Why I Keep Going Back To Plato - Philosophical Developments and Commitments

[@wildeirishpoet]

I just finished my master's degree in intellectual history. I am not going to lie, as soon as I was done, I ran right back to Plato, the first philosopher I ever read. The first work I read was the Republic, the second the Symposium. I am re-reading all his dialogues now. My love of Plato connects me to the divine which feeds me with thoughts of my own. I love him and feel connected with anyone whom has ever been intimate with his being.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes - I try to reread all of the dialogues at least once a year. It's always worth it

[@johnbalfour8157]

I bumped into your channel searching for videos about the logical fallacies, and found your presentation and teaching style the most cogent. I hope to present my own ideas half as clearly in my videos. Thank you for making this lovely content.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're very welcome

[@GS-lp2up]

Thank you for these wonderful philosophical development videos. It is definitely a prudent exercise to observe and listen to another person's journey in philosophy as opposed to just our own. Excellent video sir! I love reading Plato. He is where I started in the study of philosophy and I still pick up his dialogues between some of the more existential works from Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre, and Dostoevsky I have been reading lately.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you enjoy them. Yes - we can and should always keep on going back to Plato

[@danielcox6193]

Great video, as always. I like Plato because I believe his ideas of the transcendent forms, like Truth, Beauty, Being, Justice (as you mentioned), are very influential to later writers like Aquinas and are still very relevant today. The idea of participation between immanent and transcendent offers a useful alternative to the dualisms present in modernity.

[@GregoryBSadler]

I'm a fan of participation myself. It does require, though, that one at least try to explain what that relation means. . .

[@tethyn]

Gorgias and the Republic are the two that I go back to, although not quite the frequency you do for obvious reasons. What I like about the dialogues is that it is like having the same conversation but with each reading the words become richer and denser. With Each iteration you move closer to what Plato wants you think about in the dialogue.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, at least we hope we're moving closer!

[@tethyn]

@@GregoryBSadler this is true. My hope is that we always find something when we go back to the text again, and as such, we do progress in some way since we now have clarified, discovered, negated, or reinforced ideas in the process.

[@vid30snake]

I am finding it very difficult to adequately express my appreciation and gratitude for this most honourable and invaluable service that you are providing for our human race by producing these videos. However, that may just be a side effect of reading Plato...

[@vid30snake]

"... no intelligent man will ever be so bold as to put into language those things which his reason has contemplated, especially not into a form that is unalterable--which must be the case with what is expressed in written symbols."

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, those things would be the Platonic forms, most commentators seem to think, not our particular instances of e.g. gratitude. But I'm glad that you're finding the videos useful for you in your studies!

[@vid30snake]

True, but I believe it was in the glimpse of the inexpressible Forms that my appreciation was found. Perhaps human emotion is but an afterglow of the Divine Intelligence that shines through. The gratitude lies in the affirmation of that Divine connection via the projected image lingering on our soul. So perhaps in attempting to describe this projection, we are in a sense attempting to describe its source. Nonetheless, thank you for providing a window into the philosophical realm!

[@theoscarman]

Enjoyed your talk especially your anecdotes. Have been scouring youtube regarding Plato and I am grateful for the personal and unique manner in which you spoke of Plato. One question. Which Plato work would you recommend to be read first? Thank you.

[@GregoryBSadler]

"Which Plato work would you recommend to be read first?" The first one you have ready at hand

[@carlosrangel3986]

good video

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks!

[@MrMarktrumble]

thank you.

[@Schopenhauer14]

I quite liked the Protagoras too. 2 questions. First, what do you do when you encounter some of the really suspicious arguments from analogy that, or questionable premises that show up in the dialogues? Do you ignore that argument, do you try really hard to be charitable? There are also times (particularly in the Republic, but elsewhere too) where Plato seems to be need to make a conceptual point, but makes empirical appeals (which makes me think people back then didn't distinguish between the conceptual and empirical like we do today). Second, how do you find Plato scholarship? Because what I have read (which admittedly isn't much), I have found dreadfully pedantic and boring.

[@GregoryBSadler]

" Do you ignore that argument, do you try really hard to be charitable?" Neither. I look first at the context. Who is Socrates speaking with (when it's Socrates)? You'll notice that Plato has Socrates make weaker arguments with weaker opponents. I also think about how the argument connects up with what else Plato writes at other places. Plato scholarship, like any secondary literature, is a mixed bad. Some of it is excellent, some of it is terrible, and there's a lot in between

[@theelectricant98]

i wanna be like u when i grow up

[@GregoryBSadler]

In what sense?

[@benfelts8787]

I personally think it would be quite valuable to teach some of the Platonic dialouges to high schoolers. I honestly think it'd be just as valuable if not more valuable than having students read Homer. That's of course, just my opinion though. What do you think Dr. Sadler?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Sure. I’m guessing most high school students read neither

[@mypronounismaster4450]

I have a question. I'm reading The Republic right now. In Part 7 Section 4 there is a line that reads, "He will delete and draw again, of course, but will go on till he has made human nature as acceptable to God as may be." I've come across this before--the mention of God in works that are written in a time that doesn't necessarily have the same concept of God as the modern day. Or maybe they do? It's certainly written in the same way we would expect it to be written. The word used was not Zeus or Athena, but God. . I'm guessing the go to move here is looking at the actual Greek. Anyone have some incite into this. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had a curiosity about this.

[@kikupanchi]

I've been rereading plato lately and I find that lesser hippias/minor has been perplexing me the most since of course its not certain plato truly wrote it due to an uncharacteristic socrates and irksome conclusion. I'd be interested to know your thoughts on it and whether you believe it to be valuable since you didn't mention it in this video

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep, I focus much more on the canonical texts

[@makecowsnotwar]

I like the part where they agree with Socrates.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Then you're in luck

[@alex_roivas333]

you've mentioned how you like Nietzsche and the existentialists, do you find things in Plato that relate to them?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Depends on what you mean by "relate"

[@fortitude120]

@@GregoryBSadler commonalities or adoption of older concepts?

[@GregoryBSadler]

@@fortitude120 Still not sure what you're asking. Try to reframe a specific question for me, and I'll give it a shot

[@Zarakendog]

Do you think you can understand Plato on a complex level without learning Greek?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes

[@MichaelJimenez416]

As someone who presumably reads Greek, are there any English Plato translations that you particularly recommend? I am always so insecure when reading translated philosophy in general, which sucks because I only read English and French so I almost never feel completely comfortable!

[@GregoryBSadler]

I don't have recommended translations, no. You don't need to feel insecure - just compare multiple translations on points that you're worried about

[@fryingwiththeantidote2486]

Juan and Maria Balboa have the best translations around

[@Hengpar2001]

What is your opinion on Nietzsche's remark that "christianism is platonism for the masses"?

[@GregoryBSadler]

I think it's a nice sound-bite, and like most of those, garbage when you look at it closely

[@Hengpar2001]

@@GregoryBSadler thank you Gregory. I follow your channel. Best.

[@nasertizhoosh761]

Dr. Sadler, why symposium is your first choice?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Add context. No idea what you’re asking about a video I shot years ago

[@nasertizhoosh761]

@@GregoryBSadler in 14.23 you mentioned that you ended up focusing more on the symposium, I was wondering if there was a particular reason? respectfully yours

[@GregoryBSadler]

@@nasertizhoosh761 Gotta listen more attentively. I say Symposium, Phaedrus, Republic, etc.

[@CaptainJasa]

It's been awhile since I last commented on a video. My question is Schopenhauer correct in his use of Plato ideas of forms and his idea of a will that governs everything from the trees to us. I ask because Schopenhauer has nothing but praise for Plato philosophy. I also wish to add that since this period of your early videos I have engaged many great thinkers , This is my second go around reading the first volume of the world as will and representation.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Schopenhauer is using Plato's forms, incorporating them within his own philosophical system. So, it's not quite the same thing as what Plato does with them - but the same can be said of the neo-Platonists for that matter. Plato does not have an idea of "a will that governs everything from the trees to us", and Schopenhauer's Will is ultimately irrational, so even if Plato did have something like such a will, it would be quite a bit different than Schopenhauer's

[@CaptainJasa]

Thanks for the reply back , My personal favourite Platonic dialogue is the Theaetetus. One that I can reread numerous times and I can still find a different argument that I missed out on a prior reading.

[@GregoryBSadler]

I find that is the case for me for pretty much all of Plato's dialogues.

[@ShotTehTrick]

How old was Plato when he began studying Philosophy, wasn't he around the age of 18? If so, do you believe that starting philosophical/religious studies is more beneficial if begun at a younger age?

[@IamFreeRu]

Studying or practicing any academic field at a younger age is of course better than starting later on and leads to a better understanding and expertise since you have more time for research and development in that field.

[@GregoryBSadler]

We don't really know how old Plato was when he started. I suppose it couldn't hurt to start studying at a younger age, but there's a lot that you grasp differently, and more fully, in philosophy as you get older

[@ShotTehTrick]

Gregory B. Sadler I would have to agree. I began having more philosophical like thoughts at the age of 15 and began wondering of many things, especially in the realm of religion, politics, and how things actually are. It wasn't until I was 18 that I firmly began to read philosophical works, and now at the age of 19 I have a more deep passion for topics such as these and this passion, not only has helped develop my character tremendously, but also has allowed me to venture quite far in philosophical thought. The first question I asked was, how do we know what is actually good? It is just intriguing to me that so many brilliant thinkers throughout the ages began in their youth with a deep sense of wonder about existence. I like reading philosophy, it feels as if I am talking to somebody who gets it and understands, whether or not I entirely agree with that thinker. Plato and Marcus Aurelius were some of the first philosophers I read and I truly believe that Plato is a philosopher that I will always go back to and be able to enjoy.

[@Gonzalezluis89]

Gregory B. Sadler I have been watching your videos for over a year now. And I really enjoy them especially because I had been reading some of Plato's works and your videos have helped me unlocked some of the concepts that I struggled with. I'm 28 years old, I drive tractor trailers and I listen to your lectures while I'm driving over the road. So I wanted to ask you being that I I'm not a student and I've never had any formal education on philosophy, I'm a bit slower on grasping some of the concepts I read. so what will you suggests for me given my situation. maybe a specific translation , a commentary on Plato's works, or maybe a specific order in which to read them, also I have an interest in exploring the works of Aristotle. what will you suggests. Thank you

[@wildeirishpoet]

read Proclus commentaries on Plato, they are the most enlightening piece of knowledge you will ever digest

[@Korpandor]

In which way was your high-school phil class terrible?

[@GregoryBSadler]

As I remember it, we had a pretty mediocre text to work with, no primary readings, and we were essentially supposed to learn what the instructor wanted us to learn, and not much more

[@RobWickline]

@@GregoryBSadler I had the same experience in high school with philosophy. Hated it. Then I ran into it again in college and did the minor program that was available.

[@RoyalAnarchist]

What is Analytic Philosophy good for anyway?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Like most other things, it has its strengths

[@stndsure7275]

I like Socrates better - although I am not sure we know what he actually said - I dont think Plato actually got it right - the idea of the 'forms' is absurd - there are no inherent essences or identities.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, everyone's got an opinion, I suppose