Plato and Aristotle

1
Plato and Aristotle

• Early Thinking on the Problem
• Of Defining the Moral Good

2
Platos understanding of ethics

• The early work of Plato. Speaking through the
  mouthpiece of his mentor Socrates, Platos early
  work on ethics may be described as mixed at best.
  
• Basically, in the Protagoras and Meno Socrates
  argues that virtue cannot be taught, so
  therefore, technically speaking, it is not
  knowledge.

3
The Republic

• The first place we get a full blown theory of
  virtue or ethics is in The Republic. Once again,
  speaking through Socrates, Plato defines virtue
  as the performance of ones proper function.
• The structure of the soul appetites, reason,
  and the will.

4
The Good Life

• The coordination and balancing of the tripartite
  soul is Platos definition of justice. This
  proper coordination is what comprises what Plato
  called the good life.
• For Plato, pleasure (e.g. eating when hungry,
  resting when tired) is what restores us to our
  natural condition. Pleasure, however, is
  always subordinate to the greater activities of
  thought and the pursuit of knowledge.

5
Aristotles ethic

• Two major works Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian
  Ethics
• For Aristotle, true virtue is a combination of
  phronesis (practical wisdom, understanding) with
  sophia (theoretical wisdom).
• The good, for Aristotle, is what man by nature is
  seeking after, which is roughly translated as
  happiness or better put, fulfilling our proper
  functions as human beings.

6
The structure of the soul

• The soul is comprised of two constituent parts
  the rational (the intellect) and the non-rational
  (the appetites and desires).
• Moral virtue is the rational control of the
  desires or conformity with reason. Moral virtue
  is promoted by regular practice which induces
  habits.

7
Two types of wisdom

• Sophia discovers unchangeable truths.
  Phronesis determines what the right course of
  action is.
• As in Plato, the highest virtue is theoretical
  wisdom. Since man shares in the divine nature,
  through theoretical wisdom man can approximate
  the life of God, whose highest function is pure
  thought.