1/31/11 Notes (1:30-2:20)

***(Note: I have an audio recording of the class but did not know how to link it to post. If you would like a copy, email me @ george.vanwormer@gmail.com)***

The Good Life – Plato and Socrates on Virtue

The Pluralists – Empedocles

Four Elements:

instead of just a material cause we need an efficient cause – love and strife

Plato believes it two worlds

· poetic – incorporeal - soul

· physical - corporeal – body

What is Virtue?

Acting well?

What are some virtues? (courage, piety, justice, temperance, friendship?

Virtue = Knowledge?

· One must know and understand virtue to be virtuous

· Not just merely actions, must also have words to defend your actions and call them virtuous

Lysis and his parents

· “You yourselves, surely, know that wrong action done without knowledge is done because of ignorance.” Plato, Protagoras, 357d

“Every man is good wherein he is wise, and bad wherein he is unlearned.” Plato

Virtue = Knowledge

· Aristotle, Ethica Eudemnia 1216b3-10 QOUTE

Words and Deeds

Being virtuous means you can say what it is!

Euthyphro (piety) - demands a definition of piety from a priest who calls himself pious

Laches (Courage)

How can two people be friends but be ignorant of what friendship is?

Good Definitions

What form would this definition be in?

· Coherent with all beliefs

· Universally applicable

o “Now remember, this is not what I asked you, to instruct me of one or two of the many pious acts, but to tell me the idea that makes all pious acts pious.” Plato, Euthyphro 6d

o The courage of a mother is similar to the courage of a warrior

o The courage of Obama is similar to the courage of an enemy of the state

· Practical

o “Instruct me of its nature, what it is [piety], that I may keep my eye fixed upon it and employ it as a paradigm.” Plato, Euthyphro 6e

o Must be able to use it

§ That my understanding of courage with make me courageous

Without Knowledge/Virtue Life Not Worth Living

· If you are ignorant of the good then why do you keep on living

· Quote from Plato, Hippias Major 304 d-e

· Does everyone have some sort of knowledge?

Moral Experts?

· Moral Expert would not be:

o Plato, Laches 199d

o Not be lacking in temperance or justice

o You can’t be pious without being courageous

· Unity of Virtue

· Can Virtue be Taught?

o Are we taught by our parents?

o Is it innate?

§ Are we just taught how to express it?

· If you are virtuous in one virtue, you must be virtuous in all?

No Weak Wills – Akrasia

Akrasia – weakness of will

· When desire over comes knowledge

o Does that mean we don’t really know something if our desire and will overcome that ‘knowledge’?

The Power of Knowledge

· Plato, Protagoras, 352c2-7

· Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1145a20-27

Universal Desire: The Good

· Plato, Protagoras, 358c6-d2

· Plato, Meno 77d-e

· Impossible for me to do something bad

o Smoking may be bad, but in that moment of bad we are desiring the good of that cigarette

o perception of good changes with desire and will

Virtue, Good, Happiness

· All identical things

· Plato Euthydemus

Virtue is Sufficient for happiness

· No external goods = health, wealth, reputation

· Virtue = Happiness

o Is the King of Persia Happy?

§ Is he virtuous?

· Knowledge/Virtue > Luck

A Problem? Socrates

· Socrates = Happy/Virtuous

· Socrates = Ignorant

Plato, Apology 21b

Virtue = Function/Natural Work

Socrates knew himself to be ignorant

· The virtue of a human is to accept ignorance and seek knowledge by asking questions - Plato

Class notes 1/31

Today’s class was all about the Good Life and virtue, from the viewpoint of Socrates.

According to Socrates, happiness is not just a feeling, it’s a sign that we are living the Good Life. Knowledge is equal to virtue for Socrates. The example of Lysis and his parents was given by Plato to demonstrate one of the supporting ideas for knowledge being virtue: “You, yourselves, surely, know that wrong action done without knowledge is done because of ignorance.” That is to say that it is impossible to do good without knowing what good is.

The power of knowledge is such that if one knows what virtue is, it would be impossible for one to act against this knowledge(akrasia); it is impossible to do something bad unless it is done out of ignorance.

But what exactly is good? The three criteria we learned in class for goodness are: coherency with other beliefs, universally applicable, and practicality. The first is self explanatory, but the second is a bit tricky. In order to be universally applicable, a definition for something “good” would need to apply to all instances of goodness. For example, instead of saying what aspects make a few specific acts pious, what makes all pious acts “pious?” The third criteria is just that something has to actually help people in some way in order to be good.

Without virtue and knowledge, life would not be worth living; therefore, Socrates suggests that there ought to be a moral expert. This person would be temperate (a Greek virtue), just, and holy.

Socrates firmly believed (in contrast to Sophist beliefs) that virtues cannot be taught, and there is a bit of relativity in every situation. However, it is a universal desire to seek good. Even when bad actions are taken, the reason behind them is because the bad-doer finds some kind of good or pleasure in the actions. He takes the actions he does because he is looking for what he believes is good.

Even though people may ignorantly do bad things for “good” things, Socrates argues that virtue alone is sufficient to provide happiness. No amount of material goods can make a person happier than living the Good Life can. “Is the King of Persia happy?” Even if everything all the material possessions a person has are lost, his/her goodness is still intact, thus virtue “cannot be harmed either in life or death.” Unfortunately, Socrates never himself mentioned how all virtues are unified.

Socrates is, himself, problematic toward his philosophy. In all accounts of Socrates, he appears to be happy and virtuous, but he claims to be ignorant. If happy=virtuous=knowledgeable, and Socrates=ignorant, but ignorant≠knowledgable, how then can Socrates be so happy? According to Plato’s Republic, virtues are natural work done, and happiness is not a feeling but a fulfillment of what we truly are. As an ignorant being, Socrates’ work (virtue) is to seek knowledge. By living the examined life, Socrates fulfills his natural work and may therefore be happy.