Classical art and discourse takes place in a network of symbols & ideas nearly completely lost to us. In art created less than 400 years ago, I'd say less than 5% of the content is accessible to your average university-educated person. Imagine in the case of archaic Greece.
-
Right, I thought you were saying someone could learn it through correspondence with someone learned. You mean they are going to have to dig through contemporary works themselves
Yes, if someone wanted a deep understanding, say, of the late 17th/early 18th century, they'd need to read a lot of memoirs and correspondence; and thence, tackle the literary works for a better understanding. Direct work with literary works produces A LOT of misreadings.
-
-
This means there are serious shortcomings to just picking up Plato or Aquinas and having a go at it?
-
Such material is simply not accessible for an author like Plato; you can read and study all that was written before him in philosophy in less than a year. I'm not too familiar with Aquinas' time, so I can't really say.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.