“In Florence, in the bell
tower of the cathedral,
there are seven wonderful
images made in the Middle
Ages by Luca della Robbia.
One of them shows an old,
bearded Plato face-toface
in argument with a
beardless young Aristotle. I
mean, they are really going
at it, they are so close that
their feet are touching.
Aristotle is pointing at a
book, as if to say, ‘What
the hell are all these errors
and contradictions in your
writings, old man?’ And
Plato is pointing to the
sky, and yelling right back
at him, ‘Forget the damn
text, man, think about the
big picture, think about the
big questions!’ I love that
image, it’s all about passionate
argument. And it
sums up for me what I love
about teaching at Chicago
— passionate argument.”
Herman Sinaiko
