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R4.5 Anatomy of the Soul | Plato's Republic, book 4 w/ Jonathan Lear

Ancient Greece Declassified

CHAPTER

Plato, Is It Possible to Have a Very Rational Person

For plato, what he means by rational is using our minds capacity for thinking. So you aren't really a rational person unless you are using your capacity for serious thinking to live a good life. And so it's not just about a calculative function. I mean, somebody could be a genius at mass or a genius at hedge funds, but ruin their life s they don't have a healthy view about what a happy life consists in. It's a misshapen use of a certain kind of capability with calculation in the service of a deformed life.

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