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Title: An essential read
Review: for anyone interested in Plato. The empirical mindset is so ingrained in us that it's hard to imagine that it was once otherwise, especially in a classical civilization so influential to our history. Cultural knowledge and values were retained and passed down through practices that resemble ritual more than anything else. Knowledge and myth were indistinguishable.Havelock's book is an valuable contribution, but I do have some reservations about it. Havelock feels that Plato's mysticism is regrettable and this to me is a mistake. However valuable reason is to our lives, we still are not emotionally integrated beings. The ritualistic practices of classical Greeks may be obsolete from an empirical point of view, but not at all from an emotional one. For Plato to put spirituality on a rational basis was as important a contribution as putting science on a rational basis. Plato is not Aristotle, and that's a good thing.But read it and decide for yourself. You won't be wasting your time.
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