@Joe,
Quote:The written word can indeed be revisited but what guarantees us a better understanding if the author is not around to give us an explanation?
Much the same could be said if, after a conversation or dialogue, or even a philosophy class--- perhaps several days later or perhaps several years later--- one has a need to further question what was said, and the participants are not available or have completely "forgotten" the occasion of the thinking.
Quote:When I'm tired I lay the book aside, but it's more difficult to dispose of a living person.
But it seems that when I awake refreshed, the book is still there and I have not slept though half the conversation, or the person has gone home to bed himself.
Quote:The oral conversation is open any minute, we not only receive the content but we create it too.
Granted, but is this
never the case when we read a book, at least the part of helping to create the content by interpretation? While perhaps less common than in discussion, do we not sometimes find ourselves having a dialogue, as it were, with what we are actively (as opposed to passively) reading? We scribble comments or questions, for example, on the margins, or insert bits of paper with reflections or counter examples or references to other sections,
etc.. In some instances, this active participating seems something less than active discourse, but something more than a lofty analogy.