Plato I

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Plato I

• His Moral Theory,
• Or Why Ignorance is not Bliss or even moral

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Preliminaries

• Library courses (see Library web pg)
• Where to find course info
• Where to find the discussion board
• Note on the texts
• Plato and Aristotles works are demarcated by
  paragraph numbers and letters
• BCE

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Discussion Board

• http//www.hku.hk/discuspro/messages/board-topics.
  html
• School of Humanities

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Plato (427-347 BCE)
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Who was Plato?

• A wealthy Athenian, and citizen of leisure
• Student of Socrates
• Republic and Laws expound his political and moral
  philosophy, and his theory of knowledge
• Founded the Academy, an important philosophical
  institution.

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Athens Agora and Acropolis
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Plato

• Critic of the Athenian democracy
• disillusioned during the Peloponnesian War
  (430-404)
• believed democracy fosters rule of the ignorant,
  immoral masses.
• Critic of the Sophists, who taught the art of
  argumentation for high fees
• Thrasymachus in Republic, a moral cynic.

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Who was Socrates?(latter half 5th century BCE)

• Athenian stonemason,
• rich enough to be a hoplite (foot soldiere.g. in
  film 300)
• details of his life practically unknown
• teacher of Plato, Xenophon and others
• not everyone revered him, however.

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Socrates

• Mocked in Aristophanes play, The Clouds (423
  BCE)
• Aristophanes says Socrates does not understand
• political realities, e.g. our need for family and
  city
• human nature overestimates rationality
• what the gods are.

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Socrates

• Found guilty in 399 BCE of impiety (debasing the
  gods) and corrupting youth
• Ordered by Athenian court to commit suicide by
  drinking hemlock
• Major speaker in several of Platos dialogues,
  including Republic, and Apology
• Legacy Socratic ignorance, Socratic method,
  philosopher-kings.

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Republic (Politeia, Gr. constitution)

• Greek concept of constitution
• not limited to political institutions, e.g.
• executive, legislature, judiciary
• included education, culturepoetry, music
• Comprises entire way of life, e.g. Constitution
  of the Lacedaemonians (Sparta)
• Could be entirely unwritten, e.g. Sparta
• unlike HK Basic Law, U.S. Constitution.

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Map of Ancient Greece
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Republic

• Platos greatest dialogue
• One of the worlds great philosophical works
• Structure dialogue among several speakers,
  including Socrates
• Key question what is morality/justice?
• How is it cultivated or produced?

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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.

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Context of Republic

• Rejection of traditional moral teaching
• Represented by Cephalus, the retired businessman
  (328c-331d)
• Help friends
• Tell the truth
• Repay debts
• 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 is therefore going to go beyond
  tradition in his justification of morality.

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Conventional view on morality

• 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)!

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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
• Thrasymachuss position
• Might is right justice interest of stronger
• Be a dictator get all the power, money, and
  human subjects that you can!

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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.

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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).

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Ring of Gyges

• Gyges obtains a ring that makes him invisible
  (recall Tolkien)
• He uses it to evil ends
• Gyges seduces the kings 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?

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Modern version

• Woody Allen,
• Crimes and MisdemeanorsReserve AV 791.43 C929 A

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Synopsis of Crimes and Misdemeanors

• A seemingly good, law-abiding family man and
  successful professional commits a murder with no
  risk of being caught.

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What is Platos approach?

• Republic arises from deficiencies in Socrates
  initial argument w/ Thrasymachus
• A city in speech (hypothetical solution)
• Major problem plurality, e.g. rich vs poor
• City 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.