DUE WEDNESDAY: YOU, PLATO, SOCRATES and some youthful truth!!!

Hey all,

SO, I may be out today so you will run the class as follows:

1. Book Club
2. Post responses on one another's blogs to each other's differing views of beauty
3. Define vocabulary words
4. Read the bios of Plato and Socrates (links to the left under SOCRATES CAFE") and then begin to wOrk on your next blog due tomorrow. Posting below.
5. Be productive!!!
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This selection from Plato's writings highlight a viewpoint of Socrates' on beauty.


Answer these questions on your blog and be prepared to discuss them with your classmates. Write, elaborate, express yourself, and have fun!


1. What is so beautiful about youth?

2. We know what "perfect" most likely means to Socrates by looking at ancient Greek sculpture and art and drawing inferences, but he doesn't describe this "perfect" human form. What are your thoughts on the idea of a "perfect" human form today? What is it in your culture for men? women? What are your thoughts surrounding those ideals?

"NOW YOU KNOW, my friend, that I cannot measure anything, and of the beautiful, I am simply such a measure as a white line is of chalk; for almost all young persons appear to be beautiful in my eyes. But at that moment, when I saw him coming in, I confess that I was quite astonished at his beauty and stature; all the world seemed to be enamoured of him; amazement and confusion reigned when he entered; and a troop of lovers followed him. That grown-up men like ourselves should have been affected in this way was not surprising, but I observed that there was the same feeling among the boys; all of them, down to the very least child, turned and looked at him, as if he had been a statue.

Chaerephon called me and said: What do you think of him, Socrates? Has he not a beautiful face?

Most beautiful, I said.
But you would think nothing of his face, he replied, if you could see his naked form: he is absolutely perfect."

Plato's Charmides