“Phædrus knows the Professor of Philosophy now. But the Professor of Philosophy doesn't know Phædrus.”

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 29
Context: The Professor of Philosophy has made a mistake. He's wasted his disciplinary authority on an innocent student while Phædrus, the guilty one, the hostile one, is still at large. And getting larger and larger. Since he has asked no questions there is now no way to cut him down. And now that he sees how the questions will be answered he's certainly not about to ask them.
The innocent student stares down at the table, face red, hands shrouding his eyes. His shame becomes Phædrus' anger. In all his classes he never once talked to a student like that. So that's how they teach classics at the University of Chicago. Phædrus knows the Professor of Philosophy now. But the Professor of Philosophy doesn't know Phædrus.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Phædrus knows the Professor of Philosophy now. But the Professor of Philosophy doesn't know Phædrus." by Robert M. Pirsig?
Robert M. Pirsig photo
Robert M. Pirsig 164
American writer and philosopher 1928–2017

Related quotes

Henry David Thoreau photo
Robert M. Pirsig photo

“The Professor of Philosophy has made a mistake.”

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 29
Context: The Professor of Philosophy has made a mistake. He's wasted his disciplinary authority on an innocent student while Phædrus, the guilty one, the hostile one, is still at large. And getting larger and larger. Since he has asked no questions there is now no way to cut him down. And now that he sees how the questions will be answered he's certainly not about to ask them.
The innocent student stares down at the table, face red, hands shrouding his eyes. His shame becomes Phædrus' anger. In all his classes he never once talked to a student like that. So that's how they teach classics at the University of Chicago. Phædrus knows the Professor of Philosophy now. But the Professor of Philosophy doesn't know Phædrus.

Karl Jaspers photo

“My path was not the normal one of professors of philosophy.”

Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) German psychiatrist and philosopher

On My Philosopy (1941)
Context: My path was not the normal one of professors of philosophy. I did not intend to become a doctor of philosophy by studying philosophy (I am in fact a doctor of medicine) nor did I by any means, intend originally to qualify for a professorship by a dissertation on philosophy. To decide to become a philosopher seemed as foolish to me as to decide to become a poet. Since my schooldays, however, I was guided by philosophical questions. Philosophy seemed to me the supreme, even the sole, concern of man. Yet a certain awe kept me from making it my profession.

Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“For the purpose of acquiring gain, everything else is pushed aside or thrown overboard, for example, as is philosophy by the professors of philosophy.”

E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 347
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

Robert M. Pirsig photo
Pierre Hadot photo
Robert M. Pirsig photo

“What Phædrus has been talking about as Quality, Socrates appears to have described as the soul, self-moving, the source of all things. There is no contradiction. There never really can be between the core terms of monistic philosophies. The One in India has got to be the same as the One in Greece. If it's not, you've got two.”

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 30
Context: It is an immortal dialogue, strange and puzzling at first, but then hitting you harder and harder, like truth itself. What Phædrus has been talking about as Quality, Socrates appears to have described as the soul, self-moving, the source of all things. There is no contradiction. There never really can be between the core terms of monistic philosophies. The One in India has got to be the same as the One in Greece. If it's not, you've got two. The only disagreements among the monists concern the attributes of the One, not the One itself. Since the One is the source of all things and includes all things in it, it cannot be defined in terms of those things, since no matter what thing you use to define it, the thing will always describe something less than the One itself. The One can only be described allegorically, through the use of analogy, of figures of imagination and speech. Socrates chooses a heaven-and-earth analogy, showing how individuals are drawn toward the One by a chariot drawn by two horses.

Felix Frankfurter photo

“I know of no title that I deem more honorable than that of Professor of the Harvard Law School.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

Of Law and Life and Other Things: Papers and Address of Felix Frankfurter (1965).
Other writings

Simone Weil photo

“Culture is an instrument wielded by professors to manufacture professors, who, when their turn comes, will manufacture professors.”

HTTP://BOOKS. GOOGLE. COM/books? id=zacmeILjLvIC&q=%22culture+as+we+know+it+is+an+instrument+manipulated+by+teachers+for+manufacturing+more+teachers+who+in+their+turn+will+manufacture+still+more+teachers%22&pg=PA65#v=onepage
La culture est un instrument manié par des professeurs pour fabriquer des professeurs qui à leur tour fabriqueront des professeurs.
http://books.google.com/books?id=33rE96fD8h8C&q=%22La+culture+est+un+instrument+mani%C3%A9+par+des+professeurs+pour+fabriquer+des+professeurs+qui+%C3%A0+leur+tour+fabriqueront+des+professeurs%22&pg=PA65#v=onepage
The Need for Roots, part 2: Uprootedness, chapter 1: Uprootedness in the Towns (1949)

Related topics