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Plato II

Plato II. PHIL 1003 Why Ignorance is not Bliss Community and Individual. Ponzi scheme Stole from Peter to pay Paul Ripped off investors, ruined many of them Now sentenced to jail for rest of natural life; An example of unethical behavior Plato such behavior. Bernard Madoff. Socrates.

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Plato II

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  1. Plato II PHIL 1003 Why Ignorance is not Bliss Community and Individual

  2. Ponzi scheme Stole from Peter to pay Paul Ripped off investors, ruined many of them Now sentenced to jail for rest of natural life; An example of unethical behavior Plato such behavior. Bernard Madoff

  3. Socrates • Controversial figure • Publicly questioned received ideas in • Morality • Politics • Athens condemned him to death; • Influenced important thinkers: • Plato • Xenophon

  4. Context of Republic • Loss of clear moral authority in late 5th century Athens • Traditional hierarchy of nature questioned • Democritus (ca. 460-370 BCE), father of atomic theory: • all matter = indivisible particles • particles are identical; no one is superior to any of the others by nature.

  5. Traditional morality • Rejection of traditional moral teaching: • Convention • Family ties • Represented by Cephalus, the retired businessman (328c-331d): • Help friends • Tell the truth • Repay debts.

  6. Reply to Cephalus Socrates’ objection: what if you borrowed a knife, but return it to the lender, who has gone mad, and poses a menace to others? Socrates goes beyond tradition in his justification of morality.

  7. Another view on morality • Urban, taught by sophists; • ‘Good guys finish last’: • Immoral conduct confers benefits to oneself (wealth, power, partners) • Morality is good for others, but bad for oneself • You should protect your own interests; • Not those of others at the expense of your own (338c)!

  8. Thrasymachus’ attack on morality of Cephalus • A sophist, teacher of argumentation • ‘Sophistry’ denotes arguments that sound persuasive but are based on questionable premises or logic; • Thrasymachus’s position: • Might is right; justice = interest of stronger • Be a dictator: get all the power, money, and human subjects that you can!

  9. Thrasymachus 338c-e • “My claim is that morality is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger party…” • “Each government passes laws to its own advantage…” • “this is what I claim morality is: it is the same in every country, and is what is to the advantage of the current government.”

  10. Counter-argument • But one does not want to be the victim of others’ immoral behavior; • Socrates’ position: • Being moral is like being expert at an art (medicine) or craft (house-building, stonemasonry); • An expert does what most benefits the production or person being cared for; • S/he strives to be good at what s/he does; • Not what is best for him/herself (making money, gaining power).

  11. Ring of Gyges • Gyges obtains a ring that makes him invisible (recall Tolkien); • He uses it to evil ends: • Gyges seduces the king’s wife, and kills the king, thereby becoming king himself. • If you could be invisible like Gyges • What would you do? • Would you behave morally or immorally?

  12. Crimes and Misdemeanors American Film-maker, Woody Allen A seemingly good, law-abiding family man and successful professional commits a murder with no risk of being caught.

  13. Plato’s approach to justice • Republic arises from deficiencies in Socrates’ initial argument w/ Thrasymachus; • A ‘city in speech’ (hypothetical solution) • Major problem = plurality, e.g. rich vs poor; • Structure of City • Plato argues it needs to be unified, not divided; • 3 groups of citizens: philosopher-rulers, guardians, ordinary workers; • each performs his/her assigned task; • analogy with the 3 parts of the soul: reason, spirit and appetite.

  14. Logos (Greek) One faculty of speech and reason Related words: logic, logical.

  15. First arguments in Republic • Why are Socrates’ arguments unsatisfactory? • expertise vs money-making (343aff.) • superiority practiced by the immoral (349c) • skill-morality analogy: being immoral is like being stupid (348aff., 350d) • can a person of lower IQ be moral? • If so, then Socrates is wrong about the analogy. • Good people only take power in order to avoid being oppressed by bad people ( 347b-d) • Competition to avoid power in good society.

  16. These arguments fail: So what can we do to stop the pursuit of power, and exploitation?

  17. Answer: Platonic concept of soul, or ‘anima’ Related words: animate, animated, animation.

  18. Key concept: Hierarchy: relation of superior to inferior; there has to be a ranking of unequal persons or parts, not equality.

  19. Reason Should supervise whole person Restrains desires Makes morality possible But in disordered souls reason may not rule. Desires Strive to be satisfied Food, Sex, power If reason does not maintain control, Desires take over Result: anarchy (no ruler). Initial proposal: two-part soul

  20. Plato adds key third part: passion (thymos, Gr.) • Passion = guardian of the soul • Analogous to guardians of city • Passion acts w/ reason to safeguard self-discipline and morality; • Exception: in anarchic soul, passion may aid desire instead; • What happens to anarchic souls?

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