Feb 26

News vs. Opinion

I promised on Tuesday to create a Google Form clear up the difference between news and opinion sources. The finished form has 11 examples; don’t get too bogged down in reading these. Read the headline and skim the article to figure out whether you’re looking at an opinion piece or a news analysis piece.

Socrates vs. Gorgias: Grudgematch

Read Gorgias, the philosophical dialogue where Plato puts his mentor Socrates in conversation with the famous sophist and rhetorician Gorgias. Look for this file among the readings posted on the Lecture class’s Blackboard site.

As you read, take note of how Socrates uses questions to challenge his interlocutor Gorgias. Does Socrates’ method fit the pattern described by Abram? (In preparation for this assignment, you may want to review David Abram’s account of the Socratic method, pp 109-113 in the file posted on the course’s Blackboard site.) Depending on your answer, do one of the following:

• If “Yes,” write a 2¶ sequence where the first ¶ presents a passage from Plato and the second ¶ dramatically introduces Abram to deepen our understanding of the Socratic method.
• If “No,” write a 2¶ sequence where the first ¶ presents Abram’s claim about the Socratic method and the second ¶ introduces an example from Plato’s Gorgias to challenge, refute or complicate our understanding of how Plato employs the Socratic method.

Paste your HW as a response under the appropriate header, below.