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Plato

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I was very fortunate, as bored thirteen year old, to have a teacher who made a habit of assigning me books to read which I'd hate but have to argue against. Plato was one of his more inspired choices: it's hard to resist the charm, even if he was a totalitarian bugger. (Mr. Epstein also had me read Ayn Rand, who I just found laughable.) Some years ago, I reviewed a book about the evolutionary biology of cooperation, and, in doing so, gave a version of the prisonners' dilemma where the two actors are bandits, who must cooperate to rob innocent travellers more effectively. In writing that, I had dim memories of having read somewhere that even robbers must obey some principles of justice among themselves or perish. Afterwards, trying to track this idea down, I realized that of course it came from the Republic. (Series of footnotes, etc.) This actually led me to re-reading Plato for the first time since high school. My profound conclusion: Plato is very weird. I cannot swallow the Straussi

Plato Notebooks Plato Last update : 21 Apr 2025 21:17 First version : 5 March 2022 Yet Another Inadequate Placeholder I was very fortunate, as bored thirteen year old, to have a teacher who made a habit of assigning me books to read which I'd hate but have to argue against. Plato was one of his more inspired choices: it's hard to resist the charm, even if he was a totalitarian bugger. (Mr. Epstein also had me read Ayn Rand, who I just found laughable.) Some years ago, I reviewed a book about the evolutionary biology of cooperation , and, in doing so, gave a version of the prisonners' dilemma w

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