Ion's point sounds crazy but Socrates hasn't asked him about the rhapsode vs (say) a doctor or an engineer. That would perhaps have been more illuminating. After all, the science or art of generalship consisted at the time of keeping hundreds or perhaps thousands of men from running away before the enemy. It was a lot less of a spreadsheet profession than today.
("spreadsheet profession" - not meant in a pejorative way)
Ion's argument is still going strong in traditional Theravadin Buddhist communities. I am reading "Manual of Insight" by Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He was considered one of the foremost Theravadin Buddhist scholars and also an accomplished meditation master. Among the claims is that through meditation you can achieve omniscience - knowledge of anything you question. Also, what one experiences in certain meditation states is the actual reality - not just a carefully cultivated neurological state. I have also heard this in person at a traditional Theravadin temple. At one time I gave consideration to this opinion. I was open to these mystical reasonings from my upbringing. My father was an engineer and involved in parapsychological research. Judging by my efforts and experience in life, I no longer give credence to this opinion.
What are we poor undereducated moderns to think when Socrates, as always entertaining his use of logic and the method of interrogation named in his honor, is clearly in the wrong? Can any serious person today abide the idea that acting is not an art but a matter of divine possession? Sometimes I suspect Plato is having us off for his own amusement
WTF?? Perhaps I’m getting senile...but that makes no sense, to me.
Ion's point sounds crazy but Socrates hasn't asked him about the rhapsode vs (say) a doctor or an engineer. That would perhaps have been more illuminating. After all, the science or art of generalship consisted at the time of keeping hundreds or perhaps thousands of men from running away before the enemy. It was a lot less of a spreadsheet profession than today.
("spreadsheet profession" - not meant in a pejorative way)
Ion's argument is still going strong in traditional Theravadin Buddhist communities. I am reading "Manual of Insight" by Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He was considered one of the foremost Theravadin Buddhist scholars and also an accomplished meditation master. Among the claims is that through meditation you can achieve omniscience - knowledge of anything you question. Also, what one experiences in certain meditation states is the actual reality - not just a carefully cultivated neurological state. I have also heard this in person at a traditional Theravadin temple. At one time I gave consideration to this opinion. I was open to these mystical reasonings from my upbringing. My father was an engineer and involved in parapsychological research. Judging by my efforts and experience in life, I no longer give credence to this opinion.
What are we poor undereducated moderns to think when Socrates, as always entertaining his use of logic and the method of interrogation named in his honor, is clearly in the wrong? Can any serious person today abide the idea that acting is not an art but a matter of divine possession? Sometimes I suspect Plato is having us off for his own amusement