Selected Notes for Chapters 4-5
Instructor: Dr. Jan Garrett
Most recent alteration: 20 February 2013 Don't think you have to or even could memorize all this stuff at this point (a few days before the first test). I provide these as an aid to those who may want to check their own answers to the study questions, to look up specific points, or to find another person's formulation (sometimes quite close in words) of what Haberman and Stevenson tell you in the textbook.
Selected Notes for Chapter 4 - Plato
1. Who were the Sophists?
The word itself originally meant "teacher"; the Sophists were "experts" who offered to teach some skill or subject-matter for a fee. The art of rhetoric-important for people who wanted to be persuasive in the lawcourts and assemblies of democratic Athens; geographical knowledge; grammar; ethics; politics. Some of them were what we would call public relations consultants.
What sort of skepticism did they often express? About whether moral and political values were more than arbitrary conventions, that varied from community to community. (72)
2a. How, according to Socrates, can we come to know the right way to live?
Only by learning how to use our reason properly.
2b. How did Socrates claim superiority to his fellow Athenians?
He was aware of his lack of knowledge about important, difficult matters (such as ethical truth) whereas they claimed to know.
2c. What does he think about "the unexamined life"?
It is not worth living. (72)
3. What did Plato retain from Socrates?
His faith in the power of rational inquiry. Plato does seem more optimistic than the Socrates of the Defense Speech, thinking that we can attain knowledge of deep truth about the world, knowledge, and human nature, about which people have been ignorant up till now. (72-73)
4a. In Plato's Timaeus, from what does divine wisdom create the universe?
From pre-existing matter, which is somewhat resistant to acquiring order and stability. (This explains why material things tend to break down and living beings die.)
4b. How does this differ from what Stevenson calls the "biblical doctrine"? (73)
Christian theology interprets Genesis as saying that God creates not from matter but from nothing; that is, He creates matter and quickly imposes form or structure upon it.
5. How does the text distinguish between the semantic, the metaphysical, the epistemological, and the moral aspects of the Forms? (74)
Semantic: answering the question, what do words mean;6. What is the logical or semantic aspect of the Forms?
Metaphysical: partly answering the question, what things are real?
Epistemology is the philosophical inquiry asking what can we know?
Moral/political aspects of the Forms: how should we act, what values should we promote, what political structures are bestThe Forms are principles of classification. There is a form for Beauty, a form of Justice, maybe a form for Humanity. Platonic forms are like concepts in this sense; they are not in our minds, but they can be "seen" by our minds. (74)
7a. How does nominalism differ from Platonic realism?
Platonic realism holds that what makes something F (e.g., beautiful) is its participation in the eternal form of Fness (e.g., beauty). Against Platonism there is nominalism (a term invented in the Middle Ages), according to which "beauty" and "ugliness" and "human" are just words that we use like tools to distinguish some things from others and group similar things into a single class.
7b. What does Plato say, at Republic 597, regarding general words and Forms? (74)
For each general word, there is one form. His favorite examples are things like Beauty…; Double …; His followers spoke of forms for natural kinds, like Animal, Tree, Man, Snake.
7c. What qualification of this doctrine does he apparently make? (74-75)
He is reluctant to posit forms for like potentially disordered material things like mud, hair, and dirt.
8a. What metaphysical claim does Plato seem to make regarding the Forms?
They are more real than material objects.
8b. Are Forms material objects? No.
How do they differ from material objects?
They are perfectly stable (i.e., eternal); they do not come into being and pass away. They do not exist at particular points in space or at particular times. Material objects corrode, break up; if alive, they are subject to sickness and death.
8c. Are we likely to encounter Platonic Forms in sense-perceptions?
No, being "intelligible" (knowable by the mind), they are not visible, subject to smell or taste, audible, tangible.
In what way might we come to know them? (75)
By a process of education, involving philosophical (dialectical) inquiry. At the end of a successful educational process is a mental vision of the Forms, "seeing" with the "eye of the mind."
9. What is the epistemological aspect of his theory of Forms? (75)
Only this mental acquaintance with the forms counts as knowledge. We can have correct belief about material things, but it is distinct from, and falls short of, knowledge.
10. Why is mathematics-arithmetic or geometry-very important for Plato?
It prepares the mind to deal with realities that are not physically perceptible. The imperfect geometrical objects we perceive, such as "lines" drawn on the blackboard, are not the (perfect) lines we study in geometry; for instance, any line drawn on a blackboard will have thickness. (75-76)
11a. What is the moral aspect of Plato's Forms? (76)
To be good persons we must really know what Goodness is; to be courageous, we must really know what Courage is; etc. These are Forms. If we knew them, we would be good (and also happy). And if a group of us knew them and had political authority, we would be wise and able to establish perfect social institutions, or create laws, that would benefit the entire community.
The forms provide the ideals that we can distinguish from messy examples of courage or justice that we encounter in the world of space and time. They provide a sort of standard that allows us to say that a particular action is just in one respect but not just in another.
11b. Is Plato satisfied with examples of the moral virtues, like courage or justice? (76)
No, like Socrates he wants general definitions that can survive examination, either by self-examination examination or by a master of dialectical questioning as Socrates is supposed to have been.
11c. Are Forms just abstractions based on what we actually see or observe in moral behavior around us?
No, we could never conceive the ideal if we were limited to examples of what takes place in our human society. To call them abstractions is to suggest that they derive from experience; whereas Plato's view is that they are causes of the patterns and qualities of, and relationships between, material things that we experience. (76)
12. What special claims does Plato make for the Form of Goodness?
It is the source of all truth, reality, and goodness-first, of the other forms, and then of material things insofar as they are real and good. (76)
13a. What counter-intuitive ("para-doxical," i.e., contrary to what most people believe) view did the historical Socrates probably hold?
To be virtuous (just, courageous, etc.) it is enough to (really) know what virtue (justice, courage, etc.) are.
13b. What follows if this doctrine is true?
Nobody knowingly does what he or she thinks to be wrong. (Because to know virtue is to be virtuous, and to be virtuous is to do the right thing.) (76-77)
14. What view does Plato defend in Rep. V-VII that Stevenson finds implausible?
Moral virtue depends upon a special kind of knowledge of the Forms accessible only by a trained intellectual elite. As a democratic modern person, Stevenson doubts that specialized philosophical training is necessary or sufficient for human goodness. Some trained philosophers have been morally flawed; and some people who are very good have not been philosophers. (77)
15. What is dualism and how does Plato try to defend it in his dialogue The Meno? (77)
Dualism is the view that the human being consists of a material body and an nonmaterial entity called mind or soul. In the Meno, Plato argues that learning of general truths is really recollection of an acquaintance the soul had of the Forms prior to its entering the present material body. This version of dualism requires belief in the reincarnation of souls.
17. Which of the two parts of the human being did Plato affirm to be superior? (78)
The soul is the superior element, and it ought to direct the body.
In moving from the Meno and the Phaedo to the Republic, we find a second theory concerning the soul. The first two of these dialogues treat the soul as just one thing, roughly equivalent to the mind or reason. The third treats the soul itself as something consisting of parts.
18. What type of experience is the basis for arguments that the soul consists of more than one part? (78)
When we seem to experience conflict between our inner tendencies, when we find we both want to do something and to refrain from doing it.
19a. What two parts of the soul does Plato first distinguish?
The appetite (appetitive part) and reason (rational part).
19b. What is the evidence for this distinction? (79)
Sometimes we both want to drink and not to drink something. It might be an alcoholic beverage, or it might be a glass of water (we are thirsty) but we suspect it is poisoned.
21. What vivid images (analogies?) does Plato use to help us remember his theory? (80)
One image is that of the charioteer and two horses, one more tameable and the other harder to control. The other image is more complex . . .
24a. What kinds of desire correspond to the three parts of the soul?
For knowledge, for good reputation, for material gain.
24b. How does Plato describe these parts?
Philosophical-wisdom-loving; victory loving; profit loving. 24c. Which should rule? Reason.
24d. Do the others have a role to play when it does? Yes.
24e. How should the three parts be related? They should be in harmony, with reason in charge. (81)
25. Describe the ideal condition of human beings and society, as understood by Plato.
Each part shall respect the proper function of the other parts, and they shall be bound together into a unified and harmonious whole. Note: this is partly a result of training of the person from childhood to respect the law outside oneself and eventually to follow reason inside oneself.(82)
26. How would Plato relate individual responsibility and social environment in his discussion of social problems?
Both are relevant. A just social order tends to produce and reinforce just and virtuous individuals. But badly brought up or vicious individuals contribute to social injustice and divisions within societies. (82)
27. Describe and differentiate (as understood by Plato):
"aristocracy": the ideal society ruled by talented and educated lovers of wisdom;Or describe and differentiate the corresponding individual types—Plato uses the same terms to label them. (You could do either in the form of a chart.) (82-84)timarchic society: a flawed society ruled by lovers of honor (timê, fame, and glory;
oligarchic society: a more flawed society ruled by lovers of material gain, dominated by their acquisitive (wealth-pursuing) appetites.
"democratic" society: an even more flawed society ruled by the majority, who are poor and without much competence, and their demagogic leaders ("democrats" have no consistent desires but frequently switch from desiring one sort of good to another);
and tyranny: the worst type of state, ruled by a tyrant, i.e., a politician whose strongest appetites, his over-indulged pleasure-seeking appetites, have seized power in his soul.
28. How does Plato refute Thrasymachus (who claims that that it's in the strong person's interest to be unjust)? (84)
Since injustice is a lack of harmony between the three parts of the soul, an unjust person must be internally torn; there will be a "civil war" between his parts. Just as civil war in a state is a very unpleasant affair, so injustice in the soul will be a much more wretched condition than having justice in one's soul.
29a. How can one become virtuous (and acquire a harmonious soul)? (84-85)
By receiving an appropriate education and coming to have philosophical understanding of and love for beauty and virtue.
29b. What does Plato understand by education-classroom learning alone?
No. He is thinking of all the social influences upon one's development.
29c. What is vital for everyone? (85)
He has in mind training of the whole person: body, appetite, spirit, and reason. Which begins with gymnastics, poetry (story telling), and music. He is concerned to promote good character in everyone, so far as possible.
30a. When, according to Plato, will social problems finally be solved?
When philosophical wisdom and political power merge, when philosophers become kings or kings philosophers.
30b. What sort of person is qualified to govern society? (85)
People who have knowledge of how people should live, those who have come to know the ultimate realities, the Forms.
30c. How can society produce such persons?
Those who undergo the higher education for future rulers must have sufficient mental ability. (And they must be selected for signs of devotion to the public good.) At an appropriate age, they will study mathematics and then "dialectic" or philosophy, which will lead to knowledge of the forms and a love a truth for its own sake. (85-86)
2. How are Aristotelian forms (sometimes called "universals") similar to, yet different from, Platonic Forms? (91) Lecture Notes for Chapter 5 - Aristotle
Similar: there is something common to all instances of a general concept F to which we can refer by one noun or definition. Difference: This Fness, or form of F, typically exists in material things characterized by it, not apart from it. Thus humanity is in human beings, redness is in red things, wisdom is in wise humans (and maybe the gods).
3. What is Aristotle talking about when he speaks of "categories"? (91)
Basic kinds of things (very general classes), such as substances (this woman, this horse, Socrates), qualities, quantities, relations. (There are ten categories in his longest list.)
4. Does Aristotle think that a given word must always have the same meaning, for instance, "healthy" or "good"? Explain. (91)
No, healthy in the case of a healthy diet does not quite mean the same as healthy in the case of a healthy lifestyle or a healthy mind. Good in the case of a morally virtuous person does not mean the same as good in the case of a good move in a sports event or good in the case of a good doctor. Things that are good in themselves, e.g., happiness or health, are good in a way that differs from things that are good as a means to something else, e.g., a visit to the dentist or a test to determine student comprehension.
5. Aristotle recognizes more than one type of cause. How does he distinguish among these types?
Material cause: [answers the question] what is it made of?Why are they all called "causes"? (92)
Formal cause: [ditto] what sort of thing is it, what is its form or structure?
Efficient cause (aka moving cause): [ditto] What brought it into existence?
Final cause: [ditto] What is it for? What is its purpose?A cause is an explanatory factor.
6. Why does Stevenson say that Aristotle is committed to a teleological view of the universe?
The teleological view of the universe is that every general type of thing has a purpose or function. Aristotle's teleological view is all-encompassing, according to Stevenson. However, Aristotle does not hold that all events have a final cause. Rain does not fall because it aims to make plants grow, but just because it is heavy (compared to air and fire). But Aristotle does think that types of living being have purposes, that is, their own flourishing states at which they (unconsciously) "aim"; the organs of living beings have purposes, enabling the operation, survival, and reproduction of living beings.
When does this approach begin to seem counter-intuitive? (92) When applied to inanimate objects like rocks, glaciers, clouds, planets, stars. (Stephenson may be wrong to think Aristotle believed rocks have purposes.)
7. In what sense is Aristotle (a or the) father of biology, and why is that important for his theory of human nature?
He seeks to understand living beings, plants and animals including humans, in terms of the four causes. He also develops the classificatory system for distinguishing and relating types of plants and animals. For instance, animals includes reptiles, birds, etc. Mammals include humans, tigers, etc. Species like humans include individuals that share their species nature with one another. (93)
8. How does Aristotle understand soul (psyche)?
Soul refers to a distinctive way of being and functioning that might characterize a body consisting of organs. (Note how this differs from Plato's view.)
What does "form" mean in this context?
The soul is the form [also "first actuality"] of a living being. It is what makes the being alive [and the body not a corpse]. (93-94)
Is it adequate (always) to conceive of Aristotelian form in terms of shape? Not as it functions in biology. It would be better to say that, in the case of plants, soul is the life of the plant. (94)
9. What kind of soul do plants have—what capacities or functions do we find in them generally?
Metabolism (nutrition, the capacity for assimilating food to the body, repairing cuts, physical growth to maturity) and reproduction. Generally, Aristotle attributes the nutritive faculty to plants. (Plant souls are called nutritive souls.)
What seems to be distinctive of animal souls? (94)
Sense-perception, desire (or appetite), self-movement. The sensitive faculty, for short. With some hypothetical exceptions, whatever has sensitive soul also has the nutritive faculty. Nonhuman animal souls are called sensitive souls.
10. What do humans have that seems "extra" to what animals have?
Thought and intellect. "Thought" here means the type of thought that is expressed in language, in utterances that claim to be true; thought that uses concepts and give reasons. The rational faculty is a cluster of faculties that are fundamental (Aristotle thinks also "unique") to members of the human species.
Why does Stevenson say that the human mind is not basically a thing in Aristotle's view?
Aristotle regards the intellect or rational faculty as a cluster of capacities found in an animal that has a specific set of organs. These capacities include concept formation, reasoning, trying to prove conclusions, trying to discover the best means to promote a given end. (94)
11. How does Aristotle's view of the relation between soul and body compare with Plato's?
Plato is tempted to treat soul as an independent or potentially independent thing. Aristotle regards it as the way (or ways) that an individual animal or plant lives, operates, functions . . . With early Greek materialists?
The early Greek materialists held that soul was nothing more than a gaslike body or a set of miniscule fast-moving bodies inside the weightier, more easily perceptible aspect of a living being we usually call its body. (bottom 94)
12. What puzzling qualification does Aristotle make to the view summarized at bottom 94? The intellect, or an aspect of the intellect that relates to unchanging concepts or realities, can exist separately from physical or perishable aspects of the person. (95)
13. How does Aristotle deal with the apparent tensions within the human soul, which Plato explained with his three-part theory?
He basically accepts Plato's distinction between the rational faculty and the non-rational faculties (which Aristotle calls pathê or passions) that can listen to, or obey, reason. But usually he does not stress the distinction between, say, the spirited faculty . . . and the appetitive faculty . . . (95)
14. What distinction does Aristotle draw within the rational or intellectual part of the soul? (95-96)
There is a difference between the theoretical part that understands and reaches conclusions by considering necessary truths, which pertain to mathematics and certain physical sciences (especially those related to heavenly bodies); and the deliberative or practical part that seeks to determine what actions or means best promote the ends or goals we have.
15. Does Aristotle think of humans as naturally isolated from one another? Explain. No, we are inherently social (political, civic) animals. We have an activity that is common to a whole community (polis). We don't just hang around with one another (gregarious animals do).
What is distinctive of our lives together?
We are aware of justice and injustice and we discuss it together. Our humanity as social/political animals is fulfilled only when we live in city-states under a common law. (96)
17. Are members of all social classes equally capable of reasoning, according to Aristotle?
Apart from gender differences, Aristotle held that there are innate differences between persons in terms of their ability to think. He accepted Plato's notion of the importance of an economic division of labor and held that many people, though well-enough suited for manual labor and heavy lifting, could not partake of the higher (more conceptual) forms of thought. But they could follow directions from those who were their intellectual superiors. Is he opposed in principle to slavery? No. Explain. There are human beings who differ from other humans "as the body differs from the soul," and such men are naturally slaves. … (96-97)
18. If we accept the prevailing modern (democratic, "liberal") assumptions on these matters, does that mean we can find nothing of value in Aristotle?
No, we could still accept
(1) Aristotle's analysis of the mind as a set of the capacities of the living bodyand something like
(2) Aristotle's conception of human fulfillment (as a life of activity in accord with excellent reasoning)
while simultaneously maintaining that
(3) rational capacities are equally present in all classes of persons, regardless of sex, class, ethnicity and language and that
(4) basic rights (usually linked to reason) pertain to everybody. (97) 19. How does Aristotle understand eudaimonia?
It is the human end, or perfection. It is often translated happiness, but in modern English this term loses the connection with moral excellence that is key to Aristotle's meaning.What translations besides "happiness" help us understand what he means? The word means something like fulfillment, or flourishing; an admirably fulfilled life.
20. What does "the human good" (i.e., eudaimonia) turn out to be? "Activity of soul in accordance with excellence (and if more excellences than one, in accordance with the best and most complete."
Does "excellence" in this definition refer to excellence in running or digesting food, or in some other kind of activity? Some other kind of activity.
If the latter, how should we specify it? Excellence in use of reason, but this includes both theoretical reason and practical reason. (See the direct quote at top of p. 99 and the explanation that immediately follows.)
21. What two types of excellence (=virtue) does A. distinguish? Intellectual virtue and moral virtue.
What three excellences of intellect ("intellectual virtues") does Aristotle distinguish? (99) Sophia (philosophical wisdom), techne (art or craft), and phronesis (practical wisdom). All of them involve the excellent use of reason.
22. How does sophia differ from techne? Sophia is about eternal truths, concerned with mathematics and the unchanging aspects of the natural world. Techne is knowledge related to making things, whether crops, buildings, military victories, or successful voyages.
What distinction does Aristotle make that Plato does not? Between sophia and phronesis. Plato thought that if you really knew the eternal forms, you would know what should be done in the design of the state and in particular personal choices. Aristotle's view is that moral truths were true only for the most part and their applicability varies with the situation. So you could not have a strictly scientific knowledge of moral and political matters. (99)
23. With what must a person start if he or she is to become good?
A good upbringing, a training in virtuous habits from childhood. (See also pp. 102-103.)
The activity of what sort of person does Aristotle think that his discussion of the nature of the virtues can help?
Social theorists and legislators, according to Stevenson. "Legislators" actually refers to those who craft and enact the laws, and in a democratic society like Athens that is a large number of citizens. (100) Aristotle's own lectures on ethics probably belong to "social theory" in Stevenson's sense; but they are meant to help "legislators" think clearly about their task.
24. In what sense are the moral virtues moderation, courage, open-handedness, mildness, and wit "means" or intermediates?
Moderation is the mean between over-indulgence in pleasures and an insensitivity to normal human pleasures.In each case the mean, the virtue, avoids excess and deficiency.
Courage is the mean between cowardice and foolhardy rashness.
Open-handedness is the mean between stinginess and prodigality.
Mildness is the mean between irascibility (a disposition to excessive anger) and inirascibility (the inability to get angry even when you should)
Relate the first, second, and fourth of these to (different) emotions, the third to a specific activity.
Moderation is related to enjoyment of physical pleasure.25. How does Aristotle's analysis of greatness of soul contrast with the perspective of Matthew 5:3-5?
Courage is related to fear and confidence.
Mildness is related to anger.
Open-handedness is related to the giving of money. (100)Greatness of soul is the excellence of those who are worthy of great things and conscious of it. For Aristotle, it is a mean between conceitedness and smallness of soul. Matthew 5:3-5's emphasis upon meekness and poverty in spirit suggests a disagreement with Aristotle at this point. This Gospel makes a virtue out of what Aristotle probably regards as a vice. (101)
27. What are some of the motives that incline people to fall short of virtue? Pleasure, which can cause us to fall short of what temperance demands; fear, which can cause us to fall short of what courage demands. (101)
29. How can inner harmony be attained, according to Aristotle?
By habituation, as the result of one's own past actions.
What kind of social environment can promote moral virtue?
Exhortation, praise, and blame can have some positive effect.
Why does Aristotle think that, to some extent, whether I am good or bad is up to me? Our past actions determine what we eventually become. (102)
30. Why are laws the violation of which produces punishments necessary?
Most people do not respond to concern about what others think of them so much as to fear of painful punishments.
If a person develops bad moral habits, is it easy for others to talk him or her out of them? No. Bad character is resistant to reform. (102)
31. What three conceptions of the fulfilled life does Aristotle discuss? (103-104)
Lives devoted to pleasure; . . . to the pursuit of honor and social service; … to intellectual inquiry and reflection.
32. How does Aristotle argue that the best life is the life of reflection (theoria, usual translation "contemplation")? (104)
The best life is one in which the best part of the human being is activated; that rules out pursuit of physical pleasure and entertainment. He also rules out the pursuit of honor, if being honored is the goal (because that would make our happiness dependent upon other people, whose judgments may be rapidly change). The life of contemplation (of what we know, having discovered eternal truths) is best, because contemplation can be done by ourselves and the objects of such contemplation, the perfect, celestial beings and the invisible spheres on which they rotate, are the finest things in the universe. He also argues that this type of human life is most divine because the immortal gods, who are more blessed than we are, probably engage in it themselves.
Note: Aristotle is willing to grant that the life of the morally excellent and practically wise political leader is a sort of eudaimonia, though it's not as exalted as reflective or contemplative eudaimonia.
Even the noblest political projects are fraught with anxiety.