A Tribute
This is a tribute to one of my professors. He's an old Greek, and he still retains the ensanguinated fire characteristic of his fellow Greeks. He has taught all over the country. He studied under Willard V. O. Quine among others at Harvard. It took a degree of self-control to keep my jaw unslacked when I put two and two together and realized who this illustrious Willard he was talking about was. I once asked him about the translator of my edition of Plato's Theaetetus, wondering how well this particular translator grappled both with the Greek and the ideas communicated therein. Dr. Diamondopoulos, Dr. D to us, his students, responded that he was "a very intelligent man, but very brooding, cynical. He died, a tragedy." I found it so much cooler to hear about the man himself rather than Dr. D's opinion of the translation that I didn't inquire further; if it had been a bad translation, Dr. D would have said so; he housed a particular animosity for the "clever" but ultimately vapid intellectuals who plague the humanities.
I'm writing a tribute not to be overdramatic, but because he is retiring this semester. PH 480 Topics in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy will be his last class. Just 7 of us sitting around a table in a small brownstone on Comm Ave, listening to that "damned radiator" and the sounds of self-important but ultimately ephemeral and unexamined lives rushing by outside. He has been teaching for 55 years. His very career exemplifies the process-oriented nature of the philosophical enterprise he is so fond of discussing. All of his beautiful, mahogany book shelves are empty, his endless stacks of books being on a ship to Athens, place of his birth and of his retirement. This humble list of quotations is for him:
The first day of classes he asked me why my name wasn't on the registered students list. I told him the University had imposed an upper limit on the number of credits I was allowed to take. His response was unforgettable:
But first, my collage:
"The central question of this course is: Is philosophy possible? Practically? Conceptually?"
"For next week just prepare for me a presentation... tell me what is outrageous about this dialogue, tell me where it stops for you, tell me what enrages you."
"Plato, try as he might, and he tried for nearly his entire life, could not escape the Socratic uncertainty."
"Aristotle had no problem with Socratic uncertainty. 'You want ethics?' he asks, 'Here. I have a book called Ethics. Want Politics? I have that, too. Look, I have a book for everything.'"
"Does Plato give up with these three late dialogues [Theaetetus, Sophist, and Parmenides]? The first is concerned with what knowledge is, and yet the illustrious Forms are nowhere to be found. Where did they go? Plato was so confident when he was young. The same way the young Socrates [as a mouthpiece for Plato] is brash and bold in front of Parmenides and his henchman Zeno. After these three Plato writes the Laws; is this his resignation? That dialogue could hardly be called philosophy. It couldn't really be called a dialogue at all!"
"Plato seems to have meant to write a third dialogue in a trilogy [Sophist, Statesman, and Philosopher]. He wrote the first two, we have no record of the third. Did old age get him? I know something about doing philosophy at 70, it's entirely possible that it did get him. Personally, I think he tried. I think he tried and then realized it was impossible."
"These three dialogues epitomize what it is to fail. They all admit their failures."
"All that matters in philosophy is that we keep doing philosophy."
"Philosophy is the risk you take in order to attain clarity and soundness of mind."
"Criticizing your own ideas is the best way to advance your thoughts. That is what this course is about."
(This is one of my favorites, though you kinda had to be there):
(In dialogue with himself) "'No! Knowledge is not perception.'
Well, calm down, you don't have to yell.
'Okay: Knowledge is not perception.'"
"Philosophy is torture. It's tormenting. It's humiliating. It's also sobering. We're alone, with our thoughts. And don't blame anyone else. And don't appeal to anything else. Knowledge is independent of authority."
"Philosophy is trying to understand. Everything else is B.S."
"Cleverness is not intelligence."
"All philosophy is poetry. I think Plato was so critical of poetry because he was afraid of the competition."
"Either-Or is sterility."
"Philosophy is about philo, not sophos."
"Learning from your critics is the essence of philosophy."
"Most people get embarrassed when they are invited to think. Especially in a philosophical discussion when nothing practical is at stake."
"The Sophists are philosophically problematic, but join the club. We all are, Plato seems to be saying."
"How we choose to talk speaks volumes about what we can say."
"The secret of Plato's entire oeuvre is: [lean in, a deep whisper] We do not know what we are talking about."
"People ask me, 'Oh, Dr. D, why don't you write that down?' I don't: I quit. I'm tired. I'm free: I don't write anything anymore."
The first day of classes he asked me why my name wasn't on the registered students list. I told him the University had imposed an upper limit on the number of credits I was allowed to take. His response was unforgettable:
"Forget them and their rules. We are a conspiracy here. We are a conspiracy to do exciting things for our souls."
-Dr. Peter Diamondopoulos, not so much in memoriam; one of the perks of philosophy is that you get to live forever, just ask Socrates. Good luck Dr. D.
"When I was your age I was just arriving in New York from Athens. I paid $25 to call my parents to tell them I arrived okay. In 1954 that was a lot of money... Anyway, David, now is the best time to do daring things. You are young: Live."
-David Edmon
I'm writing a tribute not to be overdramatic, but because he is retiring this semester. PH 480 Topics in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy will be his last class. Just 7 of us sitting around a table in a small brownstone on Comm Ave, listening to that "damned radiator" and the sounds of self-important but ultimately ephemeral and unexamined lives rushing by outside. He has been teaching for 55 years. His very career exemplifies the process-oriented nature of the philosophical enterprise he is so fond of discussing. All of his beautiful, mahogany book shelves are empty, his endless stacks of books being on a ship to Athens, place of his birth and of his retirement. This humble list of quotations is for him:
The first day of classes he asked me why my name wasn't on the registered students list. I told him the University had imposed an upper limit on the number of credits I was allowed to take. His response was unforgettable:
But first, my collage:
"The central question of this course is: Is philosophy possible? Practically? Conceptually?"
"For next week just prepare for me a presentation... tell me what is outrageous about this dialogue, tell me where it stops for you, tell me what enrages you."
"Plato, try as he might, and he tried for nearly his entire life, could not escape the Socratic uncertainty."
"Aristotle had no problem with Socratic uncertainty. 'You want ethics?' he asks, 'Here. I have a book called Ethics. Want Politics? I have that, too. Look, I have a book for everything.'"
"Does Plato give up with these three late dialogues [Theaetetus, Sophist, and Parmenides]? The first is concerned with what knowledge is, and yet the illustrious Forms are nowhere to be found. Where did they go? Plato was so confident when he was young. The same way the young Socrates [as a mouthpiece for Plato] is brash and bold in front of Parmenides and his henchman Zeno. After these three Plato writes the Laws; is this his resignation? That dialogue could hardly be called philosophy. It couldn't really be called a dialogue at all!"
"Plato seems to have meant to write a third dialogue in a trilogy [Sophist, Statesman, and Philosopher]. He wrote the first two, we have no record of the third. Did old age get him? I know something about doing philosophy at 70, it's entirely possible that it did get him. Personally, I think he tried. I think he tried and then realized it was impossible."
"These three dialogues epitomize what it is to fail. They all admit their failures."
"All that matters in philosophy is that we keep doing philosophy."
"Philosophy is the risk you take in order to attain clarity and soundness of mind."
"Criticizing your own ideas is the best way to advance your thoughts. That is what this course is about."
(This is one of my favorites, though you kinda had to be there):
(In dialogue with himself) "'No! Knowledge is not perception.'
Well, calm down, you don't have to yell.
'Okay: Knowledge is not perception.'"
"Philosophy is torture. It's tormenting. It's humiliating. It's also sobering. We're alone, with our thoughts. And don't blame anyone else. And don't appeal to anything else. Knowledge is independent of authority."
"Philosophy is trying to understand. Everything else is B.S."
"Cleverness is not intelligence."
"All philosophy is poetry. I think Plato was so critical of poetry because he was afraid of the competition."
"Either-Or is sterility."
"Philosophy is about philo, not sophos."
"Learning from your critics is the essence of philosophy."
"Most people get embarrassed when they are invited to think. Especially in a philosophical discussion when nothing practical is at stake."
"The Sophists are philosophically problematic, but join the club. We all are, Plato seems to be saying."
"How we choose to talk speaks volumes about what we can say."
"The secret of Plato's entire oeuvre is: [lean in, a deep whisper] We do not know what we are talking about."
"People ask me, 'Oh, Dr. D, why don't you write that down?' I don't: I quit. I'm tired. I'm free: I don't write anything anymore."
The first day of classes he asked me why my name wasn't on the registered students list. I told him the University had imposed an upper limit on the number of credits I was allowed to take. His response was unforgettable:
"Forget them and their rules. We are a conspiracy here. We are a conspiracy to do exciting things for our souls."
-Dr. Peter Diamondopoulos, not so much in memoriam; one of the perks of philosophy is that you get to live forever, just ask Socrates. Good luck Dr. D.
"When I was your age I was just arriving in New York from Athens. I paid $25 to call my parents to tell them I arrived okay. In 1954 that was a lot of money... Anyway, David, now is the best time to do daring things. You are young: Live."
-David Edmon