Comments on: Reason and Persuasion in NDPR! (Hey, Kids! Plato! once again!)

By: Kragen Javier Sitaker

Kragen Javier Sitaker — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:36:21 +0000

I can’t find a link to the PDF on the site you linked to, perhaps because its Flash thingy doesn’t work properly in Gnash. But if the Flash thingy worked properly for someone, why would they want the non-printable PDF?

It might be entirely understandable for you to tell us free-software vegans that your Plato work is only intended for people who are willing to install proprietary Flash (and never mind all those pesky click-through “agreements”), but I hope that isn’t the response you choose.

I hope to have the opportunity to read the book at some point!

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:13:37 +0000

yowsa! Well, I guess the idea is that people start by admiring beautiful bodies, then … all that stuff from Symposium.

By: mollymooly

mollymooly — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:01:55 +0000

Very nice, thanks. Minor point: issuu suggested el tribuno's lingerie special in"Related", which may be a side-effect of all those cartoon-y illustrations.

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:04:20 +0000

Hey Salient, thanks! I’m glad the bag looks good. I like to think of Squid and Owl as nonsequential sequential graphic non-story story-telling. In short: as wallpaper. Thank you for spreading the glory around.

y81, I do think it would be about as appropriate for high school students or interested adults as any other book you might pick. I think it’s written in an appropriate way and it’s got visual flair. As the reviewer says, it’s more thorough than some introductions. Which means it may be longer. But you just read the parts you are interested in. I think some high school students would find it a bit heavy, but I think those high school students are probably not ready for Plato, who is a bit heavy. Same goes for interested adults. I did my best to write for that sort of reader – that is, the not-already-an-academic-philosopher audience.

By: y81

y81 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:16:42 +0000

Hmm. Does the author consider this a work for high school students (like my daughter, which is why I ask)? College students? Interested adults who read Plato in college but could revisit him?

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:30:56 +0000

Congratulations John (and Belle)- it’s a very nice review. I do have to admit I find it amusing to see Plato (or Socrates) presented as accusing 0thers of using equivocation as a form of argument, as is said about Thrasymacus, but it looks like a fun and useful text.

By: Salient

Salient — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:52:49 +0000

Pretty pictures cause small minds to miss a serious message!

Indeed. But thank you for adding to my budding repertoire of gnome and H.P. Lovecraft jokes. The best I could do was convince someone to write an occult rendering of the Donner fiasco for that icanhascheeseburger site, entitled the Necronomnomnomicon. (And apparently it’s been done. Blast it.)

The people at the coffee-shop all admired my new Squid and Owl messenger bag (we open Christmas gifts early, here.) Many of them asked: “So what is it?” (Referring to Squid & Owl qua Squid & Owl, not Squid & Owl messenger bag qua messenger bag.) My response was: “I’m… not really sure how to describe it. I don’t even really know if the guy who writes and draws it would have a good answer prepared for you. A vignette webcomic, maybe? It comes in both book and convenient Flickr set form.”

And so it went. Someone had a computer with them. Half a dozen people I didn’t know and the baristas and I spent the next twenty minutes staring at the guy’s laptop screen clicking through the first handful of pictures in the set. It was acclaimed by those who stuck around past the third panel. :)