Gratton responds on Plato

Agreed with EVERYTHING GRATTON SAYS HERE in response to my Theaetetus post. (And he’s right to credit Naas with being one of the few SPEP-circle philosophers to take Plato seriously on his own terms.)

The following passage will also ring true for anyone who spent time at DePaul in the 1990’s (or even a bit later, as in Gratton’s case). Kudos to Naas for staying patient during the following scene. Or at least I don’t think I ever saw him lose patience; he has a fine temperament:

“A side story would be that many of us had taken courses with Naas for several years on Plato. About my fourth year at DePaul, a rather ego-centric professor comes in with his entourage and gives a really lame ‘You know, you should read the Symposium not just in terms of its arguments, but also at the level of its literary performance’ talk, as if he was uncovering gold in the California foothills.”

The word “entourage” in this context is a word of such rich and nuanced resonance– like a finely ground coffee, or a rare wine with just a hint of tobacco in the background.