"the other Oxford"

In a remark apparently to provoke (not me!), Grice referred to the Athens of Socrates (and Plato, and Aristotle) as 'the other Oxford'. I would agree, but find the three spaces -- Socrates-Plato-Aristotle -- and knowing Oxford well -- rather a stretch!

This vis a vis J:

"That's their [the philosophers'] ...predictament in a sense: neither scientists, nor hip-literatteurs (tho a few have been)

the philosopher's one of the
most anachronistic creatures

on the planet."

He is writing in 2010, so I presume he means 'anachronistic today'. Hence this review of 'the other Oxford' back in the day.

Socrates was possibly pretty confused. For one, he loved an agora, if not a 'category' (If words HAVE different senses, I would grant that to get the Aristotelian/Gricean meaning, 'category' out of 'agora' IS a stretch).

There is a play, "Footlose... and fancyfree". No, that's another. I mean, "Barefoot in Athens". It's about Socrates. When my mother once browsed an illustrated history of philosophy she said, "I wouldn't have thought that someone should dedicate so much of their time to someone who did look like a beggar. Plato, on the other hand, WAS an aristocrat".

So, Socrates perhaps didn't exist. Plato did. But he moved FROM "the Other Oxford" (Athens) soon enough -- to this lovely grove 'without a city wall' -- the Hekademia (M. Chase told me that the best spelling variant for Akademos is Hekademos in more archaic Greek).

Aristotle surely got his education there -- and for FREE! But trust capitalism to go its ways. Soon enough, he was opening a different 'academy' (Plato objected on patent grounds and Aristotle had to call his thing after a "wolf" in the area where he wandered up and down (peripatetic) -- the place was small.

This is the WRONG part of Athens.

------

Matter of fact, the best episode in Greek philosophy took place in the villa which received the freesh breezes from the Piraeus harbour. And this is the "Symposion".

So, people overrate, "Athenian" dialectic and the "other Oxford". No such thing!

Oxford bears NO comparisons!