Dr. Ware: Thank you for your comments on "Today's teens...." But I am
concerned about your statement "troubling........." The fact is that no
one in the world, socrates or Plato or Aristotle or even Thomas Aquinas,
formally recognized the reality of society in shaping human life and
life-chances until the C18th and 19th French and German scholars and
scientists. I would have also missed it if it were not for the great
scholars like Tillich, Niebuhr and Pauck (New York) who suggested to me
the study of sociology during an oral examination to find answers to my
questions, after having taken graduate degrees in Theology, Philosophy and
History, I came to the recognition that "society" is the ultimate reality
that shapes human behavior---all others are facts and opinions. Of course
I want you to know that I admire the great Greek scholars and thinkers,
but, unfortunately they did not know enough about society that we know
now with the help of the French and german scholars! Geevarghese
On Tue, 7 Dec 1999, THOMAS WARE wrote:
> 12/8/99
>
> As in the past, I find myself reluctant to leap into these e-mail
> brouhahas about matters which seem relatively unimportant or obvious to
> most people; but in this recent series of exchanges, I have been intrigued
> by two points: the one uttered by Steve Bird I agree with to a large
> extent("the more things change . . . ."), which has remained a staple of
> universal wisdom since the phrase was credited to a Frenchman, Alphonse
> Karr, in 1849: "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."
> The other, Prof. Geevarghese's assertion, that "Socrates did not
> know what we know," is more troubling; and though perhaps true in the sense
> of available information, what Socrates knew and did has remained the
> reason that generations of scholars have come back to him for centuries
> now--and are likely to continue to do so. Socrates knew among other things
> that the youth of a given community are extremely vulnerable to falsehood,
> to corruption, and perhaps worst of all to repeating the major errors of
> the generation that spawned them, including silencing or evicting or
> executing those who dared to teach such truths. In a sense, he gave his
> life in the attempt to see that such issues were made public debate.
> Although not exactly a contemporary of Socrates, Homer left us
> with an observation which also speaks directly to the question of whether
> we as adults are more depraved and licentious that those in generations
> long, long in the past; whether, to use the phrase so often chosen by our
> own doom-sayers, "we are going to Hell in a handbasket." In Book XI of the
> Odyssey, Homer recounts the visit of his hero to Hades, where he is to
> receive directions from Teiresias for finding his way home. In addition
> to seeing several of his dead companions, "the after images of used up
> men," he meets Agamemnon, who tells him of the dreadful homecoming he
> received from his wife Clytemnestra, a fatal homecoming abetted by her
> lover Aigithios.
> Prompted by his own lamentable experience, Agamemnon warns
> Odysseus to land his own ship in secret on his own island home, concluding
> with a judgment that still rings down the ages in translation after
> translation since, now some 2700 years ago: "The day of faithful wives is
> gone forever." More is the pity.
>
>
>
>
> Please join us for the Senior Talk of
>
>
> Catherine Lindsay Cofer
>
>
> Friday Sept. 3, 1999
> GPS Rotunda
> 11:15 AM
>
>
> Reception following at the UTC Faculty Club
> Corner of Palmetto and Oak
>
>
> in lieu of gifts, donations to the MS Society
> would be greatly appreciated
>
>
> RSVP 820-9056
>
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