Being a writer of fiction, dialog has always seemed like an intelligent way to get points across. One of the text books for Animals & Ethics is written by someone who obviously thinks along those same lines, although to a certain extent, philosophical dialog is a bit different than fiction. The focus is not on the plotline, or characterization so much as it's on the dialog itself. The concepts, if you will.
I've read a philosophical dialog before. Plato, I think, from his Republic. I took a class on Critical Reading, once, and I believe that was where I came across it. I don't agree with everything Plato did, but his was truly a brilliant mind. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms has quite a bit to say about him, but most of it revolves around how he believed that all things stem from ideas, and a higher plane of existence.
I wonder what he would have thought about the topic of this class, though? It's very unlikely, I'd think, that many, if any ancient Greek philosophers would have thought to ponder anything beyond human morality and idealism. This seems to be a modern topic of debate. I'd love to know who the first philosopher was, that came to the conclusion that thinking about it at all was a wise choice..
3 comments:
Pythagoras (500 BC), Socrates, and Plato all advocated vegetarianism. Here's Pythagoras:
"Human beings, stop desecrating your bodies with impious foodstuffs. There are crops; there are apples weighing down the branches; and ripening grapes on the vines; there are flavoursome herbs; and those that can be rendered mild and gentle over the flames; and you do not lack flowing milk; or honey fragrant from the flowering thyme. The earth, prodigal of its wealth, supplies you with gentle sustenance, and offers you food without killing or shedding blood."
That's really interesting. Where is the quotation from, exactly? I've never actually read anything by Pythagoras other than the..math theorem for triangles.
Ovid
Metamorphoses
Book XV:60-142
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