Philosophy Test 2

Plato's Early Metaphysics and Epistemology are demonstrated in which text?

"Phaedo"

Whose objection? The soul wears the body like a man wears a cloak. The man outlives many cloaks, but eventually dies in his last cloak.

Cebes

Immoralist Challenge Thrasymachus: Justice is the strong getting what they want and the weak suffering what they must Contractarian Challenge Justice is not an objective and independent phenomenon. Justice is the self-interested compromise between the best and the worst Egoist Challenge Ring of Gyges Comparison of perfect virtue and vice

Challenges of "The Republic"

Conclusion? Corruption of the Youth I in Plato's "Apology" II. 1. Bad people hurt those around them 2. Those who hurt others risk the same in return 3. Socrates knows this and so wouldn't risk being hurt in return

Conclusion: Behavior is either (a) unintentional harm or (b) not harmful Addition: None of the harmed youth have complained Analysis: weak argument?; larger point of epistemological ethics (impossible to knowingly do wrong)

individuals only act on the basis of what benefits and pleases them; agree to forgo violence, theft, etc. only out of self-interest If they didn't need to fear the injustice of others, each would become completely unjust

Egoism

From what text? "And how are you going to inquire about it, Socrates, when you do not at all know what it is? For what sort of thing, from among the ones you do not know, will you take as the object of your inquiry? And even if you do happen to bump right into it, how are you going to know that it is the thing you did not know?" (80d5)

Meno's paradox

Justice is whatever those with power say it is, which will always be whatever is most beneficial to them (that's why they're powerful) Power/strength is the real standard of value; "justice" is mere manipulation of confused moral beliefs by those capable of doing so

Might Makes Right

Ignorance of whom? Oracle at Delphi tells Chaerephon that Socrates is the wisest human Socrates incredulous- knows he knows nothing Questions the wise: politicians, poets, craftsmen All mistake some particular skill (techné) for wisdom. Socrates IS wisest, by having the wisdom to realize how unwise he is Wisdom = self-critical understanding of moral and epistemic limitations

Socrates in Plato's text "Apology?

Eternal Recollection: (a) the soul has always existed, (b) at some point it knew all things, and (c) "learning" is really recollection of what was already known

Socrates' Answer

Group drawn to democratic cities; paid by ambitious to teach rhetoric (art of persuasion) which is essential to power in a democratic society.

Sophists

arete

Sophists teach virtue [arete] as persuasion and the ability to get what you want, convince others you're virtuous

Defining a principle: 1st Formulation: different for each social role Problem: Meno can give many particulars, but Socrates wants a definition that explains the particulars without circularity Notice how difficult "What is F?" can be to answer for any abstract F

What is Virtue I? Plato's "Meno"

Defining a principle: 2nd Formulation: ability to rule others Problems of social roles and circularity Social roles: women must rule men? slave must rule master? Circularity: must be ruling others justly to be just, but this is circular Example: Definition of shape

What is virtue II?

Defining a principle: 3rd Formulation: enjoying beautiful things and having the power to possess them Problem: eudaimonism: all people desire what they believe to be good Circularity: beautiful things require virtue to be good, so must use power virtuously; vicious circle again

What is virtue III?

Virtue in moral exemplars was only divinely inspired true belief Goodness and godliness unified So why try for knowledge? "'He alone is wise, the others flit around as shadows.' In the same way here, such a man would be like a truly real thing in comparison to shadows as regards virtue." (100a6)

What is virtue?

Reason and Soul

the lion tamer

Charges of Plato's text: "Socrates commits injustice and is a busybody, in that he investigates the things beneath the earth and in the heavens, makes the weaker argument the stronger, and teaches these things to others." (19b)

unofficial charges from Plato's text "Apology"

From which Plato text? "I reproach myself for not knowing anything whatever about virtue. But if I do not know what it is, how could I know what sort of thing it is? Or do you think it is possible for someone, who does not know at all who Meno is, to know whether Meno is beautiful or rich or in fact of noble birth, or the opposites of these? Do you think that is possible?" (71b1)

Can virtue be taught/learned? from Plato's "Meno"

1. Someone who knows, knows something (what is) and not nothing (what is not) 2. Knowledge deals with what is, ignorance deals with what is not 3. Since what is completely is, knowledge of it would be infallible 4. If something dealt with what both is and is not, then it would be between knowledge (infallibility) and ignorance 5. Powers of the soul are things which are only knowable by what they deal with- their objects 6. Belief is the power of the soul which deals with particulars and a particular both is and is not 7. What completely and absolutely is are Forms and what both is and is not is perceptibles (479a-c) 8. The objects of knowledge are Forms, the objects of belief are perceptibles 9. Since knowledge and belief exist, what they deal with must exist Forms exist

Argument from Being and Knowledge

"That seemed to me much like saying that Socrates' actions are all due to his mind, and then in trying to tell the causes of everything I do, to say that the reason that I am sitting here is because my body consists of bones and sinews... I think these bones and sinews could have long ago been in Magera... taken there by my belief as to the best course, if I had not thought it more right and honorable to endure... Imagine not being able to distinguish the real cause from that without which the cause would not be able to act as a cause." 98c-99b

Argument from Free Will

1. Equality is said of many things and is a substantive claim 2. Judgments of equality are independent of context and perspective- things are judged Equal 3. Yet, our judgments of equality are always off- imperfect and dependent on context and perspective 4. So, Equality itself must be distinct and separate from particular judgments of equality, since we can see the particulars are deficient 5. So, since the particular judgments are found in experience, Equality itself could not come from experience Thus, our soul must have existed before we were born so that we possess knowledge of Equality itself before we were born

Argument of Forms

Whose version of Socrates? Sophist and natural philosopher rolled into one. Exactly the kind of Socrates Athens would execute

Aristophanes's Socrates in The Clouds

Wisdom - reason is in charge (discerns virtues, the Good); spirit and desire are structured by it Courage - spirit is guided by reason to recognize when it's best to fight Temperance - appetites are under the control of reason (discerns moderation) and spirit (shame in immoderation) Justice- harmony between the parts of the soul under the (wise) determination by reason, the (courageous) force of spirit, and the (temperate) urgings of desire

Cardinal virtues

Sophists location?

Athens

"Consider then, he said, whether you share my opinion as to what follows, for I think that, if there is anything beautiful besides the Beautiful Itself, it is beautiful for no other reason than that it shares in that Beautiful, and I say so with everything." 100c

Beautiful Itself Fulfills Unity and Possession Assumption

The Form of F must exist separately from many F's, otherwise there is no one thing which is perfectly F and explains all the particulars. But, how do Forms relate to themselves and particulars if they are completely distinct and self-predicating?

Big Problem: Contradiction of Unity and Self-Predication

Conclusion of "What is piety? III" P1: 3rd formulation: What is pious is that part of justice which is concerned with tending to the gods P2: Tending things is a skill/practice which aims at the good/benefit of the gods P3: Piety aims at the good/benefit of the gods P4: But nothing we do can benefit the gods P5: Tending must be as slave to master- providing a service P6: The service of the gods is to please them by giving them what is loved

Conclusion: But then what is loved is loved because it's pious, piety still has not been explained

Conclusion of "What is piety? I" P1: First formulation: What is pious is what is loved by the gods. Pious is that which is god-loved P2: Gods quarrel and fight P3: Some gods find some things just, others find those things unjust P4: The same thing would be both hated and loved, be both god-hated and god-loved

Conclusion: First formulation is faulty in leading to contradiction

Conclusion of "What is piety? II" P1: Second formulation: What all the gods love is pious P2: The pious is either: (a) pious because it's loved or (b) loved because it's pious P3: Loved-thing is such because it's loved (like a changed-thing is such because it's changed) P4: But love is an attitude, it depends upon some property the loved-thing possess which inspires love P5: Piety gives the gods a reason to love that which is loved

Conclusion: Piety is independent, saying the gods love it does not define or explain it

Conclusion of self-predication response to Cebes? P1: The F itself is an F maker P2: What is an F-maker is itself F P3: The soul is a maker of life in the body P4: The soul must have life and it must exclude its entailed opposite (death)

Conclusion: The soul has eternal life. Just as 6 excludes odd because 6 entails even, soul excludes death because soul entails life

Conclusion? Corruption of the Youth I in Plato's "Apology" 1. Who improves the youth? How do they learn virtue? 2. Everyone but Socrates 3. But in every other case of a thing's improvement isn't an expert needed?

Conclusion: most people make the youth worse, only a few make them better (Questions: Is Socrates talking about himself? Who are these experts? What sort of improvement is Socrates talking about?)

Evidence for parts of the soul: inner conflict and purely ruled character types Conflict: a single thing cannot have opposing attitudes about the same thing at the same time in the same respect. So, there must be opposing aspects of a single person E.g. Struggling alcoholic, Leonitus ogling corpses, Madea killing Jason's children Akrasia: weakness of will Reason makes a calculation and sees what is best, but is overruled by an inferior part

Conflict and Akrasia

social compromise between each of doing what's best and what's worst for each I.e. doing whatever you want to others and others doing whatever they want to you

Contractarian Justice

Divine influence guides Socrates "A sort of voice" which guides Socrates's decisions, holds him back from immorality Explanation of positive moral assertions: divine guidance, not personal wisdom Convictions from dialectically durable hypotheses

Daimonic Sign

From what and whose text? Rhetorical strategy- claim simple and straightforward approach Misperception will convict Socrates Original charge: Socrates is a natural philosopher and sophist (Aristophanes) Never charged fees Never heard discussing metaphysics

Defense Against Slander (Original Charges) in Plato's text "Apology"

Like the dissolution of the city into many warring factions, the psychological battle between parts of the soul is the dissolution of the individual So, the virtues are interrelated and justice of the soul is the unification of the person into a whole Alternately, vice (esp. injustice) is the dissolution of any identifiable, whole, single person for whom anything is good Thus, since the benefit of any good is contingent on their soul's justice, it's always better to be just than unjust

Dissolution by Disorder

No one knowingly does what is bad, chooses the worse over the better Poor choices are a product of ignorance, since people are motivated by pleasure/goodness (we get an explicit argument for this in the Meno) Implication: correction, not punishment Only punish intentional wrong Intention implies knowledge Wrong-doers never intend to do bad as such.

Epistemological ethics

1. All things come to be from their opposites and by opposing processes (70e-72a) 2. Without symmetry between alive and dead, dying and living, everything would eventually be dead (72b-e) 3. Recollection requires eternal soul (73a-76b)

Eternal Life: Three Initial Arguments

Principle: Since virtue is purely good and beneficial and all other goods require wisdom to be beneficial, virtue must be wisdom (virtue can be learned) No one is good by nature- no ethical prodigies Clear difference between mathematical and ethical knowledge- the impossibility of childhood mastery But, there are no teachers of virtue (too much confusion and disagreement, virtue cannot be learned) Paradox: knowledge of virtue can and cannot be learned

Ethics

Beauty-itself, Equal-itself, Tallness-itself, Pious-itself, etc. "Eidos" or Idea, but Forms are not ideas in the mind. Forms are ideas in the sense of immaterial ideals and are fully mind-independent Non-relative, knowable by reason, distinct, non-spatial, eternal

Forms (I)

75b: Forms are unqualifiedly what their instances are only with qualification 78c-80b: Forms are unchangeable, eternal, intelligible rather than perceptible, divine, incorporeal, uniform, indissoluble, always the same as themselves 100c: Forms are the causes of particular beings

Forms (II)

What do the Forms have in common? Why are the Forms all beautiful? Why is knowledge unqualifiedly good? What give us access to the Forms? Socrates: "You see, you have often heard it said that the form of the good is the most important thing to learn about, and that it is by their relation to it that just things and the others become useful and beneficial. And now you must be pretty certain that that is what I am going to say, and, in addition, that we have no adequate knowledge of it." (504e-505a) Socrates: "...let's set aside what the good itself is for the time being. You see even to arrive at my current beliefs about it seems beyond the range of our present discussion. But I am willing to tell you about what seems to be an offspring of the good and most like it, if that is agreeable to you; or otherwise to let the matter drop." (506d-e)

Forms are Unified

Who says What is F?, Interlocutor says F is X Proposal leads to contradiction Philosophy is personal: method is designed to bring interlocutor to see their own ignorance Whose Irony: constantly riddles and mocks as he leads his partners into traps Ethics: immorality is ignorance

Socrates

To show that justice is always preferable to injustice (never benefited by injustice) Compare perfectly just and perfectly unjust Swap all of the just person's benefits and honors with all of the unjust person's harms and spite Perfect justice: publicly known for complete injustice- hated, tortured, killed- but always completely just Perfect injustice: publicly known for complete justice- loved, trusted, honored- but always completely unjust

Glaucon's Challenge: Perfect Justice and Perfect Injustice

Most famous Sophists?

Gorgias and Antiphon

Philosophical influence (I) of Plato? all is changing; opposites like existence and nonexistence can inhere in the same object; knowledge is problematic because of the material world's impermanent and paradoxical nature

Heraclitus

Consider the myth of Gyges and his magic ring Power to do anything he likes and get away with it inevitably corrupts Gyges and leads him to behave unjustly But this is true of the most virtuous and just and most vicious and unjust: the actions of each would become unrecognizable Strength to do whatever you want without fear of reprisal or dependence on the cooperation of others = God among men No need for the social contract and its standards of justice

Human Nature and the Ring of Gyges

The strong/rulers are to the weak as the shepherd is to his flock. It is in one sense the health of her sheep that the shepherd aims, but only to fatten them up for slaughter So, it is for the sake of the craftsperson that they engage in the craft, though the craft aims at the benefit of its subject

Immoralist Rejoinder

"Every pleasure or pain provides, as it were, another nail to rivet the soul to the body and to weld them together. It makes the soul corporeal, so that it believes that truth is what the body says it is. As it shares the beliefs and delights of the body, I think it inevitably comes to share its ways and manner of life and is unable ever to reach Hades in a pure state..." 83d

Impurity

"And what about these, Socrates? Things that might seem absurd, like hair and mud and dirt, or anything else totally undignified and worthless? Are you doubtful whether or not you should say that a form is separate for each of these, too, which in turn is other than anything we touch with our hands?" (130c-d) What gets a Form? Are all distinctions based on distinct Forms? Do manmade things have forms? Do all things which will be invented have their own Form already and does each type have its own distinct Form?

Initial Problem: Criteria for Forms

Debate: Knowledge is beneficial, but no more so than true beliefs Correct guidance is equally beneficial whether the guide has true belief or knowledge Knowledge: justified true belief (JTB) Why is knowledge more valuable? Statues of Daedelus

Knowledge vs. True Belief

How long will the side of the square be which has twice the area? Socrates asks leading questions, but in no way tells the slave the answers

Learning Truth's Already Known

Soul must exist after death so that it can come back to life, opposite from opposite Attributes of soul prove it is distinct and separate from the world, like the Forms: Body is composite, soul is non-composite Body is alterable, soul is unalterable Body is visible, soul is invisible

Life after Death

From which text? "Do you remember, then, that what I urged you to do wasn't to teach me about one or two of the many pieties, but rather about the form itself, by virtue of which all the pieties are pious? You see, you said, I believe, that it was by virtue of one characteristic that the impieties are impious, and the pieties pious. Or don't you remember?"

Many and One in "Euthyphro"

From which text? S: "I seem to be enjoying a great stroke of good luck indeed, Meno, if, while inquiring about one virtue, I have turned up something like a swarm of virtues in your possession. But, Meno, keeping to this image of swarms, suppose I asked you about being a bee, what a bee is, and you said that bees are many and multifarious. What would you reply if I asked you: 'Do you mean they are many and multifarious and different from one another in this - in each being bees? Or do they not differ at all in that, but in some other way - for example, in beauty or size or some other such way?' Tell me, how would you answer if questioned like that?" E: "This is what I'd say: they do not differ at all one from another in being bees." S: "So if I went on and said: 'Then tell me about that thing itself, Meno - that in which they do not differ, but are all the same. What do you say it is?' No doubt you would have an answer to give me." E: "I would."

Many and One in "Meno"

Philosophical influence (I) of Plato? nothing is changing; everything must already exist; there are no opposites; knowledge is problematic because of the systematic deception of experience

Parmenides

What parts does a city need to possess to perform its function? Civic Parts 1. Workers and merchants produce food, tools, etc. for the city 2. Soldiers defend the city and capture new lands 3. Rulers guide and govern the city Knife analogy: What parts does a knife need? Blade, handle, etc

Parts of the City

Reason: reasons and calculates; marked my love of truth; ideal is wisdom Spirit: feels anger, pride, shame, etc.; marked by love of esteem; ideal is honor Appetite: desires food, drink, sex, etc.; marked by love of bodily pleasure; ideal is satisfaction Note: Not tracking the division of beliefs, emotions, and desires. Each part contains all of these phenomenon in their own way

Parts of the Soul

None of these triangles are perfect. None actually capture the relationship a²+b²=c² So how do we know it? We come to grasp ideal geometrical existence with our Soul/Mind

Perceptible, imperfect particulars give way to knowledge of intelligible perfect universals

57a-61b Setting the scene of Socrates' last day 61b-69e Philosophy is described as being a willing preparation for death 70a-84b Initial arguments that the soul exists after death 84c - 88b Objections raised by Simmias and Cebes 88c - 91e Short Interlude; Socratic plea for faith in argument 92a - 95a Socrates responds to Simmias' objection 95a - 107b Socrates responds to Cebes' objection 107c - 115a Description of what the afterlife might be like 115b - 118 Description of Socrates' death

Phaedo I

"... the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manners is to practice for dying and death." 64a At death, soul and body separate Body is a distraction, philosopher tries his best to escape the body through reason (activity of the soul) Death is the complete escape from the body's limits, distractions, and impurity. "I fear this is not the right exchange to attain virtue, to exchange pleasures for pleasures, pains for pains, and fears for fears, the greater for the less like coins, but that the only valid currency for which all these things should be exchanged is wisdom. With this we have real courage, and moderation and justice and, in a word, virtue, with wisdom, whether pleasures and fears and all such things be present or absent." 69a-b

Philosophy and Death

Which philosopher? 429-438 BC Lives and dies in Athens Political aristocratic family, turns from politics Founds Academy Student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle

Plato

Philosopher: 469-399 BC Comes of age around Sophists Keeps impressive and unfortunate company Plato and Xenophon (Plato's defenders) Critias and Alcibiades (traitors to Athens) Executed by jury of 500: 1. Denies gods of the state 2. Invents new divinities 3. Corrupts youth

Socrates

What text of Plato? Overview: 1. Defense against slander 2. Explanation of "Socratic ignorance" 3. Corruption of the youth 4. Denial of gods; daimonic sign 5. Role in Athens 6. "Sovereignty of virtue" 7. Death 8. Politics

Plato's "Apology"

Fear of death is ignorance (like all injustice) Death is either (a) nothing, no awareness like deepest sleep (b) migration of the soul to a better place In either case, death is not rightly feared "The difficult thing, gentleman, isn't escaping death; escaping villainy is much more difficult, since it runs faster than death."

Plato's "Apology" on Death

Justice means doing one's duty and following reason where it leads Refuses to dishonor the jury by the common tactics of groveling, begging, appealing to pity Concerned with Athens's soul, not petty politics Obeys conscience, spirit of the law; disobeys unjust democrats and oligarchs alike Individual integrity > political power

Plato's "Apology" on politics

From what text? Main concern: definition of piety that gives knowledge Secondary concerns: nature of god, god's relationship to goodness, the possibility of pleasing a divinity, the relationship between morality and god Positive points: assumptions of wisdom are faulty, pretense to wisdom is shown as ignorance

Plato's "Euthyphro"

Metaethics of what text: Definition/Essence (One Over Many). Assumption: knowledge of x-itself will both explain why each particular instance of x is x, and provide a standard for picking out what particular things are, and are not, x

Plato's "Euthyphro"

Themes of what text: Epistemology and ethics connected. Without knowledge, stuck guessing and improvising Knowing what piety is will give Socrates the ability to know all of the particular instances of piety (some shared form or property unites all of the particulars, F's are F because of shared F-essence) Elenchus (philosophy-as-self-discovery) Unity of virtue (shared essence of virtues, e.g. piety related to justice)

Plato's "Euthyphro"

question of what text: Is what is just loved by God because it's just or is it good/right/moral because God loves it? (pathos, but wants logos)

Plato's "Euthyphro"

From which Plato text? Original question: Can virtue be taught/learned? (71b4) How can we know a feature of X if we don't know what X is? Diversion: What is virtue? (71d-79e) 1st: Fulfilling one's social function/role (problem of many and one) 2nd: Ability to rule others (problem of circularity) 3rd: Enjoying beautiful things and having power (problem of circularity) Diversion: Can anything be learned/come to be known? (80a-86c) Meno's Pardox Theory of Recollection Original question: Can virtue be taught/learned? (86d-98e) A: Seems like it can be taught, not natural ~A: Cannot be taught Virtue can and cannot be taught? Knowledge = JTB Conclusion: What is virtue? (99a-100b) 4th: Divinely inspired true belief

Plato's "Meno"

Whose and which texts? capture best (all concerned with virtue): Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Protagoras (?) Dialectic: critical method for "sounding out" a claim (philosophy can approach anything) Continually deploys elenchos in dialogues to move from given hypotheses to a contradiction or absurdity Ends in aporia - impasse, no satisfactory answer has been provided

Plato's "early dialogues"

Whose version of Socrates? Genius who spends time showing those who believe themselves wise that they are mistaken. Gadfly Historical or literary?

Plato's Socrates

Strict class divisions Division of labor rationally determined by essence fitted to function w/in the city Only workers/merchants have property/luxury, only auxiliaries/guardians have arms/authority Strict, communal life for auxiliaries/guardians Rigorous education, upbringing completely determined by rulers to cultivate auxiliaries/guardians No private homes, meals, families, etc. Gender equality Censorship Poets and artists are out, only exposed to edifying music/myths Eugenics Mates selected secretly by rulers to produce the most capable offspring

Political Theory: Stability and Harmony

Philosophical influence (II) of Plato? ethical knowledge is essential (because our singular motivation is happiness) and metaphysics is a servant of inquiry into virtue

Socrates

Which Socratic assumption to explain the problem of many and one? The many F's must be F's because they possess F-itself

Possession Assumption

Plato: Problem of belief-knowledge divide Unreliable senses, need for justification, Meno's paradox Problem of compresence of opposites Opposite properties are present in the same thing Problem of universals A singular property is said of many things which are different Problem of change/flux Constant change make identity, permanence, and knowledge difficult

Problems and Motivations

"Human being [anthropoid] is the measure of what is, that it is, and of what is not, that it is not." 'Man is the measure'- there is no Truth, but only truths of each society/individual

Protagoras-ethical relativism

E.g., from divergent funeral rites in Greece and India, Herodotus concludes "custom is king." Nature (phusis) is utterly distinct from convention (nomos).

Protagoras-ethical relativism

Philosophical influence (II) of Plato? metaphysical knowledge is modeled on understanding of geometry (is knowledge of geometry?) which in turn generates knowledge of ethical truths

Pythagoras

1. What is justice? 2. Is justice good for the just? (Is it non-instrumentally valuable?) 3. Is it always better to be just than unjust? (Is justice necessary/sufficient for happiness?)

Questions that Structure the "Republic"

Empiricism: knowledge comes primarily or solely through the senses Anti-empiricist: Forms are true knowledge and not knowable through experience Since the Forms are eternal and distinct from the world, the soul must be eternal and distinct to "see" the Forms Forms, recollection, and soul are mutually necessary theoretical entities

Recollection of Forms

1. Justice is whatever is advantageous to the strong 2. The strong are the rulers of a city, and define justice as obedience to their will 3. Rulers are liable to error 4. In being liable to error, rulers sometimes act correctly and sometimes incorrectly 5. Rulers act correctly when they legislate for personal advantage, incorrectly when their laws are disadvantageous 6. So, sometimes rulers unintentionally make disadvantageous decisions 7. Thus, what is just is both what is advantageous and what is disadvantageous to the rulers/strong Conclusion: It's false that justice is whatever is advantageous to the strong

Response 1: Contradictory

1. All practices/crafts have the benefit of their subject as the basis of their craft (doctor -> patient health) 2. A ruler's subjects are those over whom they rule 3. A practitioner is only such to the extent that they are practicing their craft Conclusion: A ruler is only such to the extent that they aim for the benefit of those they rule

Response 2: Crafts and Objects

1. Certain things have functions which they perform better or worse to the extent they are more or less excellent 2. These are functional kinds and virtue is their capacity and power to perform their essential function (whatever it is uniquely suited to do, e.g. Ears, eyes, nose, etc. all have functions which they perform best with virtue) 3. The soul has the unique function of deliberating, deciding, living, etc. 4. Justice is the excellence/virtue which allows the soul to best fulfill their natural/essential function 5. It is always better for a person to have a soul which is well-functioning than the opposite Conclusion: injustice is never more profitable than justice

Response 3: Human Telos

Mission from Apollo, to turn away would be impious Service to Athens which they will miss "You may be sure that if you put me to death- a man of the sort I said I was just now- you won't harm me more than you harm yourselves... For I don't think it's lawful for a better man to be harmed by a worse."

Role in Athens I

"I've literally been attached to the city, as if to a large thoroughbred horse that was somewhat sluggish because of its size and needed to be awakened by some sort of gadfly. It's as just such a gadfly, it seems to me, that the god has attached me to the city- one that awakens, cajoles, and reproaches each and every one of you and never stops alighting everywhere on you the whole day."

Role in Athens II

"Now it seems to me that not only Tallness itself is never willing to be tall and short at the same time, but also that the tallness in us will never admit the short or be overcome, but one of two things happens: either it flees and retreats whenever its opposite, the short, approaches, or it is destroyed by its approach. It is not willing to endure and admit shortness and be other than it was, whereas I admit and endure shortness and still remain the same person and am this short man. But Tallness, being tall, cannot venture to be small." 102d-e

Self-Predication Assumption

Whose objection? Soul is best explained as being a harmony- invisible, divine, and beautiful. When a lyre is broken, the harmony disappears and the lyre remains. When the body dies, the soul disappears because the parts of the body are no longer in the right relationship

Simmias

In Plato's "Euthyphro" (a paradigmatic dialogue)....Who runs into Euthyphro outside the stoa, Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father Typical features of whose dialogue: Claim of expertise (Euthyphro knows piety) Socrates requests progressive logoi (definition, universal explanation, that which explains the particulars) of piety Interlocutor leaves in exasperation (aporia) The essential moral concept (piety) is now seen as more confusing and problematic than assumed

Socrates

Soul is divine, immortal, guided by reason, and sovereign over the body, its prison The body and its senses confuse the soul and make it dizzy "The worst feature of this imprisonment is that it is due to desires, so that the prisoner himself is contributing to his own incarceration most of all." 82e

Soul and Body

A radical thesis: virtue is sufficient for happiness Never beneficial to do injustice Always better to suffer injustice than to inflict it Always unjust to return injustice with injustice "The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being." Being just- having a healthy soul- most urgent, unavoidable interest of life; found in self-criticism

Sovereignty of Virtue I

there is a form, F-itself, that exists and is distinct from all the individual Fs

The "Third Man" Argument, Part One

But then there must be yet another Form, F-itself #2, that is (a) separate from the first F-itself and all the other Fs, (b) makes every F an F, and (c) is itself F.

The "Third Man" Argument, Part Three

(a) F-itself is responsible for making every F an F (b) F-itself is an F

The "Third Man" Argument, Part Two

"...after all, the things we nurtured and educated them on were like dreams; they seemed to be experiencing all those things that seemed to be happening around them, but in truth they themselves were at the time under the soil inside the earth being molded and cultivated, and their weapons and other gear were being crafted, and when they were completely formed, the earth, that was their mother, made them spring up. So no, as if the land they dwell in were a mother and nurse, it's up to them to deliberate over it, to defend it if anyone were to attack, and to take thought on behalf of the other citizens as their earthborn siblings." (414d-e)

The Noble Lie: Blood and Soil

"All of you in the city are brothers, but the god, when he molded those of you who are competent to be rulers, mixed gold into them at their formation- that's why they're the most honorable- but all the auxiliaries have silver in them, and there's iron and bronze in the farmers and other skilled workers. So since you're all kin, for the most part you'll produce children like yourselves, but it's possible for a silver offspring sometimes to be born from a gold parent, and a gold from a silver, and all the others likewise from another. So the god exhorts the rules first and foremost to be good guardians of their children... because there's an oracle foretelling that the city will be destroyed when an iron or bronze guardian has guardianship over it." (415a-c)

The Noble Lie: Class Purity (Unmixed Metals)

1) Assume that the Form does not exist separately from the many F's 2) According to the Possession assumption, each of the separate F's possess the Form of F (it is the form, after all, that makes them an F). 3) But if each separate F possesses the form, and the form is not separate from each F, then each F has its own, separate Form of F. 4) This, however, is impossible: according to the unity assumption, the Form of F is one, unified being. Thus, the Form of F must exist separately from the many F's. Also called the problem of one and many: "no one thing can be a universal in its being, that is to say, nothing can be both one being and common to many beings in such a manner that is shares its act of being with those many beings, constituting their substance."

The Unity/Possession Problem

Theory of Forms: for any F which is said of many things, there is one F itself, the Form of F Example: Equality Perception: two sticks can appear equal and unequal in different circumstances and to different people Introspection: the concept of equality does not ever appear unequal

Theory of Forms

What is the issue with Socrates?

There were many different versions of him and so the question of who the real Socrates was is inconclusive. No primary sources: Socrates philosophized purely by conversation.

"And each ruling power sets up laws for the advantage of itself, a democracy setting up democratic ones, a tyranny tyrannical ones, and the others likewise. And having set them up, they declare that this, what's advantageous for them, is just for those who are ruled, and they chastise someone who transgresses it as a lawbreaker and a person doing injustice... the same thing is just in all cities, what's advantageous to the established ruling power. And this surely prevails in strength, so the conclusion, for someone who reasons correctly, is that the same thing is just everywhere, what's advantageous to the stronger." (338e-339a)

Thrasymachus: Immoralist Challenge

Self-predication: the Form of X is itself X Forms are defined as explanatory exemplars of particular judgments, e.g. many judgments of large which are true by relation to Large itself Forms must exist because unlike particulars they are completely and eternally what they are, e.g. particular large thing is context-sensitive whereas Large is not Distinctness: the Form of X is completely distinct from particular material X's, i.e. Largeness is immaterial and not present in particular large things Singularity: the Form of X is the one thing which explains the particular X's, i.e. THE Form of Large

Three Difficult Features of Forms

(a) Most interesting claims about the world involve universals. Claims involving universals are about something and are true or false to the extent that they track that something. The universals being tracked are obviously not material, context-sensitive, temporal, etc. (b) Ideas can be shared and often allow for greater certainty/precision than material things. Their capacity for being shared means they must exist independently and since they are known by reason, they must not be material. The possibility of perfect knowledge means they are more knowable, hence more real.

Two supports for Platonism

Which Socratic assumption to explain the problem of many and one? The many F's must have some unifying property of F-ness which explains why each F is an F in spite of differences

Unity Assumption

(1) Universals (abstract ideas) are either found in experience or distinct from experience. (2) Particular experiences of a universal are always different and always deficient. (3) From (2), universals are never found in experience. Thus, universals and abstract ideas must be something distinct from experience Since particular instances are judged deficient, they must exist distinct from the world of experience

Universals and Experience

What properties does a city's parts need to possess to perform its function well? Civic Virtues: 1. Wisdom: intelligent rulers who govern the other parts with knowledge of what is good for the city as whole 2. Courage: spirited soldiers who follow the rulers and preserve their understanding of what is to be feared and dared 3. Temperance: each class agrees on which class ought to perform which function 4. Justice: each class is to perform only the function for which it is best suited Knife analogy: What makes a good knife? Sturdy, sharp, comfortable etc

Virtues of the City

Argument from Disagreement: 1. If A thinks that X is F, and B thinks that X is not F, then X itself is not either F or not F 2. A thinks that X is F; B thinks that X is not F. Conclusion?

X is itself not either F or not-F. Applications? (What fits X?) Natural assumption: language, value, manners, law...

Whose version of Socrates? Banal, extremely pious and moral, mild critic Too tepid and dogmatic to get so much attention

Xenophon's Socrates

1. Describe the Ideal City 2. The Ideal City has three parts 3. The role and relationship of the parts explains the city's virtues 4. The soul has three corresponding parts with corresponding virtues 5. The ideal soul is healthiest when unified and stable 6. Justice provides the city and soul with unity and stability Conclusion: Since it is always better to be healthy than sick and soul health is the most important kind, it is always happier to be just than unjust

argument overview

Why think that the city offers a good analogy to the soul? Justification: a. Justice is said of both in the same way b. The parts and virtues of the individual must come from somewhere- must be society c. Individual virtue is dependent on social context (citizens reflect community)

city/soul analogy

Level 1: Natural epistemic state, shadows are similar to "real" objects Level 2: Beginnings into dialectic (education and agonistic philosophical conversation), fire is similar to "real" Good Itself Level 3: Mature dialectic, objects are fully real and knowable but difficult to understand Level 4: Dialectic capstone, fullest reality is known and understood in a way that makes sense of levels 1-4

four level of a Single Reality

What are the unique and singular functions which a city performs better or worse? The city is a functional kind (like a knife) Civic Functions: 1. Providing the needs of the city (both basic and luxurious) 2. Protecting the city and claiming lands 3. Governing the city knife analogy: what is the function of a knife? cutting things

function of the city

Charges of Plato's text: "Socrates is guilty of corrupting the young, and of not acknowledging the gods the city acknowledges, but new daimonic activities instead." (24b)

official charges from Plato's "Apology"

Constraints: rejection of ordinary opinion, must be intrinsically good for the just Difficulties: Justice is hard to spot Method: look at Justice "writ large" Small letters are to Big letters as individual justice is to social/political justice

what is justice?