Plato used the dialogue format because the exchange of views, the posing and answering of questions, showed that understanding is a living, dynamic process. He distrusted writing because the settled character of the written word makes it look as if truth can be fixed and made to stand still. It is worth remembering that this greatest advocate of the objective reality of truth also believed that our access to that truth was sustained in reasoned discussion.
Interpretation
Plato favored dialogue for exploring truth as a dynamic process, distrusting writing for its static nature.
This quote conveys the belief that true understanding and knowledge emerge from vibrant exchanges of ideas and questions, as exemplified in Plato's dialogues. It highlights the philosopher's skepticism towards written words, which can give a false impression of fixed truths, emphasizing instead that the pursuit of understanding is inherently fluid and reliant on active discourse.
In practice
In a debate about education reform, one might cite this quote to advocate for the importance of discussion over standardized tests.
The more images I gathered from the past, I said, the more unlikely it seemed to me that the past had actually happened in this or that way, for nothing about it could be called normal: most of it was absurd, and if not absurd, then appalling.
I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I am a dyed-in-the-woo l possibilist! By this, I mean with an eco-mind, we see that everything's connected and change is the only constant.
Through money, democracy becomes its own destroyer, after money has destroyed intellect.
In Japan, I live in a little neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. I don't have a bicycle or a car or anything, so my only movement is within the boundaries of my feet. I feel there's a need for that kind of conscientious objection to the momentum of the world.
To see a world in a grain of sand_x000D_ And a heaven in a wild flower,_x000D_ Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,_x000D_ And eternity in an hour.
And each day brings it's pretty dust, Our soon-choked souls to fll And we forget because we must, And not because we will.
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