[MD] ZaMM as movie

[X Acto]

DmB:
Wouldn't it be fun to add a little fantasy sequence wherein Phaedrus takes the 
place of the Sophist in Plato's dialogue and he turns the tables on Socrates, 
wherein he gives different answers, better answers and exposes Socrates as a 
bully and a liar. This would happen in his imagination as he's sitting at that 
large, cracked, wooden table at the University of Chicago. 


Ron:
In "Sophist" it is the visitor, from Elea who is the "bully" actually. Socrates 
asks this visitor if the Eleans
treat the philosopher, the statesmen and the sophist as being a single sort of 
person or as having disticnt
intellectual capacities. The Visitor explains that it is the latter and they 
engage in the use of the method
of "collection and division" in the definition of each. The idea being to 
explore the meaning of the term
in as many relational ways as possible, the what-it-is and what-it-is-not of it 
all through the traditional series
of question and answer.
I think the closest dialog of the type Pirsig mentions, a dialog between the 
Sophist and the Philosopher
in a showdown would have to be "Protagoras" in which the debate was whether or 
not the good can be
taught which concludes in a draw. I think "Paedrus" would have added a great 
deal to the dialog because
Socrates begins to criticize Protagoras's conception of the good in a rhetorical 
move to undermine the
arguement. If one can't say what it is, how can one teach it? Enter "Pheadrus" 
or Pirsig with his 1961
paper to Edith on teaching quality in writing. Here's a guy who not only says 
the good can be taught
he has a few ideas as to how. A great companion read to this section of the 
book.


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