Category Archives: Arts

Arts, History, Literature, Philosophy

(Philosophy): Plato on ‘play’

HAPPINESS

Plato (427–347 BC): ‘You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.’

THE authorship of this quote, often attributed to Plato, remains controversial, as it does not appear in any of the great Greek philosopher’s surviving works. Part of the issue centres on the fact that on the surface, the promotion of ‘play’ as being more indicative of truth than conversation flies in the face of the dialectic method that Plato held so dear. For Plato and Socrates, truth was the highest ideal and could only be arrived at through the exchange of rational and reasoned arguments. The purpose of the dialectic method of reasoning is the resolution of disagreement through discussion, with the aim of acquiring knowledge and establishing fact through the examination of assumptions.

Indeed, the quote seems to imply that people show their true selves more readily while playing than while conversing. It is certainly true that natural reticence and guardedness drops when one is engaged in pleasurable pursuits. However, the reverse could also be true, as competitiveness in sport and games can drive human beings to behave extremely irrationally, exhibiting passions and motivations that may not be readily discernible in everyday situations. Plato also seems to be saying that people do not always do what they say or, to use a well-worn commonplace, ‘practice what they preach’.

Perhaps, though, Plato (assuming, for the sake of argument, the quote is derived from him) is using the term ‘play’ to describe indulging the human imagination? Children play naturally from an early age and learn about the world and the society around them through imaginative play and imitation, while their understanding of play is uninhibited by adult values and constructs. One of the greatest attributes of play is the opportunity it affords for learning to live without knowing. Human beings learn through trial and error, and play is a non-threatening way to cope with new learning while still retaining self-esteem. In adulthood, human beings, encumbered with other concerns, forget how to play or indulge their imagination for its own sake. So perhaps Plato is here recommending we rediscover the pure, uncorrupted sense of the self that only play can release and reflect. This doesn’t solve the contradiction evident in the quote’s seeming rejection of the dialectical method, but is a comforting idea nonetheless.

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Arts, Philosophy

(Philosophy) The Stoic: ‘The Straitjacketed Soul’

AWARENESS

“The diseases of the rational soul are long-standing and hardened vices, such as greed and ambition – they have put the soul in a straitjacket and have begun to be permanent evils inside it. To put it briefly, this sickness is an unrelenting distortion of judgment, so that things that are only mildly desirable are vigorously sought after.” – Seneca, Moral Letters, 75.11

IN the financial crisis and disaster of the late 2000s, hundreds of smart, rational people lost trillions worth of wealth. How could such smart people have been so foolish? These people knew the system, knew how the markets were supposed to work, and had managed billions, if not trillions of dollars and other foreign currencies. And yet, almost to a person, they were wrong – and wrong to the tune of global market havoc.

It’s not hard to look at that situation and understand that greed was some part of the problem. Greed what was led people to create complex markets that no one understood in the hope of making a quick buck. Greed caused other people to make trades on strange pools of debt. Greed prevented anyone from calling out this situation for what it was – a house of cards just waiting for the slightest breeze to knock it all down.

It doesn’t do you much good to criticise those folks after the fact. It’s better to look at how greed and vices might be having a similar effect in your own life. What lapses in judgment might your vices be causing you? What “sickness” might you have?

And, how can your rational mind step in and regulate them?
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Arts, Books

Golden Man Booker Prize: ‘The English Patient’

BEST BOOKER PRIZE IN 50 YEARS

The English Patient

Set at the end of World War II, this novel explores the lives of four very disparate people who find themselves holed up together in a ruined villa north of Florence as the war retreats around them. The author was awarded the 1992 Booker Prize for this book.

THE ‘English Patient’ has been crowned the best ever Man Booker prize winner.

The novel by Michael Ondaatje was chosen by the public as the recipient for the Golden Man Booker prize, a one-off accolade to mark its 50th anniversary.

All 51 previous winners of the prize were considered by a panel of five judges, each of whom was asked to read the winning novels from one decade of the prize’s history, before the books faced a month-long public vote.

The panel judges were journalist Robert McCrum, who chose In a Free State by VS Naipaul for the 1970s; poet Lemn Sissay, who chose Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively for the 1980s; novelist Kamila Shamsie, who chose the English Patient for the 1990s; broadcaster Simon Mayo, who chose Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel for the 2000s; and, poet Hollie McNish, who chose Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders for the 2010s.

Speaking about why she had chosen The English Patient, Miss Shamsie said: “The English Patient is that rare novel which gets under your skin and insists you return to it time and again, always yielding a new surprise or delight.”

The novel – written by Sri-Lankan born Ondaatje in 1992 – tells of the entanglement of four people in an Italian villa, including an English burns victim, as the Second World War ends.

It was adapted into a multiple Oscar-winning film in 1996 starring Kristin Scott Thomas, pictured.

Baroness Helena Kennedy, chairman of the Booker Prize Foundation, added: “The English Patient is a compelling work of fiction – both poetic and philosophical – and is a worthy winner.” The winner was announced at a ceremony at the Southbank Centre in London.

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