Two of Greece's Greats: Plato and Hippocrates

Hippocrates: the father of modern medicine

Today we talked about two great thinkers of Greece's classical age: Plato and Hippocrates.

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Plato believed that people should pose the most difficult questions to philosophers, who have the time, the education, and the intelligence to think about complex questions and come up with the best answers.

Plato thought that using philosophers to answer life's tricky questions (rather than using democracy, in which everyone's opinion counts) would lead to better rules and a more peaceful, prosperous society.

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Our country is currently struggling with various questions about Ebola, including how the government should treat the doctors and nurses who have treated Ebola patients (in Africa) and have now returned to the United States.

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Some people believe that it's fair for the doctors and nurses to be required to live in isolation for 21 days, to ensure that they do not become ill with Ebola and possibly infect other Americans.

Other people believe that it's unfair to make the doctors and nurses live in isolation for 21 days, especially if they have not shown any symptoms of Ebola. Ellie and Julia made a spirited argument during class today that requiring doctors and nurses to live in isolation might prevent other doctors and nurses from trying to fight Ebola in the first place.

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We decided that, in this current-day situation, Plato would recommend having philosophers study all of the facts about (1) Ebola and (2) the people who would be (or could be) affected by the government's decision.

Then, after thinking over the issues carefully, the philosophers would determine the correct rules about whether doctors and nurses should or should not be isolated.

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Musical Mondays: We listened to pop music today: "Home" (by Phillip Phillips) during Core 1 and 2, and "Ho Hey" (by The Lumineers) during Core 3 and 4.

Pallavi asked a great question about instrumentation: Is the female singer in The Lumineers playing a banjolele?

Until Pallavi told us about banjoleles during class today, I never knew there was such an instrument. 

Thanks so much, Pallavi, for this musical education!