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PLATONIC_EXERCISE

                                             May     31, 2010
                                             October 27, 2013
Reading through the dialog "Gorgias",
trying to grasp the taxonomy that Plato
is working up (without whining *too*         MISSING_BODY
much about all the absurd leaps)...

                                                             GORGIAS
Now he's got "tiring"
as opposed to the "gymnastic"...                 "tiring"?  What the hell
                                                 was he really saying?
"... tiring, in like manner, is a flattery
which takes the form of gymnastic, and is                 ALL_GREEK
knavish, false, ignoble, illiberal,
working deceitfully by the help of lines,
and colours, and enamels, and garments,
and making men affect a spurious beauty to
the neglect of the true beauty which is
given by gymnastic."


  Now I get (but don't agree                                            
  with) this distinction between      The core often has no medium      
  decoration and the core--           except these extraneous           
                                      "decorations", paint may either be     
  But I don't follow what he          a device to hide rust and rot (or      
  means by false exercise...          a method of protecting against it)     
                                      or the medium of the sublime.          
                                                                   
  I can imagine what a false exercise                                       
  would be-- something easy to do that                                 
  makes you feel like you're working                                   
  without much benefit-- but this                                      
  doesn't seem to be what he's getting
  at with his mere "tiring".

  Exhaustion?  Maybe repititious drilling?          So "tiring" = exhausting
                                                    physical labor, i.e.
  (Hard work without any variety of motion          not white collar (white
  might be a kind of false exercise.)               robe?) enough for Plato?




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