Plato's cave

Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet

by Claire L. Evans  · 6 Mar 2018  · 371pp  · 93,570 words

commonalities that can bolster our solidarity. One more: the history of computers is an alphabet salad. We’ll meet ENIAC and UNIVAC and ARPANET and PLATO and the WWW. It can be difficult to read these acronyms without feeling like the past is yelling at you. Please don’t despair. It

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more than fifty years. One nameless noodle, a passage forking off the subterranean Echo River, became important a century after Bishop was buried near the cave’s main entrance, his grave marked by only a cedar tree. In Bishop’s lifetime, every landowner in Central Kentucky claimed a cave entrance; if not

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couple spent all their vacations deep underground. “I get cold when he’s not keeping me company,” she wrote in one caving diary. “There’s quite a draft here; the cave’s breathing.” Will didn’t come along on the final connection trip. He’d been at Patricia’s side on earlier surveys, pushed

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had a group doctrine: no exploration without survey. A map is the only way to see a cave in its entirety, and making maps is caving’s equivalent of summiting mountains. It’s also a survival mechanism. To stay safe, cavers map as they go, “working rationally and systematically to locate known

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former coworker of Will Crowther’s, recalling the topographical data stored on the computers at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, noted in 1985 that “Adventure’s Colossal Cave, at least up to a point (or down to a point) is the same as the one in Kentucky, and the description and geology of

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“source cave,” the Bedquilt section of Mammoth, was able to document clear parallels between the cave’s geology and Crowther’s descriptions. Like the fluorescein dye with which speleologists trace the course of underground streams, Adventure’s version of caving culture stained the entire network. Cavers seek connections, which they discover through systematic survey, collective

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, the most famous archaeologist to study Mammoth, Patty Jo Watson, inferred an entire agricultural economy from the grains digested by the corpses preserved in the cave’s constant temperature and humidity. To understand a people, we must know how they ate. To understand a program, we must know its makers—not only

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monitor, we see beyond the real. Symbols applied to raw granite, to canvas, to code: all of it lights up the darkness. There’s a lamp in the cave. Do you know what to do? GET LAMP Good. Now hold it tight, we’ll need to take it with us. We’ll

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might someday be replaced with electronic learning systems running specialized software. They called this Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations, or PLATO. The software was built on their mainframes. The PLATO model was to offer distributed low-cost education, with a number of centrally hosted teaching programs accessed remotely by students at

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glowing orange terminals like the one in Marisa’s basement. Although PLATO terminals would eventually be installed in universities and schools from Illinois to Cape Town, very few people would ever have one at home. Not that

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Marisa took advantage of her unique situation to learn anything. PLATO offered lessons in everything from arithmetic to Hebrew, but she used it to talk to boys. “I didn’t have any interest in programming,” she

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me what I was wearing; it didn’t get dirty or anything like that, but it was very flirty, and it was really fun.” Wherever PLATO terminals were installed, students were chatting, posting messages about “science fiction, women’s rights, football, the defense budget, rock ’n’ roll

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a primitive version of e-mail called Personal Notes, public “Group Notes” that served as bulletin boards, and one-on-one chat, called TERMType. The PLATO community piloted all the tropes that would become common in online communities—including men impersonating women—and like the Community Memory terminals emerging simultaneously in

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the Bay Area, it had its own wonky grassroots counterculture. Marisa was, in PLATO slang, a zbrat: a kid using her father’s log-in to mingle on the nascent network. She doesn’t remember ever seeing another female

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the boss’s son, she chatted with college students in Boulder, Colorado, and in Champaign-Urbana, at the University of Illinois, where the PLATO software was being developed. PLATO users shared recipes, gave each other love advice, used emoticons, and played fantasy role-playing games. For a suburban kid in the Midwest

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, all of this was totally unexpected, as though a household appliance had suddenly become a window into another dimension. PLATO altered the course of Marisa’s life. When most people her age still thought of computers as monolithic calculators in university basements, she understood that

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Ivana Trump, merger-and-acquisition, junk-bond boom-time”—she discovered BBS culture, and The WELL. “Oh my God,” she thought. “This is just like PLATO but with interesting people!” She was eager to relive her adolescent flirtations, but The WELL didn’t do it for her. On today’s Web

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fast-girl charisma that popped from the screen. “She knows she’s smart, powerful and beautiful,” wrote Stacy, “part tart”—those formative years cyberflirting on PLATO had served her well—“part total queen.” She became the conference manager, the host of hosts, and the object of plenty of one-sided ardor

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their own freedom. “a bowl of spaghetti”: Roger W. Brucker, “Mapping of Mammoth Cave: How Cartography Fueled Discoveries, with Emphasis on Max Kaemper’s 1908 Map” (Mammoth Cave Research Symposia, Paper 4, October 9, 2008, http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/mc_reserch_symp/9th_Research_Symposium_2008/Day_one/4.) One nameless noodle

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. Zopf, Thomas A. Brucker, P. Gary Eller, Stephen G. Wells, and John P. Wilcox, The Grand Kentucky Junction: A Memoir (St. Louis, MO: Cave Books, 1984), 96. “It’s an incredible feeling”: Roger W. Brucker and Richard A. Watson, The Longest Cave (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1976), 213. Will ran a

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“map factory”: Ibid., 171. “plotting commands on huge rolls”: Dennis G. Jerz, “Somewhere Nearby Is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther’s Original ‘Adventure’ in Code and in Kentucky,” Digital Humanities Quarterly (2007), www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/1/2/000009/000009.html. In 1969, BBN

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encountered: www.legacy.com/obituaries/dispatch/obituary.aspx?n=john-preston-wilcox&pid=145049233. “completely different from the real cave”: Jerz, “Somewhere Nearby Is Colossal Cave.” “Adventure’s Colossal Cave, at least”: Walt Bilofsky, “Adventures in Computing,” Profiles: The Magazine for Kaypro Users 2, no. 1 (1984): 25, https://archive.org/stream

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with the author, July 26, 2016. “science fiction, women’s rights: “Between PLATO and the Social Media Revolution,” May 10, 1983, http://just.thinkofit.com/between-plato-and-the-social-media-revolution. including men impersonating women: David R. Woolley, “PLATO: The Emergence of Online Community,” in Social Media Archaeology and Poetics, ed. Judy

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and Ivana Trump”: Marisa Bowe, “When I Grow Up,” Vice.com, November 30, 2004, www.vice.com/read/when-I-v11n3. “This is just like PLATO”: Bowe, interview with the author, July 26, 2016. “I’m allergic to the Grateful Dead”: Digital Archaeology, “www.word.com, circa 1995,” 5:18, posted

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, 119 Perlman, Radia, 123–28 Phiber Optik, 136, 187 Pickering, Edward Charles, 23 PicoSpan, 132, 135 Pierce, Julianne, 237 Plant, Sadie, 11, 21, 80, 238 PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), 178–81 Pleasant Company, 235 Poetics (Aristotle), 226 Pollock, Scarlet, 239 Powers, Richard, 88 presidential election of 1952, 60

The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 1 Jan 2019  · 1,909pp  · 531,728 words

an information centre at the park entrance where you must register, and where guided hikes can be arranged. Trails include an easy hour’s ramble to Pinturas Rupestres (cave paintings), a longer trail leading to Lago Belgrano, a 16km trek to Lago Burgmeister and a tough three-hour ascent of Cerro León

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B$40, while a smaller number offer a set dinner (cena) in the evening and also have a range of à la carte main dishes (platos extras), rarely costing more than B$30–40. For B$50–75 you should expect a substantial meal in more upmarket restaurants, while about B

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attractions – high valleys and deep canyons, ringed by low mountains whose twisted geological formations are strewn with fossils, dinosaur footprints and labyrinthine limestone cave complexes. The park’s cactus and scrubby woodland supports considerable wildlife – including flocks of parakeets and the rare and beautiful red-fronted macaw. The main attractions are the

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tribes, illustrated with artefacts and black-and-white photos of Aónikenk and Kawéskar people, as well as on European settlement, the story of the Milodon’s cave, and the region’s first German settler, Hermann Eberhard; look out for his ingenious collapsible boat that turns into a suitcase. Arrival and information By

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. Mon–Sat 11am–10pm. El Divino Niño Southwest Bay 316 827 7489. This local beach shack institution is best known for its awesome mixed plate (plato mixto para dos), with enough lobster, conch, shrimp, crab and fish to sink a ship (C$60,000), but also does fried fresh fish, amazing

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reach the winding alley of La Ronda, one of Quito’s oldest streets. This atmospheric cobbled lane is lined with restaurants, bars and cave-like art galleries. It’s a popular spot at night to listen to live music or have a canelazo (a hot mix of naranjilla, cinnamon water and aguardiente

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(from S/18), the strong cocktails really hit the spot. Daily 5.30pm–late. Pukasoncco Av Libertadores s/n 949 052 610. A veritable Aladdin’s cave of pre-Columbian-style crafts, this unpromising bamboo hut set back from the road also houses a small restaurant. Artist-chef Sanson lovingly prepares healthy

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walk to each). The Peruvian and French hosts are experts on activities in the local area and can advise on reaching nearby cave paintings and waterfalls. Dorms S/25, doubles S/52 Hospedaje Los Jazmines Jr Amazonas 775 076 361 812, hospedajelosjazmines.com.pe; map. A comfortable hostel in a converted colonial house

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Armas, all of which offer standard day-trips to Kuélap (S/90); Karajía, combined with either Pueblo de Los Muertos or the Quiocta Cave (S/90); and Gocta waterfall (S/60). Turismo Explorer, at Jr Grau 509 on the plaza (041 478 162, turismoexplorerperu.com), is highly recommended and the guides speak excellent

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Plaza Chacao; map. Not a pizzeria as the name suggests, but rather an informal lunch spot serving up authentic Lebanese food, prepared fresh daily. The Plato Mixto gives a rounded taste of the kitchen’s delights, washed down with refreshing yoghurt drinks. Gets very busy at lunchtime. Mon–Sat 9am–5pm

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Kenya Sector El Guácharo 0416 396 8376. Friendly tour guide and local legend Carlos Kenya runs his “Lost Boys”-style homestay close to the Guácharo cave. There’s a dormitory and four cosy en-suite doubles. Carlos also runs tours and volunteering projects throughout the region. BsS200 Posada Dios es Amor las

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) Menu Cena Dinner Comida típica Typical cuisine Cuchara Spoon Cuchillo Knife Desayuno Breakfast La cuenta, por favor The bill, please Merienda Set menu Plato fuerte Main course Plato vegetariano Vegetarian dish Tenedor Fork Fruit (frutas) Cereza Cherry Chirimoya Custard apple Ciruela Plum Fresa/frutilla Strawberry Guayaba Guava Guineo Banana Higo Fig Limón

I You We Them

by Dan Gretton

Suffolk. Potholes, more of a track now. The words continue, interspersed with songs of yearning, where the love is very intertwined with death. Cave’s now talking about Lorca’s writing on ‘duende’ – the inexplicable sadness that is found in so much great writing and music. This quality that is instantly recognisable but

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so much and compared to ‘glass shards’ which he believed would disable people’s memories. Ironically, we only know about this view of Socrates’ because Plato wrote down his thoughts later on – in the dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus: ‘for this discovery of yours [writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners

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Italie (1803–04) by François-René de Chateaubriand. 3 ‘for this discovery of yours [writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls …’ from Phaedrus by Plato, written in 360 b.c. 4 There are certain things in life with beginnings, middles and endings. And in fact, I love such activities. But

The Rough Guide to New Zealand: Travel Guide eBook

by Rough Guides  · 1 Jan 2024  · 1,383pp  · 367,401 words

kleptomaniac kea It’s hard not to love these trickster alpine parrots, even if one has just shredded your windscreen wipers. See page 72. DIY caving There’s something raw and thrilling about an unaided exploration of Cave Stream, a 600m-long tunnel carved by an alpine stream. See page 419. Most

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St. Bargain hole-in-the-wall serving Korean pancakes with delectable fillings such as pork, red bean, chicken and cheese, or sugar and cinnamon. $ Tanuki’s Cave 319b Queen St; www.tanukiscave.co.nz. Excellent yakitori and sake bar in a cave-like basement setting, with a more formal restaurant above. Tuck

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the laidback atmosphere of this bohemian town. See page 174 2 Waitomo Abseil or blackwater raft into labyrinthine caves on some of the world’s best adventure caving trips, often illuminated by a glittering canopy of glowworms. See page 177 3 Te Aroha Rejuvenate in the geyser-fed hot soda springs in

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until 1989 that the caves were returned to their Māori owners, who receive a percentage of all revenue generated and participate in the site’s management. Waitomo Caves Discovery Centre I-SITE, 21 Waitomo Caves Rd • Daily: late Dec to mid-Jan 8.30am–6.45pm; mid-Jan to late Feb 8

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depart every 30min • Charge; combination ticket available with Aranui cave and/or Ruakuri cave • www.waitomo.com Bus tours all stop at Waitomo’s original cave experience, Waitomo Glowworm Caves, 500m west of the i-SITE. Paved walkways and lighting pick out the best of the stalactites and stalagmites, and there’s a

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; 1hr • Charge • www.waitomo.com You descend into a vast, theatrically lit void to access the “The Den of the Dogs” as Ruakuri Cave’s name translates. Waitomo’s longest guided underground walking tour follows suspended walkways, linking spectacular, subtly lit cavern passages, as guides thread the practicalities of cave creation and the

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an abseil is followed by several “wet” hours, navigating upstream through squeezes, behind a small waterfall and into a glittering glowworm grotto. There’s also an abseil-free cave-tubing trip (4hr), the active abseil-heavy Haggas Honking Holes (4hr) and St Benedict’s Caverns (3hr 30min), a dry trip with abseils

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–May 10am, 11am, 2pm & 3pm • 3hr • Charge • www.glowworm.co.nz For a gentle but impressive underground experience, it is hard to beat Spellbound’s two-cave combo, starting off with a peaceful drift along a subterranean stream beneath a canopy of magnificent glowworms. The second cave has the pick of the

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through forest to a riverside boardwalk, leading into a narrow limestone gorge topped by a double bridge formed by the remains of a collapsed cave roof. It’s especially dazzling at night when the undersides glimmer with constellations of glowworms. In daylight, don’t miss the rest of the walk, through farmland

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the best material is in the Te Awa section, covering all aspects of the Manawatu River from geology and ecology to bug life (there’s a weta cave) and a tank of native fish (effectively grown-up whitebait). The stunning carpet is an aerial view of the entire region. Throughout the galleries

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the second largest digital workshop in the world that has worked on almost 100 blockbuster movies, from Avatar to Blade Runner 2049. Visit the workshop’s Weta Cave, on the corner of Camperdown Road and Weka Street (daily 9am–5.30pm; free; www.wetanz.co.nz; bus #2 from the city) – look

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are represented, as are most of its alpine plants, and the remote interior is a haven for wildlife, including rare carnivorous snails and giant cave spiders. The park’s extraordinary landscapes are best seen by walking the Heaphy Track (78km; 4–5 days), which links the Aorere Valley in Golden Bay with

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Highlights Highlights are marked on the map on page 363 1 Karamea and the Oparara Basin Set a day aside to explore this remote area’s caves harbouring moa bones, vast limestone arches and cooling placid streams. See page 368 2 Pancake Rocks Layered like a stack of pancakes, this geological curiosity

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no shortage of activities, including thrilling fly-in rafting trips down the West Coast’s steep rivers. The limestone bedrock makes for some adventurous caving, and there’s plenty of hiking, with the Heaphy Track to the north, several excellent trails around Punakaiki and a stack of tramps around the glaciers. Most

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to the main Oparara carpark. Even if you don’t complete the loop, it’s worth pressing on to a viewpoint just beyond the cave scramble, where there’s a great view back to the rock formation. Kohaihai River At the end of the road, 17km north of Karamea Visitors with no

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the effort to dine at this smart suburban café-restaurant, which turns out superb modern Kiwi bistro dishes, most cooked on its Texan-wood grill. $$ Plato 2 Birch St; www.platocafe.co.nz. Dunedin’s seafood connoisseurs make their way across the overpasses and railway tracks to fill this excellent bistro

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; www.gibbstonvalley.com. It can be a bit of a circus these days, but then Gibbston’s original winery does have the region’s only “wine cave”. Tour the cave and taste three wines (five tours daily), or opt for a standard cellar door sampling (four wines). There’s a good restaurant and

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kayak. See page 518 7 The Catlins Coast The southern tip of New Zealand is a sparsely populated region of majestic waterfalls, giant Cathedral Caves, Curio Bay’s fossilized forest and plenty of penguins, seals and Hector’s dolphins. See page 524 Fiordland and Southland For all New Zealand’s grandeur, no

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’re not planning to visit the more impressive underground attractions at North Island’s Waitomo (see page 177), make time for Te Anau Glowworm Caves. The town’s full Māori name, Te Ana-au, means “cave with a current of swirling water” and it was a search for the town’s namesake

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great views, plus there’s free espresso, oodles of TV channels, parkas to borrow and plenty of parking spots. $$$$ Rosie’s Backpacker Homestay 23 Tom Plato Drive; www.rosiesbackpackers.co.nz. This small, relaxed backpackers sleeps just twelve in a family home with lake and mountain views – and even after over

Parks Directory of the United States

by Darren L. Smith and Kay Gill  · 1 Jan 2004

Features: Established to preserve Carlsbad Cavern and numerous other caves within a Permian-age fossil reef, the park contains 113 known caves, including Lechuguilla Cave—the nation’s deepest limestone cave at 1,567 feet and third longest. From early spring through October, nearly 400,000 Mexican free-tail bats call Carlsbad

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Caverns home and visitors can watch the evening bat flight from the outdoor amphitheater at the cave’s natural entrance. 1. US National Parks PARKS DIRECTORY OF THE UNITED STATES—5th EDITION picnic area, rest rooms (u), visitor center (u), self-guided tour

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13,063-foot Wheeler Peak, 5,000-yearold bristlecone pine trees, 75-foot limestone Lexington Arch, and the tunnels and decorated galleries of Lehman Caves are the park’s major features. ★163★ GREAT EGG HARBOR NATIONAL SCENIC & RECREATIONAL RIVER c/o National Park Service 200 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19106 Web: www

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system in the world with more than 365 miles explored and mapped. The park contains several species of endangered plants and animals, including Eggert’s Sunflower, the Eyeless Cave Shrimp, and several species of river mussels, among others. ★236★ MARSH-BILLINGS-ROCKEFELLER NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK 54 Elm St Woodstock, VT 05091 Web

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. Activities: Camping, hiking, auto touring, guided cave tours and prairie hikes. Special Features: Here in the scenic Black Hills, one of the world’s longest and most complex caves is well known for its outstanding display of boxwork, an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs. The park’s

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sheep, black and grizzly bear, wolf, coyote, caribou, and mountain lion. The Castleguard Caves in the remote northwest corner of the park form Canada’s longest cave system. life in the park includes 43 species of orchids and more than 20 varieties of ferns, including the rare northern holly fern. ★410★ CAPE

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the public; other portions of the refuge are open during daylight hours. Primary Wildlife: Endangered gray bats and Indiana bats. Special Features: The refuge’s double-entrance cave has been a major maternity cave for gray and Indiana bats. In 1997, a summer count documented 300,000 to 400,000 gray bats

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his papers. Center include information on the tours as well as interactive displays and a theater with a video program. During the summer months, the cave’s Big Room serves as a nursery for about 1,000 female cave myotis bats. ★1435★ LAKE HAVASU STATE PARK 699 London Bridge Rd Lake Havasu

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the longest underwater cave systems in the continental United States. About 28,000 feet of its underwater passages have been explored and surveyed by cave divers. Park’s natural features include two major springs, a major spring run, and six sinkholes. ★2006★ OSCAR SCHERER STATE PARK 1843 S Tamiami Trail Osprey, FL

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number of cave-adapted animals known in the state, including the cave salamander and at least two species of bats. Approximately 6 miles of the cave’s passages have been mapped. Days and hours of operation vary seasonally, but, when open, no one is allowed to enter the cave after 2:30

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War II. The land for the park was originally purchased through a joint effort by Fayette, Franklin, Union, and Wayne counies. ★2367★ WYANDOTTE CAVES STATE RECREATION AREA 7315 S Wyandotte Cave Rd Leavenworth, IN 47137 Web: www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/stateforests/wyandtcv.htm Phone: 812-738-2782 Size: 26,000 acres

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. Activities: Camping, hiking, interpretive programs. Special Features: Park contains more caves than any other state park in Iowa. An extensive trail system links the park’s caves, overlooks, and other geological formations including ‘‘Natural Bridge,’’ which stands nearly 50 feet above Raccoon Creek, and 17-ton ‘‘Balanced Rock.’’ ★2404★ MCINTOSH WOODS STATE

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House SHS Finger Lakes SP First Missouri State Capitol SHS Fort Davidson SHS General John J. Pershing Boyhood Home SHS Governor Daniel Dunklin’s Grave SHS Graham Cave SP Grand Gulf SP Ha Ha Tonka SP Harry S Truman Birthplace SHS Harry S Truman SP Hawn SP 81 41 44 54 22

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, guided cave tours, nature programs. Special Features: Missouri’s largest state park includes a visitor center and tours of Ozark Caverns, informing visitors about the cave’s Angel’s Showers—streams of water that continuously pour from the stalactites—and its other features. ★3017★ LAKE WAPPAPELLO STATE PARK HC 2, Box 102 Williamsville

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biking, horseback riding, interpretive programs. Special Features: Natural geological formations are the principal features at this day-use park. A natural rock bridge, Devil’s Icebox Cave, and numerous sinkholes are part of the large limestone cave system dating back thousands of years. A boardwalk and other trails lead visitors to the

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center (uu). Activities: Camping, hiking, volleyball, spelunking, guided cave tours, interpretive programs. Special Features: The 0.75-mile-long underground cavern is the nation’s largest gypsum cave open to guided tours, offering visitors the opportunity to view massive boulders of pink, white, and even rare black alabaster. From March to September

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County. Facilities: Hiking, bicycling, and nature trails. Activities: Hiking, bicycling, bird-watching. Special Features: Also known as Friedrich Wilderness Park. ★4963★ HARRIET ISLAND REGIONAL PARK Plato Ave & Waubasha St Saint Paul, MN 55102 Web: www.stpaul.gov/depts/parks/ Phone: 612-632-5111; Fax: 612-632-5115 Size: 510 acres. Location

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Park (WI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Governor Thompson State Park (WI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gowdy (Curt) State Park (WY). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grafton Lakes State Park (NY) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grafton Notch State Park (ME). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Graham Cave State Park (MO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Graham’s Island State Park (ND) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grand Gulf State Park (MO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grand Haven State Park (MI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grand Isle State Park (LA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grand Isle State Park

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61 Monongahela River: PA 141 Montauk Springs: MO 3026 Monterey Bay: CA 1087 Montezuma Castle: AZ 248 Montgomery (L. M.): PE 434 Moore’s Knob: NC 3599 Moose Cave: ME 2576 Mordecai Yell: TX 4307 Morgan (Daniel): SC 81 Morgan (Julia): CA 1519 Mormon Island: NE 3162 Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail

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, 4525 Robert Frost: NH 3277 Robert Gamble: FL 1956 Robert Gray: WA 4578 Robert R. Livingston, Jr.: NY 3429 Roberto Clemente: NY 3542 Robinson’s Ice Cave: MN 2879 Rock Island: WI 4764 Rock Island Lighthouse: NY 3463 Rock Run Grist Mill: MD 2654 Rockefeller Forest: CA 1610 Rockefeller (John D.) Jr

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Tuolumne Sequoia Groves: CA 1139 Turquoise Trail: NM 1216 Turtle Back Zoo: NJ 4923 Tuskegee Institute: AL 348 Twain (Mark): MO 3021 Twin Cave: IN 2359 U Ulysses S. Grant: MO 350; NY 145, 3462; TN 117, 326; VA 16, 282 Umpqua Lighthouse: OR 3950 Union Pacific Caboose Park: NE 3187 Union

Lonely Planet Mexico

by John Noble, Kate Armstrong, Greg Benchwick, Nate Cavalieri, Gregor Clark, John Hecht, Beth Kohn, Emily Matchar, Freda Moon and Ellee Thalheimer  · 2 Jan 1992

structure was dedicated to the sun god was validated in 1971, when archaeologists uncovered a 100m-long underground tunnel leading from the pyramid’s west flank to a cave directly beneath its center, where they found religious artifacts. It’s thought that the sun was worshiped here before the pyramid was built

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entrance –just as long as you’re not afraid of the dark – at your own pace. Guides generally do not speak English. From the cave exit it’s possible to hike down a path to the fast-flowing Río Dos Bocas, which runs through the mountainside. Outside of the rainy season, there

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pine forests and glimpses of bobcats and bighorn sheep. The Sierra de San Francisco, part of the Vizcaíno reserve, holds more than 60 cave painting sites. At Baja’s southern tip, Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra de la Laguna is great for trekking through cardón and palo verde forests, with jewel-like

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cliff dwellings inhabited from about 1200 to 1450. You get only distant overlooks of the first two, Cueva del Nido del Águila (Eagle’s Nest Cave) and Cueva Mirador (Lookout Cave), but you can enter houses in the Cueva de la Serpiente (Cave of the Serpent), where the restored adobe dwellings cut through

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La Boca reservoir, for a look at its attractive plaza principal. Grutas de García An illuminated, 2.5km route leads through 16 chambers in Garcia’s Caves ( 8347-1533; adult/child M$60/45; 9am-5pm), located 1100m up in the Sierra El Fraile. The caves, reached by a spectacular ride in

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talents of a Mexican named Carlos and a Cuban-born chef named Lucía? A vibrant, colorful little restaurant serving specialities from both countries. Try the plato Carlos y Lucía: shrimp or fish cooked in brandy, accompanied by rice, veggies and plantains. Vittore Italian Grill (Map; 986-24-24; Av Playa Gaviotas

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you at the cave entrance before Bolonchén (M$15, 25 minutes). In addition, colectivos depart for Bolonchén from the north side of Hopelchén’s plaza, passing near the caves. Check with the driver for return times. Hwy 261 continues north into Yucatán state to Uxmal, with a side road leading to the

Southeast Asia on a Shoestring Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet  · 30 May 2012

: tau tau (wooden effigies) of long-lost relatives guarding graves carved out of vertical limestone rock faces or hung from the roof of deep caves. And there’s the intermingling of the two: incredibly festive and colourful four-day funerals where buffalo are slaughtered and stewed, palm wine is swilled from bamboo

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, caving has to be the town’s main draw. Unless you buy a map from BKC bookshop (Market St; 7am-7pm) and do the caves yourself, it’s possible to go in an organised group. Check your guesthouse for info. The most famous cave, Tham Jang (admission 15,000K), 1km south of

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US$100. Pathana Boupha Antique House ANTIQUES (29/4 Ban Visoun; 8.30am-5.30pm) Follow the sweeping stairs in the garden to this Aladdin’s cave of antique Buddhas, golden naga, silver betel nut pots, Akha-style bracelets and Hmong necklaces. OckPopTok CLOTHING Ban Wat Nong (www.ockpoptok.com; 73/5

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pashminas. While the town itself has little to offer, it’s a good place to stay en route to the fascinating Vieng Xai Caves. Sleeping & Eating Sam Neua’s digs are unspectacular but reasonable value. They’re found beside the Nam Sam River. For cheap fǒe (rice-noodle soup), samosas, spring rolls

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as well as some interesting knick-knacks. Little India is best reached on the Star or Putra LRT to Masjid Jamek station. * * * BATU CAVES Get closer to KL’s Indian culture by visiting the Batu Caves (admission free; 8am-8pm), a system of three caves 13km northwest of the capital. The most

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travellers on their way to the Cameron Highlands. Luckily, the local bus station is only about 400m from the most interesting part of town. * * * CAVE TEMPLES Ipoh’s jungle-clad limestone hills are riddled with caves that locals believe to be a great source of spiritual power. There are Buddhist cave temples

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-km Niah National Park ( 085-737-454/0; www.sarawakforestry.com; admission RM10; park office 8am-5pm) is home to one of Borneo’s gems, the Niah Caves. In addition to lots of bats, they shelter some of the oldest evidence of human habitation in Southeast Asia. Sights & Activities Niah Archaeology Museum

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250m across and up to 60m high. Reached along a 3.1km plankwalk through the rainforest. Painted Cave CAVE A short walk from the Great Cave. It’s easy to miss the small fenced-off area by the entrance that protects the (now empty) death ships and the ancient paintings. Many of

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Park Few national parks anywhere in the world pack so many natural marvels into such a small area. From some of the world’s most incredible (and accessible) caves (www. mulucaves.org) to brilliant old-growth rainforest to natural oddities such as the Pinnacles formation, Gunung Mulu National Park ( 085-792300; www

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map of the park on which you can plan out your daily itinerary. Ask about jungle trails that can be explored without a guide. Mulu’s ‘show caves’ (caves that can be visited without special training or equipment) are its most popular attractions and for good reason: they are awesome. Cave routes that

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way to see what a tropical rainforest is all about, since most of the flora and fauna do their thing high above the ground. Deer Cave & Lang’s Cave CAVES (per person RM20; departures 2pm & 2.30pm) Over 2km in length and 174m in height, Deer

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Cave is the world’s largest cave passage open to the public. (It was considered the world’s largest cave passage, full stop, until an even larger one was discovered in Vietnam in 2009.) Every evening around

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against the BN. History Early Influences The earliest evidence of human life in the region is a 40,000-year-old skull found in Sarawak’s Niah Caves. But it was only around 10,000 years ago that the aboriginal Malays, the Orang Asli, began moving down the peninsula from a probable

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Caves, the spot where the best-preserved mummies lurk. The keys are with a caretaker who lives up the hill from the caves. From the caves, it’s about a 45-minute walk out to the Halsema Hwy. * * * SAGADA POP 1550 / ELEV 1547M The epitome of mountain cool, Sagada (1477m) is where

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, where you can also snag a map (P10) and hire a private jeepney if need be. Our favourite excursion is the thrilling half-day cave connection. Sleeping Sagada’s basic but charming guesthouses, featuring cosy linens and buckets of hot water (P50), are a delight. Sagada Homestay GUESTHOUSE $ ( 0919 702 8380; s

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opposite ends of D’Mall, Smoke is Boracay’s best value, with freshly cooked Filipino food, appetising coconut-milk curries and a P80 Filipino breakfast. Plato D’Boracay SEAFOOD $$ (D’Talipapa market; seafood per kg P100-150) The lobster, prawns and other shellfish at this family-style seafood grill come straight

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offshore, plus some giant peaks on Biliran Island off Leyte. Sights & Activities Spelunking, climbing, scrambling, bird-watching, mountain biking – you name it, Samar’s got it. Spelunking CAVING A spelunking tour of the Jiabong Caves, close to Catbalogan, is one of the Visayas’ top one-day adventures. The tour is run by

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of Tam Coc are a surreal sight, while further south the extraordinary Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is home to three gargantuan cave systems (including the world’s largest cave) set in tropical forest studded with towering peaks. * * * ITINERARIES One Week Begin in Hanoi, immerse yourself in Old Quarter life and

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fence via a 1.8km trail. It’s 3km from Son Trach. At the time of research there’s no public access to the world’s largest cave, Hang Son Doong. The sheer scale of the principal cavern (5km long, 150m wide and over 200m high) was only confirmed in 2009. Oxalis

USA Travel Guide

by Lonely, Planet

Louisville, Kentucky, where the tonsil-singeing native bourbon awaits…. Scenic Hwy 62 heads west and leads to the Lincoln Hills and southern Indiana’s limestone caves. A plunge into Marengo Cave ( 812-365-2705; www.marengocave.com; 9am-6pm, to 5pm Sep-May) , north on Hwy 66, is highly recommended. It offers a

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abundant campgrounds and cabins at Hocking Hills State Park ( 740-385-6165; www.hockinghills.com; 20160 Hwy 664; campsites/cottages from $24/130) . Old Man’s Cave is a scenic winner for hiking. Hocking Valley Canoe Livery ( 740-385-8685; www.hockinghillscanoeing.com; 31251 Chieftain Dr; 2hr tours $42; Apr-Oct) lets

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History Tours WALKING ( 651-292-1220; www.wabashastreetcaves.com; 215 S Wabasha St; 45min tours $6; 5pm Thu, 11am Sat & Sun) Explore St Paul’s underground caves, which gangsters once used as a speakeasy. The fun ratchets up on Thursday nights, when a swing band plays in the caverns (admission $7). Festivals

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Park (Click here) Bizarrely eroded rocks and canyons offer an unforgettable spectacle. » Wind Cave National Park (Click here) Below ground is one of the world’s largest cave formations; above ground deer, antelope and bison play. » Homestead National Monument (Click here) Farmland has hikes amid rivers and wildflowers. » Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

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and forest, sits just south of Custer State Park. The central feature is, of course, the cave, which contains 132 miles of mapped passages. The cave’s foremost feature is its ‘boxwork’ calcite formations (95% of all that are known exist here), which look like honeycomb and date back 60 to 100

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& Eating Wiesbaden HOTEL $$ ( 970-325-4347; www.wiesbadenhotsprings.com; 625 5th St; r from $132; ) Few hotels can boast their own natural indoor vapor cave (and it’s rumored that, long ago, Chief Ouray used this one). This quirky new-age inn charms with quilted bedcovers, free organic coffee and a spacious

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between tables because dishes change twice daily. It’s all freshly prepared, innovative and beautifully presented. The undecided can’t go wrong by ordering the Plato Poca Cosa and letting chef Suzana D’avila decide. Great margaritas, too. Pasco Kitchen & Lounge AMERICAN $$ (www.pascokitchen.com; 820 E University Blvd; lunch $9

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should be reserved well in advance (call 877-444-6777 or visit www.recreation.gov). Bring long sleeves and closed shoes; it gets chilly. The cave’s other claim to fame is the 300,000-plus Mexican free-tailed bat colony that roosts here from mid-May to mid-October. Be here

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York’s Central Park. It embraces an outdoor theater, zoo, observatory, museum, antique trains, golf, tennis, playgrounds, bridle paths, 53 miles of hiking trails, Batman’s caves and the Hollywood Sign. The Ranger Station (4730 Crystal Springs Dr) has maps. Griffith Observatory OBSERVATORY, PLANETARIUM (www.griffithobservatory.org; 2800 Observatory Rd; observatory free

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-like heat makes exploring dangerous. Sights Park highlights include: Fonts Point desert lookout; Clark Dry Lake for birding; the Elephant Tree Discovery Trail ; Split Mountain’s wind caves; and Blair Valley , with its Native American pictographs and morteros (seed-grinding stones). Further south, Agua Caliente County Park has hot springs. Sleeping & Eating

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waterfalls. The road meets the Kings River, its roar ricocheting off granite cliffs soaring over 4000ft high, making this one of North America’s deepest canyons. Boyden Cavern CAVE ( 559-965-8243; www.boydencavern.com; Hwy 180; 45min tour adult/child $13/8; May–mid-Nov) While smaller and less impressive than

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, Jun, Sep & Oct, closed Nov-Apr) , 13 miles south of Bend. Nearby attractions include Lava Butte , a perfect cone rising 500ft, and Lava River Cave , Oregon’s longest lava tube. Four miles west of the visitor center is Benham Falls , a good picnic spot on the Deschutes River. Newberry Crater was once

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rooms at Dogwood Motel ( 541-496-3403; www.dogwoodmotel.com; 28866 N Umpqua Hwy; d $70-75; ) . OREGON CAVES NATIONAL MONUMENT This very popular cave (there’s only one) lies 19 miles east of Cave Junction on Hwy 46. Three miles of passages are explored via 90-minute walking tours ( 541-592

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the decent Junction Inn ( 541-592-3106; 406 Redwood Hwy; d from $70; ) , along with a few restaurants. For fancy lodgings right at the cave there’s the impressive Oregon Caves Chateau ( 541-592-3400, www.oregoncaveschateau.com; d from $90-165; May-Oct) ; grab a milk shake at the old-fashioned

Life Is Simple: How Occam's Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe

by Johnjoe McFadden  · 27 Sep 2021

do you make an object on the surface of a rotating sphere wander? The greatest philosopher of the ancient world thought he knew the answer. Plato was born around 428 BCE to a wealthy Athenian family. He became a pupil of Socrates and, after the elder philosopher’s execution, founded the

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one that was to profoundly shape the course of Western culture, was his concept of Formsv and the accompanying philosophical tradition known as philosophical realism. Plato’s realism encompasses all aspects of experience but is most easily explained by considering the nature of mathematical and geometrical objects such as circles. He

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asked the question, what is a circle? You might indicate a particular example etched into stone or drawn in the sand, but Plato would point out that, if you looked closely enough, you would see that neither it, nor indeed any physical circle, was perfect. They all possessed

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have no trouble in recognising and talking about them. So what are we comparing them against to identify them as circles, rocks, fish or cats? Plato’s extraordinary answer was that the world we see is a pale reflection of a deeper reality of Forms, or universals, where perfect cats chase

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perfect mice in perfect circles around perfect rocks watched over by perfect nobles. Plato believed that the Forms or universals are the true reality that exists in an invisible but perfect realm beyond our senses. His system is often

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known as philosophical realism to denote that Plato, and his followers, believed that Forms or universals are not only real but are the ultimate reality that give rise to our sensory perceptions.vi

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Plato graphically illustrated his model in his famous Allegory of the Cave in which he compared the human experience to that of people chained facing the

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shadows are the real world and are completely unaware that there is another, more vibrant reality, if they could only turn around to face it. Plato similarly insisted the real world of the Forms cannot be perceived by our senses but only our minds. He advised that the philosopher’s mind

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endure the contemplation of that which is, and the most resplendent part thereof: and this we declare is the Good.’7 Nobody is sure where Plato located his realm of perfect Forms but, in his Phaedrus, they are in a ‘place beyond heaven’. As co-habitants of the heavenly realm, the

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perfect in every way, including travelling along geometrically perfect circular paths and at uniform speed. That this claim was plainly contradicted by his senses must, Plato insisted, be a consequence of the inferior vantage point available to humanity from within the terrestrial cave of our senses. He urged his followers to

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pupil, Eudoxus of Cnidus (410–347 BCE) who, in a pattern that will become familiar, added more spheres. Imagine you are standing in Plato’s cave, which lies at the centre of a simplified version of Eudoxus’s model consisting of just a single sphere, which we will represent in Figure

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the sky. FIGURE 5: View of the planetary motions in Eudoxus’s model. Eudoxus’s model worked well enough but it needed twenty-seven spheres. Plato’s mechanically minded pupil Aristotle added more spheres to act rather like modern ball-bearings to prevent motion from one sphere being transmitted to adjacent

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motions of the planets did not entirely fit Ptolemy’s model. To fix the problem, he introduced two additional complications. First, he shifted the earth (Plato’s cave in the figure) from the precise centre of the sphere’s rotations to a point, just off-centre, which was called the eccentric. He also

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cell while awaiting a horrible execution on a charge of treason. It featured his imagined dialogue with Lady Philosophy about the merits of philosophy, particularly Plato’s. It became immensely popular in the Middle Ages and was read by nearly all the literate minority. It remains in print today. Latin translations

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of fragments of Plato’s dialogues also made it into the West, including much of his Timaeus, which went on to profoundly influence the intellectual development of Augustine of

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inspired Augustine’s adoption of philosophical realism as a means of reconciling the savagery with his vision of a benevolent Christian God. He co-opted Plato’s world of Forms to claim that worldly imperfections were a pale and distorted reflection of the invisible but perfect realm of heaven. In his

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up across the Islamic world. Fragments of Greek manuscripts rescued from ancient libraries such as that at Alexandria were highly prized. The rescued works of Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy were eagerly translated into Arabic and commented on by Greek-reading Islamic scholars, such as Al-Kindi (born around

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his scientific model of the world. To do so, he reached for another gift from the ancient world, philosophical realism. St Augustine had already imported Plato’s Forms into the early medieval Church where they became ideas in the mind of God. However, by the thirteenth century, they had been supplanted

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share of nobility; all fathers partook in the essence, or universal, of fatherhood. From a scientific perspective, Aristotle’s universals were a slight improvement on Plato’s Forms since they were considered to exist in the world rather than in some invisible realm. Yet this created a problem: how do we

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to medieval philosophy and science because they underpinned the foundation of its logic: the Aristotelian syllogism. The basic structure is often illustrated with reference to Plato’s famous teacher: Socrates is a man, all men are mortal, so Socrates is mortal. The logic is founded on the principle that all objects

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universals such as ‘manness’ or mortality. Yet, if the only thing in common between Socrates and, say, Plato is a mere word, man, then the fact that Socrates is mortal says nothing about whether Plato or any other man is mortal. The scholastics were horrified. How can they then gain knowledge of

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time, contact with the Byzantines had brought knowledge of Greek back into western Europe and Ficino translated several of Plato’s works directly from the Greek into Latin. He became enamoured with Plato’s philosophy and particularly his extensive writings on the nature of the soul, which he saw as a means

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, was the dangerous tendency among the nominalists to separate philosophy from religion. Sometime between 1469 and 1474, he put together a commentary and summary of Plato’s ideas under the title Theologia Platonica (Platonic Theology) with the provocative subtitle On the Immortality of Souls. Ficino insisted that

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Plato, rather than Aristotle, was Christianity’s patron philosopher. Ficino’s translations and commentaries were enormously popular as Plato’s lucid and poetic writing style, filled with allegories, narrative and dialogues, were a welcome release

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from the clunky logic of Aristotle. What particularly attracted the humanists was Plato’s focus on self-discovery. The shift from Aristotle’s empiricism to Platonic introspection resonated with the prevailing humanism and sparked a revival of mystical

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. When Cosimo de’ Medici heard that some re-discovered Neoplatonist Greek texts had recently arrived in Florence he ordered Ficino to abandon further translations of Plato to focus instead on translating ancient writings by a legendary character known as Hermes Trismegistus, reputed to be an ancient Egyptian ‘thrice great priest, prophet

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their mixture of philosophy, Pythagorean mysticism, alchemy, magic, mythology and astrology, were a window into an even more ancient mystical tradition that had inspired Pythagoras, Plato and the Hebrew Bible. Despite its outlandish claims, which would have been dismissed as nonsense a hundred years earlier, hermeticism became hugely popular among humanists

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as many entities as needed, so long as they are not ‘beyond necessity’. The additional complexity that Kepler added to his model was to abandon Plato’s dogma that the planets move always at uniform speed. Instead, he allowed Mars to change its velocity as it circled the sun. This additional

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a solution. After the success of relaxing uniform motion Kepler next dared to sacrifice another ancient dogma, this time perfect circles. Nearly every astronomer since Plato had insisted that the heavenly bodies, being inhabitants of heaven, travel only in perfect circles. Of course, all circles are perfect in the sense that

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they are circles but by ‘perfect’ Plato and others were stressing perfection in the mathematical beauty sense, of an elegant, harmonious and maximally simple two-dimensional object that can, nevertheless, be described

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had been filled with crystal spheres rotating the planets on perfectly circular orbits. Kepler’s Pythagorean dream had added Plato’s solids. Yet, only perfect circles can fit on the surface of a Plato’s solid, the sphere. Kepler’s bending of the heavenly circles had, inadvertently, shattered both its crystal and

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Plato’s solids. Neither could fit elliptical orbits. However, among the astronomical debris was a model of the cosmos freed of all those cycles, epicycles and

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condensation were caused by rearrangement of the parts or atoms of water.9 The Renaissance humanists had largely abandoned Aristotle in favour of his teacher Plato, and most tended to side with the atomic theory, particularly as the interactions of atoms might provide a rational basis for understanding natural magic. For

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, only that we haven’t proved it wrong. Our scientific model remains, not in the world, as Aristotle insisted, or in some mystical realm, as Plato proposed, but, according to Occam, in our head. The ultimate reality of what is really out there in the world will always be beyond our

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were forced to retreat into an even more abstract space by arguing that phlogiston was some kind of immaterial substance, vaguely analogous to one of Plato’s Forms or Aristotle’s universals, a kind of essence of combustion. The theory’s advocates, rather like the medieval scholastics or hermetic mystics, were

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and they will impact whatever we want to measure. This provokes a similar question to the one William of Occam asked about the reality of Plato’s Forms, Aristotle’s universals or motion itself: how real can precise position or momentum be if it can never be measured? Real things must

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). 6. Gill, M. J., Angels and the Order of Heaven in Medieval and Renaissance Italy (Cambridge University Press, 2014). 7. Jowett, B., and Campbell, L., Plato’s Republic, vol. 3, 518c (Clarendon Press, 1894). 8. Smith, A. M., ‘Saving the Appearances of the Appearances: The Foundations of Classical Geometrical Optics’, Archive

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/lombardus/I-Sent.html. 11. Sylla, E. D., in The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning, 349–96 (Springer, 1975). 12. Riddell, J., The Apology of Plato (Clarendon Press, 1867). Chapter 3: The Razor 1. Hammer, C. I., ‘Patterns of Homicide in a Medieval University Town: Fourteenth-Century Oxford’, Past & Present, 3

The Right Side of History

by Ben Shapiro  · 11 Feb 2019  · 270pp  · 71,659 words

quest for knowledge is endemic to Greek thought. It is a tragedy shot through with hope. Plato’s allegory of the cave is the most famous example of striving to reach the light. In that allegory, Plato paints a picture of men chained to a wall in a cave, prevented from seeing the source

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truth.7 Utilizing human reason to escape the cave, and bringing knowledge of the light, that was the task of ancient Athens—a task uniting Plato (428–348 BCE) and Aristotle (384–322 BCE). The ancient Greeks gave us three foundational principles: first, that we could discover our purpose in life

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conclusion of many modern philosophers. It was also the conclusion of certain ancient Greeks like Democritus (460–370 BCE), a philosopher who lived contemporaneously with Plato and Aristotle and believed that all of human life could be boiled down to fundamental particles of matter he called “atoms.”8 Nature was merely

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nature; ethics takes a backseat. Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics thought differently. Plato and Aristotle rejected Democritus’s atomic theory. In their view, the human mind was freely capable of deciphering nature’s rules—and

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make him a man, not an animal—man has a telos, too. What is our telos? Our end, according to both Plato and Aristotle, is to reason, judge, and deliberate. Plato put it this way in The Republic: Is there some work of a soul that you couldn’t ever accomplish with

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is the use of reason: “the work of a human being is an activity of soul in accord with reason.”11 So, according to both Plato and Aristotle, what makes us “virtuous” is doing our job: look at the world with our reason, discerning the final causes for which things exist

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the supposedly perfect harmony of the cosmos. And that led him to the Pythagorean theorem, among other discoveries.15 Plato and Aristotle both believed in the notion of objective truth as well. But Plato and Aristotle disagreed with regard to what constituted objective truth: the Forms, or knowledge of the physical world

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GOVERNMENT Finally, the Greeks gave us the roots of democracy. Based on the notion of virtue—use of reason to act in accordance with nature—Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics developed ethical systems. Those ethical systems didn’t merely recommend personal cultivation. They also encompassed the creation of new forms of

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points out, the Athenians universally believed that good citizenship was a prerequisite to being a good man.16 Plato’s ethical system tied together happiness and virtue: the truly virtuous man will be happy. Plato defined various virtues, too: justice, moderation, and the like. But these virtues aren’t individual virtues, in

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Plato’s view—they only exist in the context of a community. The virtue of justice, for example, exists when

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because cultivating virtue is the ultimate goal of man—the polis must be governed rigorously so that human beings are inculcated with virtue, according to Plato. That means that those who govern must be the best and wisest among us—that we must rigorously condition a class of philosophers to rule

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. Otherwise, chaos will ensue. “Unless,” wrote Plato in the voice of Socrates, “the philosophers rule as kings or those now called kings and chiefs genuinely and adequately philosophize, and political power and

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for the cities, my dear Glaucon, nor I think for human kind . . . in no other city would there be private or public happiness.”18 In Plato’s view, conflict within the state lies in failure of people to recognize their own station. To solve such conflicts

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, Plato set up a rigorous hierarchy in his utopian vision, between workers, warriors, and philosopher kings. He also recommended a communistic vision of his ideal state

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in which the philosopher kings are raised. This led philosopher Karl Popper to protest that Plato’s ideal state was “purely totalitarian and anti-humanitarian,” and accuse Plato of re-enshrining “class rule and class privilege . . . the principle that every class should attend to its own business

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is just if the ruler rules, if the worker works, and if the slave slaves.”19 In defense, Plato scholars Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom rejected Popper’s critique by suggesting that Plato’s entire scheme was at least partially facetious, an attempt to prove the unworkability of full communitarian control.20

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Aristotle’s system of virtue also involved one’s status as a citizen. But unlike Plato, who believed that the Forms could be understood by a select few who could then rule benevolently over the rest of a well-organized society

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, Aristotle rejected such utopianism. He tore into Plato’s suggested regime, calling it unrealistic and stating that it would rend apart the society itself. “Let us remember,” Aristotle says, “that we should not

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aspects of democracy with aspects of aristocracy would be best—a clear philosophical iteration of a system of checks and balances. The logic of both Plato and Aristotle tied together the existence of the state to its ability to forward and abide by natural law. Their philosophical heirs, like Cicero, would

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meaning: individual purpose, individual capacity, communal purpose, and communal capacity. In the Athenian framework, it’s nearly impossible to disassociate individual purpose from communal purpose. Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics would have all rejected such a division as counterproductive and fruitless: individual purpose lay in acting virtuously—fulfilling our telos by

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insisted repeatedly that mankind had not just the capacity but the obligation to uncover that order. Uncovering natural law meant seeking to know nature, and Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics were united in their belief that human beings could turn their minds to nature in pursuit of answers. Humans were graced

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; freedom merely meant self-control, the very opposite of what we often mean by freedom today. Freedom in the modern notion is explicitly rejected by Plato, who felt it would lead to anarchy; according to Aristotle, freedom only exists in the individual context when you are involved in philosophical pursuits.24

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communal capacity? The community was tasked with two separate functions: instilling virtue in the citizenry, and protecting the citizens from the violation of natural law. Plato thought that fulfillment of the first function could prevent the necessity for the second: if the government could train perfect philosopher-kings to govern, there

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in action. If you aren’t a philosopher, how do you achieve happiness? Are we really expected to be happy as workers or warriors, in Plato’s tripartite society? How do we avoid the tyranny of the polis, given the link between virtue and good citizenship? Most of all, how does

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an active God in the universe, Greek thought posited an Unmoved Mover largely unconcerned with human affairs. “The changeless, Unmoved Mover was the God of Plato and Aristotle,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says. “The God of history was the God of Abraham. They simply did not belong together.” Judaism believed, as Greek

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,” to enact His commandments and, by doing so, spread those universal truths. Universalism suggests that human logic leads to the light outside the cave; particularism suggests that God’s hand can be found in His guidance of one particular nation. Third, Greek commitment to the polis contradicted Jewish commitment to the divine

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Jewish law could be abandoned in favor of universalism. As historian Richard Tarnas writes, “That supreme Light, the true source of reality shining forth outside Plato’s cave of shadows, was now recognized as the light of Christ. As Clement of Alexandria announced, ‘By the Logos, the whole world is now become Athens

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as a way for man to develop his capacity in concert with others; his thought reflects far more the thought of the ancients. Grotius, like Plato and Aristotle, saw natural right as an extension of natural law: you had a right to do that which was in accordance with your telos

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Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc.”28 John Adams, the chief congressional sponsor of the Declaration, mirrored Jefferson’s language exactly: “the principles of Aristotle and Plato, of Livy and Cicero, and Sidney, Harrington, and Locke; the principles of nature and eternal reason; the principles on which the whole government over us

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always equal four, whether or not human beings experienced it. Kant thus embarked on an almost Platonic quest for knowledge beyond the material—but where Plato looked to the realm of Forms, Kant looked instead to the human heart. The human heart, he said, had embedded within it a moral logic

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existence itself. What did this mean practically? It meant mostly deconstructing ancient notions of eternal truths and human reason going all the way back to Plato and Aristotle. What would fill the gap? Authenticity—the true self, contemplating its own death and the meaninglessness of the universe, “taking hold of itself

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a form of wish fulfillment, behavior was a manifestation of unconscious desires; in general, people were governed by forces beyond their control. Mirroring Plato, Freud posited a tripartite soul—Plato suggested reason, spirit, and appetite, while Freud suggested superego (moral reason), ego (life experience militating between appetite and reason), and id (appetite

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). But where Plato suggested that man should work to ally spirit with reason to overcome appetite, Freud suggested that working to uncover unconscious forces shaping our id would

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1951, there were twenty-five thousand members of the Great Books discussion groups, with “50,000 Americans a year . . . buying collections of the writings of Plato, Aristotle, the Founding Fathers, and Hegel” at serious cost to themselves.6 But the American Left could not accept that a capitalistic America could produce

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.com/education/archive/2017/11/the-surprising-revolt-at-reed/544682/. 6.Walter Kerr, Tragedy and Comedy (New York: Da Capo Press, 1985), 146. 7.Plato, The Republic (New York: Basic Books, 1968), 514a–520a. 8.W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), 415

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. 9.Plato, The Republic, 353c–353e. 10. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, 415. 11. Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 1098a. 12. Jonathan

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Virtue (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), 135. 17. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy (New York: Pocket Books, 1926), 39. 18. Plato, The Republic, 473c–d. 19. Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), 85–87 (italics in original). 20

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(Cambridge, MA: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 2000), 211. 23. Ibid., 203. 24. Mogens Herman Hansen, “Democratic Freedom and the Concept of Freedom in Plato and Aristotle,” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 50 (2010): 1–27. CHAPTER 4: COMING TOGETHER 1.Naomi Pasachoff and Robert J. Littman, A Concise History

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(Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 10–11. 25. Mary Ann Glendon, The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 122. 26. Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1995), 521

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, 202–3 Pinocchio (film), 196 Pipes, Richard, 150 planetary motion, 76 Plan for the Scientific Work Necessary to Reorganize Society (Comte), 141 Planned Parenthood, 156 Plato, 42–44, 48–50, 52–54, 58, 71, 82, 88, 109, 162, 166, 188 polarization, 207, 208, 212 polis, 48–49, 53–54, 56–57

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postwar era and, 160, 187 rejection of, 98 religious fundamentalism, 100 Renaissance, 74, 101 repression, 192, 194, 200 Republic, The (Cicero), 50–51 Republic, The (Plato), 44 Republicans, xiii, 3, 200 revelation, 28, 37, 56, 59, 69, 170, 179, 181 revolution, 136, 149 Richard III (Shakespeare), 188 rights. See also freedom

The Greatest Story Ever Told--So Far

by Lawrence M. Krauss  · 21 Mar 2017  · 335pp  · 95,280 words

Is God a Mathematician?

by Mario Livio  · 6 Jan 2009  · 315pp  · 93,628 words

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Time Travel: A History

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The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature

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Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media

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Being You: A New Science of Consciousness

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Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think

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The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect

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The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

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How the Mind Works

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Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

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Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution

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Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation

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Red November: Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War

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Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization

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The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

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Humankind: A Hopeful History

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Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior

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Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity

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All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture

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by Matthew Firestone, Carolina Miranda and César G. Soriano  · 2 Jan 2008

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Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking

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Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence

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Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System

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The Default Line: The Inside Story of People, Banks and Entire Nations on the Edge

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Invisible Women

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Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time

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Underland: A Deep Time Journey

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Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters

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Fodor's Rome: With the Best City Walks and Scenic Day Trips

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The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay

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QI: The Second Book of General Ignorance

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The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom

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The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History

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Living With the Himalayan Masters

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The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention

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Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food

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The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World

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God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican

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Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines

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by Steve Coll  · 23 Feb 2004  · 956pp  · 288,981 words

Nobody's Perfect: Writings From the New Yorker

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Reset: How to Restart Your Life and Get F.U. Money: The Unconventional Early Retirement Plan for Midlife Careerists Who Want to Be Happy

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Alistair Cooke's America

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Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing

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Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House

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The Slow Fix: Solve Problems, Work Smarter, and Live Better in a World Addicted to Speed

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Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century

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Bricks & Mortals: Ten Great Buildings and the People They Made

by Tom Wilkinson  · 21 Jul 2014  · 341pp  · 89,986 words

The Sum of All Fears

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Against Intellectual Monopoly

by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine  · 6 Jul 2008  · 607pp  · 133,452 words

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government

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Babel-17

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by John Elder Robison  · 12 Mar 2013  · 342pp  · 115,769 words

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them

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