I need a SPA day

Today in class, we began our study of Greek philosophy with a quick coverage of our philosopher trio extraordinaire, otherwise known as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Class doesn't allow us time to give these three men the justice they deserve, but if you really love philosophy after the next three days, consider taking a class in college!

Just a couple of important points about each of these three gentlemen...

• Socrates: Most of what we know about Socrates is from his followers, especially Plato, but he is one of the most important Western philosophers of all time. He's especially known for his "Socratic method", where he would walk around the agora (or marketplace) and ask deep questions of those who would speak to him. Sounds like my kind of guy. Socrates stressed  the importance of reflecting on what we believe; in fact, he's famously quoted as saying "the unexamined life is not worth living". 
• Plato: Plato, who you should be familiar with now after reading "The Allegory of the Cave", gives us many famous works that have forever influenced Western philosophy. The Republic is where we pull "The Allegory" from and details Plato's concept of a philosopher-king, which will give us true and just government. He also explains with the Theory of Forms, which we will dive into tomorrow as we discuss "The Allegory" in depth. 
• Aristotle: The last of our philosophers, born fifteen years after Socrates died, broke from the dualism of Socrates and Plato's theory of forms. Aristotle is deemed the father of logic and stressed what we know as the scientific method. He was BIG into reason and is actually sometimes dubbed "The Philosopher" because of his immense influence. 

Tomorrow your religions chart is due, so make sure to wrap that up tonight...hopefully you don't have too much more to go!

Today, I send you off with some fall music. Here are two songs that I love immensely and that I associate with curling up in a nice cozy sweater with a piping cup of coffee (and yes, I'm aware how much of a stereotype I sound like right now. Also, sorry Mr. Stanton for stealing your music theme).

Sad but true.

This is Bon Iver's "8 (circle)" off his newest album that was just released in September. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver writes lyrics that are incredibly complex, so if the words to this song are confusing, it's A-okay! The melody makes me think of autumn.

Song number two comes from the duo Hamilton Leithauser+Rostam, which combines two members of  middle-school Virdin's favorite bands, Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen and Rostam Batmanglij (try saying that name three times fast) of Vampire Weekend. 

Now let their melodies carry you into your "soothing" studying for Tuesday! Have an AWESOME day.