The Cognitive Division of Labor, Socrates, and Damon, and some Plutarch
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In the Republic, in the context of the education of the Guardians (or the purification of the Kallipolis), a certain Damon is mentioned explicitly a few times by Socrates. There are really two episodes. I find them startling upon reflection. The first episode begins around 400b1 and ends around 400c2. Damon is introduced as a technical expert on the representational qualities of different kind of rhythms used in (musical) poetry. If one doesn’t like ‘representational’ here, it’s okay to substitute ‘expressive’ or ‘emotive’' as long as one remembers that the rhythms are supposed to correspond to particular human character qualities (that is, virtues and vices). In an
The Cognitive Division of Labor, Socrates, and Damon, and some Plutarch
The Cognitive Division of Labor, Socrates…
The Cognitive Division of Labor, Socrates, and Damon, and some Plutarch
In the Republic, in the context of the education of the Guardians (or the purification of the Kallipolis), a certain Damon is mentioned explicitly a few times by Socrates. There are really two episodes. I find them startling upon reflection. The first episode begins around 400b1 and ends around 400c2. Damon is introduced as a technical expert on the representational qualities of different kind of rhythms used in (musical) poetry. If one doesn’t like ‘representational’ here, it’s okay to substitute ‘expressive’ or ‘emotive’' as long as one remembers that the rhythms are supposed to correspond to particular human character qualities (that is, virtues and vices). In an