an image?
Soc. Yes, of course that is what I mean. And now may I be allowed to ask you a question?: Would a husbandman, who is a man of sense, take seeds which he values and which he wishes to bear fruit, and in sober seriousness plant them during the heat of summer, in some garden of Adonis, that he may rejoice when he sees them in eight days appearing in beauty? At least he would do so, if at all, only for the sake of amusement and for show. But when he is in earnest he employs his art of husbandry and sows in fitting soil, and is satisfied if in eight months the seeds which he has sown arrive at perfection?
Phaedr. Yes, Socrates, that will be his way when he is in earnest; he might act otherwise for the reasons which you give.
Soc. And can we suppose that he who knows the just and good and honourable has less understanding than the husbandman about his own seeds?
Phaedr. Certainly not.
Soc. Then he will not seriously incline to 'write' his thoughts 'in water' with pen and ink, sowing words which can neither speak for themselves nor teach the truth adequately to others?
Phaedr. No, that is not likely.
Soc. No, that is not likely—in the garden of letters he will sow and plant, but only for the sake of recreation and amusement; he will write them down as memorials to be treasured against the forgetfulness of old age, by himself, or by any other man who is treading the same path. He will rejoice in beholding their tender growth; and while others are refreshing their souls with banqueting and the like, this will be the pastime in which his days are spent.
Phaedr. A pastime, Socrates, as noble as the other is ignoble, the pastime of a man who can be amused by serious talk, and can discourse merrily about justice and the like.
Soc. True, Phaedrus. But nobler far is the serious pursuit of the dialectician, who, finding a congenial soul, by the help of science sows and plants therein words which are able to defend themselves and him who planted them, and are not unfruitful, but have in them a seed which others brought up in different soils render immortal, making the possessors of it happy to the utmost extent of human happiness.
(276a-277a)",,19611,"","""You mean the living word of knowledge which has a soul, and of which the written word is properly no more than an image?""","",2012-02-29 19:18:49 UTC,""
7195,"",Reading,2012-02-29 19:25:12 UTC,"Soc. But he who thinks that in the written word, whatever its subject, there is necessarily much which is not serious, and that no discourse worthy of study has ever yet been written in poetry or prose, and that spoken ones are no better if, like the recitations of rhapsodes, they are delivered for the sake of persuasion, and not with any view to criticism or instruction; and who thinks that even the best of writings are but a memorandum for those who know, and that only in principles of justice and goodness and nobility taught and communicated orally for the sake of instruction and graven in the soul, which is the true way of writing, is there clearness and perfection and seriousness, and that such principles should be deemed a man's own and his legitimate offspring;--being, in the first place, the word which he finds in his own bosom; secondly, the brethren and descendants and relations of his idea which have been duly implanted by him in the souls of others;--and who cares for them and no others--this is the right sort of man; and you and I, Phaedrus, would pray that we may become like him.
(278b-278b) ",,19613,"","He ""who thinks that even the best of writings are but a memorandum for those who know, and that only in principles of justice and goodness and nobility taught and communicated orally for the sake of instruction and graven in the soul, which is the true way of writing, is there clearness and perfection and seriousness, and that such principles should be deemed a man's own and his legitimate offspring;--being, in the first place, the word which he finds in his own bosom; secondly, the brethren and descendants and relations of his idea which have been duly implanted by him in the souls of others;--and who cares for them and no others--this is the right sort of man; and you and I, Phaedrus, would pray that we may become like him.""","",2012-02-29 19:25:12 UTC,""
8031,Blank Slate,Reading,2014-10-05 22:30:59 UTC,"When a man is born, the Stoics say, he has the commanding part of his soul like a sheet of paper ready for writing upon. On this he inscribes each one of his conceptions. The first method of inscription is through the senses. For by perceiving something, e.g. white, they have a memory of it when it has departed. And when many memories of a similar kind have occurred, we say we have experience. For the plurality of similar impressions is experience.
4.11",,24461,"","""When a man is born, the Stoics say, he has the commanding part of his soul like a sheet of paper ready for writing upon.""",Writing,2014-10-05 22:32:15 UTC,""
8031,Blank Slate,Reading,2014-10-05 22:31:40 UTC,"When a man is born, the Stoics say, he has the commanding part of his soul like a sheet of paper ready for writing upon. On this he inscribes each one of his conceptions. The first method of inscription is through the senses. For by perceiving something, e.g. white, they have a memory of it when it has departed. And when many memories of a similar kind have occurred, we say we have experience. For the plurality of similar impressions is experience.
4.11",,24462,"","""On this [the soul] he inscribes each one of his conceptions. The first method of inscription is through the senses.""",Writing,2014-10-05 22:32:03 UTC,""
8190,"","Reading Christopher Collins, Neopoetics : The Evolution of the Literate Imagination (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017), 229.
",2017-01-09 03:26:21 UTC,"τὸν Ὀλυμπιονίκαν ἀνάγνωτέ μοι
Ἀρχεστράτου παῖδα, πόθι φρενὸς
ἐμᾶς γέγραπται: γλυκὺ γὰρ αὐτῷ μέλος
ὀφείλων ἐπιλέλαθ᾽: ὦ Μοῖσ᾽, ἀλλὰ σὺ καὶ θυγάτηρ
Ἀλάθεια Διός, ὀρθᾷ χερὶ
ἐρύκετον ψευδέων
ἐνιπὰν ἀλιτόξενον.
ἕκαθεν γὰρ ἐπελθὼν ὁ μέλλων χρόνος
[10] ἐμὸν καταίσχυνε βαθὺ χρέος.
ὅμως δὲ λῦσαι δυνατὸς ὀξεῖαν ἐπιμομφὰν τόκος: ὁρᾶτ᾽ ὦν νῦν ψᾶφον ἑλισσομέναν
ὅπα κῦμα κατακλύσσει ῥέον,
ὅπα τε κοινὸν λόγον
φίλαν τίσομεν ἐς χάριν.
[Read me the name of the Olympic victor, the son of Archestratus, where it has been written in my mind (phrên). For I owed him a sweet song, and I have forgotten. But come, Muse, you and the daughter of Zeus, unforgetting Truth: with the hand that puts things right, [5] keep from me the blame for lying, for wronging my friend. Approaching from far away, the future has arrived and made me ashamed of my deep debt. Still, payment with interest has a way of dissolving the bitter reproach of men.]",,25000,"","""Read me the name of the Olympic victor, the son of Archestratus, where it has been written in my mind.""",Writing,2017-01-09 03:28:28 UTC,""