How To Not Be Tiresome and Know Nothing, with Jacob Gruber // Episode 111
08/18/21 • 52 min
Recording an episode with a newborn is slightly trickier than we remembered from last time, so fortunately Joseph's brother Jacob was coming through town, and stopped to record an episode with Joseph!
We use as a launching point two paragraphs from Plato's Phaedrus, reproduced here, including the bit that the title of this episode alludes to at the end of the quote:
"At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality."
With that as the launching point, you can imagine that our discussion was quite lively. I imagine that were you to use this passage as a launching point, your discussions would be lively as well!
Feel free to rate, review, share, and subscribe to this podcast. In so doing, you may be aiding in the reclamation of wonder and conversation in our world.
As always,
- check out our work, and join our email list, at https://ouroutpost.org/
- join our free resource library platform here
- catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/
- see what we have upcoming in terms of events here: https://ouroutpost.org/events/
- send us an email at [email protected]
- and please rate, review, and share!
- If you're a Catholic husband, feel free to sign up for some time to chat with Joseph! https://bookme.name/ouroutpost/45-minutes-with-joseph
Recording an episode with a newborn is slightly trickier than we remembered from last time, so fortunately Joseph's brother Jacob was coming through town, and stopped to record an episode with Joseph!
We use as a launching point two paragraphs from Plato's Phaedrus, reproduced here, including the bit that the title of this episode alludes to at the end of the quote:
"At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality."
With that as the launching point, you can imagine that our discussion was quite lively. I imagine that were you to use this passage as a launching point, your discussions would be lively as well!
Feel free to rate, review, share, and subscribe to this podcast. In so doing, you may be aiding in the reclamation of wonder and conversation in our world.
As always,
- check out our work, and join our email list, at https://ouroutpost.org/
- join our free resource library platform here
- catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/
- see what we have upcoming in terms of events here: https://ouroutpost.org/events/
- send us an email at [email protected]
- and please rate, review, and share!
- If you're a Catholic husband, feel free to sign up for some time to chat with Joseph! https://bookme.name/ouroutpost/45-minutes-with-joseph
Previous Episode
On the Value of Failure // Episode 110
Failure is a funny thing-- very few people like it, but it can teach us so much if we let it.
I suppose this is inspired in part by Carol Dweck's book Mindset, but it's also inspired by the Christian life and the virtue of hope and the virtue of humility. And it's short-- I'm still wondering if shorter episodes are the way to go, or episodes like last week that went over an hour are more the way we ought to go. Shorter episodes are much easier to record and edit and upload, but I enjoy our longer conversations.
Regardless, we'll see how I manage the next few weeks while Crystal continues to recuperate from having grown and birthed a person.
As always,
- check out our work, and join our email list, at https://ouroutpost.org/
- join our free resource library platform here
- catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/
- see what we have upcoming in terms of events here: https://ouroutpost.org/events/
- send us an email at [email protected]
- and please rate, review, and share!
- If you're a Catholic husband, feel free to sign up for some time to chat with Joseph! https://bookme.name/ouroutpost/45-minutes-with-joseph
Next Episode
Finding a Voice // Episode 112
We're speaking animals. It's a defining attribute. Yet when I look at how I speak, I realize that I could be better. This episode proposes a way to become a better speaker (and yes, it has to do with God. Everything to do with God, actually. It also was an excuse to do some Marvel voices. Not MCU-Marvel, just comics-book-Marvel...)
(and yes, this is another episode that is doubling as practice for my Toastmasters speech.)
The one quote is from paragraph 22 of Gaudium et Spes: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
As always,
- check out our work, and join our email list, at https://ouroutpost.org/
- join our free resource library platform here
- catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/
- see what we have upcoming in terms of events here: https://ouroutpost.org/events/
- send us an email at [email protected]
- and please rate, review, and share!
- If you're a Catholic husband, feel free to sign up for some time to chat with Joseph! https://bookme.name/ouroutpost/45-minutes-with-joseph
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/a-word-from-our-outpost-with-joseph-and-crystal-gruber-540404/how-to-not-be-tiresome-and-know-nothing-with-jacob-gruber-episode-111-69658541"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to how to not be tiresome and know nothing, with jacob gruber // episode 111 on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy