Plato

It would be fascinating to bring ancient thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Acquinas, and a few others into our present time and let them observe our modern culture. Plato would be a particularly fascinating interview. It would be a dialog, not a one way form of communication by any stretch. Although his views of government are utterly impractical, his Theory of the Forms is the base point of all Western Philosophy. It would be interesting to see his take on our modern culture and how many aspects of modern philosophy are really a reflection of his own thought, whether for or against. Either you love Plato or despise him, very little in between. The starting point of Plato's thought is "The Allegory of the Cave", Plato's famous analogy about hidden truths that are masked underneath the reality of our existence. It's really profound stuff. In the allegory, Plato imagines that human beings are chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, ... Read more

As an interview, Plato would be interesting. Attempting to have a 'dialogue' with him would be tough. But his ideas and contempt for actual democracy would wear thin. . .and we tend to overrate past intellectual greats on occasion- I know much more about the physical world and universe than Plato ever did. Still, as a giant of philosophy he can't merit lower than a 3.

Some questions about Atlantis.