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PHL105Y Introduction to Philosophy Monday, October 23, 2006. For Wednesday’s class, read to page 92 of the Plato book (= finish the Meno).
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PHL105Y Introduction to PhilosophyMonday, October 23, 2006 For Wednesday’s class, read to page 92 of the Plato book (= finish the Meno). The Philosophy Club is meeting this Wednesday, October 25, from 3-5pm in the Dean’s Lounge (North Bldg. Room 262). Theme: philosophical conversation about music; students are invited to bring a tape or CD with up to 4 minutes of music to discuss. Free pizza. Tutorials continue this Friday. For this week, answer one of the following two questions, in about 200-250 words (about one typed double-spaced page); hand in the hard copy to your TA at the beginning of Friday’s tutorial. • After cross-examining a servant boy about a geometrical problem, Socrates asks Meno whether the opinions the boy expressed were all his own opinions (85bc); Meno agrees that the boy has only been expressing his own opinions. What convinced Meno that the opinions belonged to the boy himself, and what is the significance of this point? • Starting at 97a, Socrates and Meno have a conversation about right or true opinion and knowledge. In what ways is knowledge different from true opinion?
The relationship between the Apology and the Crito • The last hard case: • Socrates says that if he were to be acquitted on the condition that he quit philosophy, he would reply, “Men of Athens, I am grateful and I am your friend, but I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not cease to practice philosophy…” (29d)
Resisting forced retirement • Socrates is not at 29d promising to be a lawbreaker; he knows that the prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and not the penalty of silencing him as a philosopher. • The jury has no legal authority to make Socrates take what he sees as a fate worse than death.
But what if…. • Even if the jury at his trial didn’t have the legal authority to get Socrates to stop doing philosophy, it’s possible in principle for someone in ancient Athens to have proposed a law against Socratic philosophical practice.
A law against philosophy? • How should Socrates respond to a law against philosophy, given what you know of him from the Crito and the Apology?
The core problem • At one of the very few points at which Socrates makes a positive claim to know something, he says, • ‘I do know, however, that it is wicked and shameful to do wrong, to disobey one’s superior, be he god or man.’ (29b) • Are we convinced that there will never be a situation in which doing the right thing and obeying one’s superior will come into conflict?
Where does virtue come from? • Meno opens the dialogue by asking Socrates how virtue is attained: • Can it be taught? • Is it acquired by practice? • Do men have it by nature? • Is it acquired in some other way?
The Socratic response • Socrates claims not to know the answer • Socrates claims that the reason he does not know how virtue is attained is that he does not know what virtue is. “If I do not know what something is, how could I know what qualities it possesses?” (71b)
Meno tries to say what virtue is • A man’s virtue: managing public affairs, helping his friends, harming his enemies, protecting himself from harm. • A woman’s virtue: managing the household, submitting to her husband. • Boys, girls, the elderly and slaves all have different virtues; ‘there is a virtue for every action and every age’. (71e-72a)
Why is Socrates dissatisfied? • If we asked about the nature of bees, we would not be satisfied to hear that there are many kinds; we would want to know about what all those kinds have in common. • So also with virtue: what do all those virtues have in common?
A single form of virtue • Socrates argues that for other qualities (health, size, strength) we think that there is a single form, a single definition of the quality applicable across men and women, young and old. • Meno is still resistant to the idea that virtue works the same way.
Moderation and justice • Socrates starts to suggest that perhaps there are signs of a single form even in the scattered definition Meno has given; virtuous men and women all have the capacity to rule, and the different things men and women rule (public affairs, households), must be managed ‘moderately and justly’ if the men and women are to count as virtuous
Good in the same way • Socrates gets Meno to agree that those who rule with moderation and justice have virtue. • ‘So all human beings are good in the same way, for they become good by acquiring the same qualities.’ (73c) • Meno then agrees that justice is a virtue. (73d)
Justice and virtue • Socrates asks Meno whether justice is virtue, or whether it is a virtue. (73e) • What is the meaning of this question?
Justice and virtue • Socrates asks Meno whether justice is virtue, or whether it is a virtue. (73e) • (1) If justice is a virtue, there could be many others (example: a circle is a shape, but there are also triangles and squares etc.) • (2) The alternative: justice = virtue.
Justice and virtue • Socrates asks Meno whether justice is virtue, or whether it is a virtue. (73e) • Meno says that justice is one virtue among many--other virtues include courage, moderation, wisdom, generosity. (74a) • Why is Socrates unhappy with that?
Virtue and the virtues • Again, if we have many examples, we haven’t yet isolated the underlying nature of the thing to be defined. Socrates wants to find out what it is that courage, justice, wisdom, etc. have in common. • Analogy: when asked what ‘shape’ means, instead of saying ‘like circle, square, triangle’ we could give a general definition in terms of bounded spaces.
Meno defines virtue • Meno: ‘virtue is to desire beautiful things and have the power to acquire them’ (77b)
Meno defines virtue • Meno: ‘virtue is to desire beautiful things and have the power to acquire them’ (77b) • Socrates gets Meno to agree that by ‘beautiful’ he means ‘good’; Socrates then asks whether all men desire good things. • Do we all desire what is good?
