{"id":12725,"date":"2009-03-23T07:39:50","date_gmt":"2009-03-23T07:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/03\/23\/approaching-plato-a-guide-to-the-early-and-middle-dialogues\/"},"modified":"2009-03-23T07:39:50","modified_gmt":"2009-03-23T07:39:50","slug":"approaching-plato-a-guide-to-the-early-and-middle-dialogues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/03\/23\/approaching-plato-a-guide-to-the-early-and-middle-dialogues\/","title":{"rendered":"Approaching Plato: A Guide to the Early and Middle Dialogues"},"content":{"rendered":"

This just over the transom from Mark Anderson, Department of Philosophy. Belmont University:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I have enjoyed your site, which I recently discovered. I, too, am something of a recovering academician, but I am still in the academy. I am trying to develop a means of teaching philosophy while still practicing philosophy, to be a professor of philosophy without ceasing to profess philosophy. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span>I am writing because I think you will be interested in a book my colleague and I wrote and recently put online. You can find it here.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span>Approaching Plato: A Guide to the Early and Middle Dialogues<\/font><\/a><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

We decided to put the book on line after a) the few publishers we sent it to could not understand that the work is appropriate for all levels of reader (a book addressed to everyone from Intro students to Professors who read Greek does not fit into their categories), and b) we realized that if it were online it might actually help more people, even if it doesn\u2019t puff up our CVs. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span>Keep up the good work.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Thanks, Mark.  I have posted your letter in the hope that it will bring some readers to your site, and in case anyone wants to comment on the problem of publishing philosophy for a wide audience.  It may be that we philosophers face a dilemma when we publish hard copy (as opposed to 'publishing' online):  Either one publishes high-quality material or one panders to the masses with jokes and gimmicks and simplifications.  If the former, then one is confined to the journals and academic presses with consequent low readership.  If the latter, one sells books but loses self-respect.  It can of course be argued that this is a false dilemma.  But I wonder: Would Bertrand Russell's popular book The Conquest of Happiness<\/strong> be accepted for publication by a major nonacademic press today if it were submitted by an unknown author?  In our trash culture only trash can turn a buck.  If I am exaggerating, by how much?  And if I am exaggerating am I not exaggerating 'in the right direction'?<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This just over the transom from Mark Anderson, Department of Philosophy. Belmont University: I have enjoyed your site, which I recently discovered. I, too, am something of a recovering academician, but I am still in the academy. I am trying to develop a means of teaching philosophy while still practicing philosophy, to be a professor … Continue reading “Approaching Plato: A Guide to the Early and Middle Dialogues”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}