Today was our first day of getting into some heavy reading- by which I mean a large amount, since every canonical script or published works have been very enlightening. Our lecture’s itinerary consisted of just getting familiarized with the working of ancient Greece and democracy getting itself established. Next we moved onto Plato’s background and understanding his life before he started ruminating about politics. A really interesting allegory of Plato’s that I found fascinating was his “Myth of the Metals.”
This conjecture has to do with his criterion for the three classes of society, made up by the working class, guardians, and philosophers. In it, he states that everyone is born with a certain ore inside of them, and that at birth determines which class they belong to. Gold is of course the best, and accordingly works its way down to silver and bronze.
Our speaker's name was Richard Stumbar, an attorney who five years ago was trying to right of gay marriage, so the timing of its legalization in New York made it a triumphant guest speech, and really interesting personally. I was honored to get to hear about his work, and it was really interesting all the legal obstacles, and how you had to use "rational basis" to argue his case.
I’m finishing my paper on freedom as soon as I finish writing this blog, and we are going to have one to write on Plato starting tomorrow. I should also go and review my notes and the sections Professor Kramnick will lecture on tomorrow to finish off this Plato reading. I got to practice for a solid hour today which felt really good as class and its homework is so demanding. I’m look forward to tomorrow for more than one reason than one- an early let-out time, the beginning of a holiday weekend, and of course my birthday!
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