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Coffeeless ramblings
Feb. 10th, 2006 10:19 pmMy coffee pot is dead, and so is The Brain until I get a new one. (sniffles and is traumatized)
My Philosophy teacher just pulled a fast one on all of us. Our essay assignment is to compare and contrast Plato's Crito (alright, Aristotle's, but we all know who's words were going in who's mouth) with Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Simple, right? Plato's thought that the state is always right is almost as famous as M.L.K.J.'s idea that the people have a duty to over-throw the government when it's unjust.
Then I actually read the damned thing. (Crito, I haven't gotten to the other yet, but I've read teh summary.) They're asking different questions! Plato/Aristotle asks, "What is the duty of the citizen to the state, and what are the rights of the state to ensure that the citizen does his or her duty?" In Letters, M.L.K.J. wants to know, "What is the duty of the state to its citizens, and what are the rights of the citizen to ensure that the state does its duty?" Not that they come right out and say it, but those are the underlying questions. How do you compare and contrast something like that? It's two sides of the same damned coin -- they're both saying the same thing, just from different perspectives, and they don't cancel each other out in any way.
I know what she wants. She wants to see essays about how the two are completely different perspectives, and then she's going to ask why everyone said that and wham people with why they're alike. So I'm going to beat her to the punch. (snorts) I just hope I can keep it under the 700 word limit.
My Philosophy teacher just pulled a fast one on all of us. Our essay assignment is to compare and contrast Plato's Crito (alright, Aristotle's, but we all know who's words were going in who's mouth) with Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Simple, right? Plato's thought that the state is always right is almost as famous as M.L.K.J.'s idea that the people have a duty to over-throw the government when it's unjust.
Then I actually read the damned thing. (Crito, I haven't gotten to the other yet, but I've read teh summary.) They're asking different questions! Plato/Aristotle asks, "What is the duty of the citizen to the state, and what are the rights of the state to ensure that the citizen does his or her duty?" In Letters, M.L.K.J. wants to know, "What is the duty of the state to its citizens, and what are the rights of the citizen to ensure that the state does its duty?" Not that they come right out and say it, but those are the underlying questions. How do you compare and contrast something like that? It's two sides of the same damned coin -- they're both saying the same thing, just from different perspectives, and they don't cancel each other out in any way.
I know what she wants. She wants to see essays about how the two are completely different perspectives, and then she's going to ask why everyone said that and wham people with why they're alike. So I'm going to beat her to the punch. (snorts) I just hope I can keep it under the 700 word limit.
