For the seventh time in seven years, I am spending Labor Day journeying from one impossible city to another, from Black Rock City—the desert site of Burning Man—to Plato’s Republic, the first topic of my Introduction to Philosophy class. As usual, I find myself in something of a daze as I stare out the plane window, not merely from having lost myself to the desert sun and its devotees, but from the sheer intellectual distance I will traverse in a matter of hours.