The Republic of ILC

Another usual day of awakening from my bed. The more times I go asleep the better I feel in terms of energy everyday. It is especially important given our multiple hour lectures are a serious drain on all our brains. We left from Appel Commons as usual to head out to our class at Mallot Hall. Everyday the curriculum is quickly moving on from philosopher to philosopher; leaving no space to lag behind. Many people in our dorms can be seen studying in the grass or in the common rooms. I tend to spend my time in the common room to escape the tight confines of our room and meet up with the other ILC members to enjoy their presence. One of the advantages to having other people that you know and meet is that you can enjoy the experience with them and also rely on to help each other study readings.

The subject today in Kramnick’s course was Plato’s Republic, which is the most densest of the readings we have in this entire program. Dyana had us break into little sections for reading different sections yesterday so we were pretty knowledgeable. What was unexpected was that he ended up lecturing nearly of the class time on the history and background of Plato instead of his work. But the importance Kramnick placed on understanding the society Plato lived in was paramount. It was needed to draw comparisons of this Greek democracy that in reality was exclusive of a majority of the population and his own utopian society that would be radical to his time. Some of these ideas included having philosophers or the wisest group of society rule above these two other classes, which would all be comprised of people built for that particular function. Many of these ideas were debated on in our TA section with the other students. I found it entertaining to see how passionate became when they criticized Plato’s Republic because it was intended to be this utopia that takes on an unorthodox approach. As Andrew Gonzalez refers to, Plato’s Republic is similar to the fictional, utopian society in “The Giver,” in which there are restrictions placed on practically every facet of human nature. Using this imagination of such a made up realm, it definitely makes me grateful to be an American and live in not a perfect society but one that strives to become better.

After we concluded class, we met Ms.Kaplan at the Statler Hotel where we planned out our travels around the Ithaca area and beyond for the upcoming weekends. We plan to do lots of things such as eating breakfast on the Erie Canal, celebrating New Years out of town, doing a college visit to Colgate University, and one of the most important which is going to shop at Target.

Before returning to our dorms, we convinced ourselves to go finally eat of campus to taste the food at Collegetown. Chris and I had the chance to enjoy some satisfying Chinese food that was at a decent price. The others went to eat a pizza shop and a pita store. On the way back, Chris taught me Hebrew, which was only like three phrases but still made me feel accomplished. I hope the entire group will continue to get chances to interact with each other as the days begin to get more complicated with more work piling.