In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Timothy Mallon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes > > > >>At what historical moment was anything of the kind first thought? It >>doesn't match anything I have read in classical or other pre-modern >>authors; it seems to me a product of the socio-economic alienation of >>the intellectual. (Only an intellectual could envisage the redesign of >>reality; only an alienated one would be interested in so doing. But of >>course we first have to define reality; and 'real', like 'free', is one >>of those words most easily understood from their opposites in any given >>context.) >> > >Wouldn't Plato fit the definition of an alienated or disaffected >intellectual? He certainly contemplated the redesign of much of the society >he was born in. > Indeed he was an alienated intellectual who hated democracy and whose personal connections lay with that gang of alienated intellectuals whose government had discredited oligarchy for two generations. But he was not concerned with redesigning what he understood to be reality, but with finding out what it was.
Leofranc Holford-Strevens *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/267865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
