The Dec. 17 editorial "Hook, line and sinker" noted that many voters cast their ballots for president on the basis of misinformation. Why are false and misleading statements persuasive? One answer might come from Phaedrus, a dialogue by Plato.
Socrates asks Phaedrus if someone has to know the truth about a subject in order to speak well and nobly about it.
Phaedrus replies: "It is not necessary for the intending orator to learn what is really just, but only what will seem just to the crowd who will act as judges. Nor again what is really good and noble, but only what will seem so. For that is what persuasion proceeds from, not truth."
However, later, Socrates says someone must know the truth of what he or she is speaking. "For to be unaware of the difference between a dream-image and the reality of what is just and unjust, good and bad, must truly be grounds for reproach even if the crowd praises it with one voice," he says.
BRAD BRADFORD
Upper Arlington
Columbus Dispatch, December 23, 2008When one of President Bush’s economic advisers says that the administration did the best it could “with the information we had at the time,” the statement indicates that the government would have done things differently, for example, monitor easy lending practices, if it had had more knowledge.
But the article demonstrates that the administration was cool to information that opposed its strong emphasis on cutting back regulations and oversight.
The lessons of the ancient Greeks are relevant today: seek the truth, recognize limits and pursue moderation.
Brad Bradford
Upper Arlington, Ohio
New York Times, December 23, 2008Brad seems pretty knowledgeable about Greek philosophy!
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