>decide to start with the Greeks
>start reading pic related
>have no idea what's going on, can't keep focus, just have to force myself through it without retaining or learning anything
Am I retarded?
Decide to start with the Greeks
Xavier Mitchell
Other urls found in this thread:
plato.stanford.edu
plato.stanford.edu
en.wikipedia.org
twitter.com
Noah Peterson
Start with the Ayrans.
Greeks are a meme.
Landon Watson
Yes. But starting with the greeks is dummy shit if you're brand new to literature.
Wyatt Johnson
>Am I retarded?
Yes. Symposium is easy as fuck to understand. Literally just some drunk guys sitting around talking about what they think love means
Ryan Cooper
you just lack contextual knowledge
go to youtube, search "symposium" and pay attention to the first summary video you see. it won't be great, ut once you know who is who and what theyre syaing youll be able to at least process the book
Daniel Rivera
The Symposium is pretty easy too. Don't know what to tell you. Most philosophy is going to be harder than the Symposium.
Lincoln Ortiz
I feel like I never get anything whenever I try to read Plato. Like I can follow what the characters are saying, but I come out of it without having taken anything interesting away from it.
Nicholas Flores
What translation are you reading?
Andrew Sanders
Dunno
How do I understand it better? Doing what he says?
Ryder Mitchell
THIS IS A LITURATURE FORUM NOT A PHILOSOPHY ONE. START WITH THE GREEKS MEANS HOMER HESIOD HERODOTUS THUCYDIDES XENOPHON AECHYLUS SOPHOCLES EURIPIDES ARISTOPHANES NOT JUST PLATO AMD ARISTOTLE
Ryder Rivera
You may as well try to see if it works for you. But it's important for you to keep track of some of what's going on enough to be able to ask questions too. If I asked you right now, what things you don't understand, you best be ready to list particulars. Otherwise your issue may not be lacking understanding, but having a hard time paying attention. Some people have ADHD after all.
Dylan White
>all caps
>'forum'
>Yea Forums is at least 50% if not more philosophy talk
Ian Lewis
Alright, I'll try:
Who are these people?
What are their relations to each other?
Why are they talking about love so much?
Why does the first guy put so much stock into love?
Why did he like love so much?
Why did the second guy disagree with him?
Blake Hall
Basic start:
>Who are these people?
Socrates and some acquaintances.
>Why are they talking about love so much?
Think of it like toasting to some concept and then giving praise to it and trying to impress others. That's more or less what's going on, but the subject they pick is love. It's really a framing device by Plato to explore love and other interesting concepts.
Hunter Roberts
>Yea Forums is at least 50% if not more philosophy talk
That's the problem
Cooper Morgan
>my brain is rotten
>try to start to unrotten it
>but why is it rotten though
keep going, go slower
Dylan Clark
>Start with the Ayrans.
Parker Russell
Dylan Kelly
Absolute state of "start with the greeks" meme
Angel Bell
>don't read entry-level secondary literature, just literally make your own mind about every single work in existence
ask me how i know you are just a meme
Oliver Reed
/thread
read some easier shit, OP. Maybe Camuuuu's The Stranger or some 'entertaining' shit like that.
>philosophical discussion can go on either Yea Forums or /his/, but those discussions of philosophy that take place on Yea Forums should be based around specific philosophical works to which posters can refer.
Jose Long
Do you know what a symposium was? Then you would know that in order to understand the book you have to be inebriated. Talk about lacking common sense..
Nolan Hall
Watch gregory b Sandler's core concepts of philosophy on youtube
Lincoln White
>1/550
fucking minotaur...
Easton Turner
>HESIOD HERODOTUS THUCYDIDES XENOPHON
This is a literature board, not a history one. See, two can play that game.
Jason Rodriguez
If you didn't know they decide not to drink during the symposium and only go shitfaced at the very end, no wonder that you only read the book drunk.
David Thomas
Based
Liam Scott
Homer is history too
Tyler Howard
Start with other ones. I think the first dialogue I read was Meno. Crito and the Apology were the most fun, imo.
Colton Hughes
You have to google what a Symposium is and who the characters are.
Jaxson Evans
>don't read entry-level secondary literature, just literally make your own mind about every single work in existence
You just described a patrician
Andrew James
Was she really that bad?
Thomas Russell
this
incredibly based post
Connor Foster
I've had this problem. I followed too closely onto the meaning of the words instead of trying to abstract the meaning from the text. You might also just be bad at comprehension
Andrew Watson
WHAT IS LOVE?
BABY DON'T HURT ME
DON'T HURT ME
NO MORE
Justin Garcia
For learning about greek mythology before starting with the greeks, Robert Graves' The Greek Myths or Edith Hamilton's Mythology?
The first one is easier for me to obtain physically
Jacob Morales
Just based Socrates my man outdrinking everyone and leaving for home when everyone is shitfaced drunk and he's still lucid enough to blueball Alcibiades.
Gabriel Williams
Euthyphro
Apology
Crito
Phaedo
This is the holy tetralogy to begin Plato, to read in this order. Do it and everything else will make much more sense.
Liam Gomez
user said not just Plato and Aristotle. Good luck understanding their philosophy without an understanding of their history and culture.