Philosophy

She Who Would Make a Pun…

In the Quora fora

I’m a member of Quora, the “answer any question” site. It’s one of the channels we use at ILLUMINATION to boost visibility for writer posts but it’s also a lot of fun and one can make money by providing solid questions and answers. Um, not that any has flown my way, but it’s a theoretical concept.

I’ve long been interested in philosophy, so I joined the “Agora” group, to discuss some of the topics that press my arcane buttons.

The Agora was the marketplace and centre of business in the cities of Ancient Greece. A place where people might engage in stand-up rhetoric, sophistry, or philosophy. In modern Athens, the old Agora remains; in ruins mostly, but still a place where the past lives and Socrates died.

There is a sweetly proportioned temple there, almost intact after thousands of years, a small echo of the much grander Parthenon on the Acropolis above.

A reconstructed market and colonnade — a welcome relief from the August sun when I was there a few years ago after having my brain fried during a week of discussing The Sophist in Delphi — that now houses a museum, gift shoppe, and cafe.

And the rest is ruins but still a grand place to ponder and wonder.

Anyway, I saw a question in the forum this morning:

How could we put a rocket on a plane to make it fly faster?

Various members answered the question, with photographs of sleek-looking rocketplanes and self-assured geekery, but frankly, I was offended. Just what sort of philosophical question was this? How low could lofty discourse go?

So I answered the question:

Thank you for reading, pardon me if I reach into your pocket for the half-cent that Medium gives me for your time.

Britni