Reference no: EM133262524
Question: The dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon in Book X of The Republic features an unsettling number of beds. Plato writes:
Well, then, it turns out there are three kinds of beds. One exists in nature. I suppose we would say god created it. Who else could?
No one else, I should think.
And then the bed the carpenter made.
Yes.
And the one made by the painter. Right?
All right.
So we have the painter, the carpenter, and god. These three produce three kinds of beds.
Three. Right.
God, then, whether he willed it or because he felt some constraint not to make more than one bed, did in fact make only one bed, the real bed. Never were two or more beds made by god, nor would they ever be.
Why not?
I shall explain. Even if he had made only two beds, a third would unavoidably appear. That would be the real bed, of which the other two would only be copies. (79-80)
Socrates's conclusion is stunning, and the writers we studied during week one-Saussure and Derrida and Bakhtin-spent their careers responding to it.
what differentiates each of these three beds: How is God's bed unlike a painter's bed and unlike a joiner's? What should be offer to both Saussure's and Derrida's response to Socrates's argument