Why are there never any discussions here about one of the best classicists and philosophers of the 20th century?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rioS0H-EHdw
>>856264
Oh shit! I didn't realize there was a Benardete lecture up. Are there any others?
i've never seen a thread abuot classicists here. i want to get into it myself, where do i start?
>>856569
Are you asking where should you start with studying the classics?
>>856561
Not that I know of. I think this lecture was only put up recently in conjunction with these sites being launched:
http://contemporarythinkers.org
http://thegreatthinkers.org
Bumping for exposure. Benardete was one of the deepest scholars of the Greeks, and deserves infinitely more attention than he's ever received.
Never thought I'd see Seth Benardete on 4chan. I wonder if everyone in this thread knows each other. Or maybe has one friend in common.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W17U3aUNDVM
Not quite the same, but this guy also seems to have some insight into the Greeks
This nigger doesn't make any sense
I'm not sure if any of you (few) Benardete enthusiasts have gotten to explore it yet, but here's an online archive of his papers, mostly for the development of his lecture courses.
http://library.newschool.edu/archives/findingaids/pdf/NA000501.pdf
His handwriting is very hard to read (though not impossible if you're interested enough), but the standout papers are a transcript of his 1973 Aristotle's Metaphysics courses (search for SB_02_1973), typescripts for his essays on Heraclitus (http://library.newschool.edu/files/findingaids/benardete/SB_03_06_On_Heraclitus.pdf), Parmenides (http://library.newschool.edu/files/findingaids/benardete/SB_03_10_Night_and_Day_typescript.pdf), and Homer (http://library.newschool.edu/files/findingaids/benardete/SB_03_09_Homeric_Hero_dissertation.pdf), his lecture materials for his 1986 course on Plato's Parmenides (search for SB_01-56_Plato_Parmenides_I), which in file 3-6 turn into a transcript of said lecture course, and the lecture notes to his later courses on Plato's Parmenides (http://library.newschool.edu/files/findingaids/benardete/SB_01-57_Plato_Parmenides_II_4.pdf), the final file of which contains, starting at page 83, a typewritten brief sketch of the whole of the dialogue.
Really interesting shit for anyone who'd like an inkling of what kind of passion and obsession goes into good philological and philosophical work.
Hands up: who here has studied with Michael Davis, Ronna Burger, or the great Seth himself?
>>861782
oh how i wish
I've had a course with one of his students (his is not Davis or Burger), and he was pretty excellent. Very eccentric in the best ways. Have you, anon?
>>861847
Should read:
"who is not Davis or Burger"
Ugh, boozealolz.
>>856264
Cool thread. I'm a fan of Bernard Williams and Martha Nussbaum--though they're more philosophers than classicists, but they did draw heavily on classics, especially Nussbaum.
>>861847
I studied with Michael Davis but was more interested in chasing skirt than Plato, unfortunately. Now in grad school, making up for past sins. Hope to see you at a conference soon, my fellow anon.
>>862094
What were you studying with him? What was it like?
Just came across this reading the Laches and Thucydides lecture transcript. So good.
>>861861
Nussbaum a shit
Why aren't you worshipping the greatest philolosopher of all times, /his/?
But really, if Benardete is so great, why is he virtually unrecognized outside of Straussian circles?
Anyone read Herodotean Inquiries?
>>864439
Well, I think (and I say this having read many critiques of him, and being widely familiar with "mainstream" schools of scholarship on the figures he comments upon) Strauss is pretty great, and in the larger part he's either ignored or maligned. And it's not as if the "Straussian" circles are monolithic; they're arguing with each other all the time, and largely only agree that 1) Strauss seems to say something important, and 2) that great books need to be read carefully and sympathetically at least at first before dismissing the authors as dipshits. I'm not sure wide renown necessarily says anything beyond the fact of being renowned. (Consider the renown of classical Scholasticism as the dominant language of scholarly, intellectual, philosophical, and scientific thought before falling heavily out of fashion. Did its popularity over a number of centuries guarantee its truth or accuracy in accounting for phenomena?)
With Benardete, his translations are very well respected across the board, but then his essays and commentaries go ignored, and that's for a few reasons.
1) His association with Strauss and "Straussians" causes scholars who have an opinion about Strauss or some of his students to dismiss him outright, whether warranted or not by the opinion held.
2) His commentaries are themselves very difficult to read and make sense of. They're not a word salad, but he's precisely the kind of scholar who respects everyone around to the extent that he refuses to simplify ideas that aren't simple. This isn't to say that he never simplifies, but he does so only when the matter is itself simple. That makes him infuriating for beginners or people looking for something accessible. Even scholars who've studied this stuff for a while prefer, what with all the busy work they might be doing, to read something accessible.
3) He gives the authors he studies the benefit of the doubt when reading them, which is a kind of hermeneutic that's not in fashion.
Ronna Burger on Seth Benardete:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaQxx49UZWA
>>865381
Yeah, it's really good. Before I'd read it, I kind of dismissed Herodotus as being entertaining but lacking the depth of a Thucydides. Definitely don't feel that way now.
Here's a nice article on Benardete's take on Aristotle.
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/print.aspx?article=1561&loc=b&type=cbtp
βυμπ
A very interesting review of a book put together by some of his students.
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2003/2003-11-31.html
Oh shit, a book called The Eccentric Core: The Thought of Seth Benardete by Ronna Burger is coming out at the end of April. Does anyone know anything about this?
