i wanted to start reading philosophy so i started to read plato but i don't really understand what i should be getting out of it. It seems that socrates is just rekting retards who believe dumb shit that i don't believe. am i too brainlet to understand it.the insults are funny though
>>24686756I remember when I first read the Republic I got so angry because I agreed with Thrasymachus and then realized Socrates was making fun of him
>>24686756Plato's philosophy itself is outdated, the value of reading him currently is to understand the basis of the philosophies that came after him.
You appreciate Plato more after you’ve read other philosophers. Do the /lit/ method, read Aristotle starting with the Organon.
>>24686756I think you'd have to be clear with yourself why you want to read philosophy, since, Plato being fairly accessible, if you’re uninterested in following along with any of it, you're not necessarily going to be well off with another philosopher. You’re reading the Meno, and the big subjects are asking what virtue is, how the cardinal virtues may be related to each other and to virtue as a whole, how one might know anything or come to learn something out of ignorance, what might be sought in seeking a definition, how to inquire at all, how to hypothesize, what true opinion is and whether it's knowledge, how knowledge and virtue may relate, etc. If you don't find any of it worth mulling over, I'd just drop him.If you're hoping to get *something* out of it, a good bet is to read more slowly and ask yourself both what you think x is (where x might be virtue, or courage, or knowledge or whatever), and, if you differ from either Socrates or Meno, in what way and on what grounds as far as you can understand.The insult towards Meno is pretty good since he laughs it off, but historically, Meno was part of a mercenary force for Cyrus the Younger, the brother of the king of Persia, and when that mercenary force's plot to put Cyrus on the throne fell apart, Meno tried to save his own skin by selling out the other Greek generals who were with him. Part of the "meta" of the dialogue is wondering how you get a sonovabitch like Meno to be less awful, or whether it's hopeless (this is related to his question about how virtue comes about).
>>24686839Hi Theodorus
>>24686756You are a profane normalfag and began "reading" philosophy because you wanted to feel cultured and well read (you are not and will never be). I suggest you give up and pick a hobby more in line with your plebeian "spirit", perhaps sportsball or video games.
>>24686790What outdated the Parmenides dialogue? I don’t know why I bother, because you probably never bothered to read the complete works.
