The Republic

Should I Use Notebooks More Often? (Cal’s Strategy) | Monday Advice

Deep Questions with Cal Newport, 13 July 2026. The book comes up at 56 min 2 sec in.

Mentioned within Cal Newport's discussion of Ong's Orality and Literacy. Newport relays Ong's argument that Plato's Republic—with its championing of philosophers over poets—implicitly endorses literate, systematic thought, ironically contradicting the scepticism about writing expressed in Plato's other dialogue. Plato didn't recognise that writing had made his own philosophical thinking possible.

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