Philosophy Midterm Flashcards
Goal of life: Life justly
Avoid 4 incorrect definitions of justice
Reject luxury
Avoid Four incorrect definition of justice
Cephalius says to speak the truth and pay your deabts and socrates respond with it being incorrect because the of gteh example of returning a weapon to a madman.
Polemarchos says to give good to friends and evil to enemies and Socrates responds with incorrect because people err about good and evil because of the injured horse
Tharsymuchus says advantage or interest of the stronger especially with the government Socrates says incorrect because sometimes the stronger male rules that are not in their interest yet people must still obey them. He says if you are mistaken you are not stronger at that point example mathematician, Socrates says incorrect becasye iof the true vs false practinioner of an art physisan true pratiocner works for the weaker person. Tharysumuchus uses the example of the sheperd some arts are meant to be exploited, the tyrant I justice on the largest scale leads to a situation where the tyrant has more freedom dn mastery people consider a hero, Socrates says that he is incorrect because mpeny making is its own art and everyone should only practice one art at a time. Physicians helps himself the the physician is practising two arts at once. Unjust city, the injustice will lead to people division with each other, same with individual people.
Glaucon says justice is lesser evil, its bets to commit justice without fear of retribution, the worst life is suffer injustice without retribution, most people realize that they are not strong enough to live their best life. Even good people believe example of the ring of gyges.
Life of the perfectly unjust vs perfectly just man.
Reject Luxury
Simple City- 4-5 people, basic professions, farmes, carpenters. Everyone has a one job, every art has its own time, every man has its won temperament
Complex city- trades, blakcmsiths, everyone has one job, harmony, city has achieved justice
Luxurios city equals you want more of it, invade ones neighbors because you have added professions that fulfill no-natural want example musians, actors, need more resources to feed them, need more land. Soldiers protect land, high spriicts and enjoy inflicting pain. Start to rely on education and turn them into tame guard dorgs; friendly o master and attack others
Goal of life: Know the good
simile of the sun
The divded line
Allegory of the cave
Simile of the sun
if you look around the world you will see many beautiful things, they all participate in the idea or form beauty. In order for vision to work we need our sight which is in the eye, light and objects. when you have all three, the person has clarity, but if one of them turn to darkness, the person does not have clarity anymore Knowledge stems from mind, food and form; the more knowledge one has, the more one turns away from good, leaving the person with less clarity. The sun rules the world of the visible, just like the good rules the invisible world.
The Divided Line
The further into the invisible line the more truth and clarity one will receive
Hypothesis: power of understanding (calculation) triangle, square etc
Dialectic: knowledge of first principles, the nature of being and of being one, example reason
The further into the visible world, the less truth and less clarity one will receive
The lowest level of knowledge is shadows and reflections; these are opinions
The next level of knowledge is objects, animals and etc; there are true opinions, actually true
Allegory of the cave
Chained to a wall: whoever names the things they see in the cave, will become the important person in the cave.
Becoming Unchained: You stand up and turn around and you are in for a really bad time. things are not real, because the prisoners have been sitting in the shadows and it has no relationship to anything but it has a relation as to how you see the world
Someone throws you out of the cave: It’s brighter than anything out there. You see something reflecting and it is the moon, you start seeing things now and start seeing reality, reflections and shadows are the absence of the sun.
Return to the cave: you share with everyone what you saw and two of your friends make fun of you because you are not capable of gaining any of the rewards society gives you. When your eyes acclimate, you can use the ability of what you learned and people will see then see you as the ruler because you can name the shadows better.
Goal of Life: Obey the Law
Listen to the wise
Do not do injustice to another
Do not fear death
Listen to the wise
Cebuis says many will not be purseaded that I tried to help you, sebuis responds should we care about the opinion of the many, cebes responds do the greatest evil to anyone lost their good opinion, sebius responds many cabnnot make a man either wise or foolish; only the opinion of some men are to be regarded. Good people are to be regarded, good is equal to the opinion of the wise. Plato gives the example of a gymnast; only listen to their coach, if the gynmast listened to the many, they would destroy their health and we all agree that the would soul is better than the body. We sghopuld listen to the one man that has understand and truth.
Do not do injustice to one another
Cebes says bjection, many can kill us and Seimuis says not more life but a good life is to be chiefly valued.
In order to do a good life it euqals to doing no wrong, injustice is always an evil and dishonour to who acts injustcly, we must not injure anyone even if they injure us. Laws should not be set aside and trampled by individuals, Sebuis says what if laws have iunjure us, laws responds did we not bring you into existence? education? you are our child and slave. Just as it would be wrong to strike a father or a master wghi hit you, so it would be wrign to strike us the laws. Thecountry that you live in is greater than a mother or father, if you think we are wrong purseade us, if you cannot purseaude us then you mist bear penalty. there is an implied contract between laws and person who live where the laws are at. If you disobey us, then ouyr brothers laws of the afterlife will not receievb you kindly.
Do not fear death
Philosopher are always pursuing death and dying. Body hinders us from having true knowledge. True knowledge is only had in thought, thought is best when the mind takes leave of the body. Example Know forms, souls survives the body
Argument of opposites: All things have opposites which are generated out of those opposites, better is generated from the worst. There is an opposite of life as sleep is the opposite of waking: generated from one another; wake b/c of asleep. Socrates says you are alive because you were previously dead. If anything that is alive only partook of death, eventually everything would be dead; the universe would contain nothing alive
Argument from knowledge as recollection: what a man recollects he must have known at some point. Recillection derived from either like or unlike, example picture of simiusos you remember your friend cebes. Think of two sticks, they can never have absolute equality, two sticks that are unequal yet they strive for equality,even though they always fall short. Since you have never perceived absolute equality, you must have known it before you could see or could hear, so you have known it and all other ideas before you were born, birth confused you on what you already knew
Goal of lIfe: Pursue Happiness
Nature of Happiness
Achieve Virtue
Nature of Happiness
Everything in the universe is trying to achieve something a goal, end, or good. What is the chied good of man is? because if you know it you will be like an archer with a target and know wo what to aim at in life. Not everyone should study ethics neither the young or the old because the young have no experience with the tyiosn of what socrates calls a public life. Ethics start from those expericena because the young follow their passions. Ethics aims at action. Gnereral agreement that happiness of the chief good of human life
Types of life: Pleasure-brute animals; Life in society- public life, more active, you belive that honor will lead to happiness but virtue is greater honor becasuye you only want honor from the virtous; life of contemplation
Honor is a good of the soul: is an action not a state of mind, the winner of the olympicsdoes not mean you are the strongest but that you are the strongest of those who choose to compete. A state of mind can exit without any good itself. Lead to the most pleasant life bcvirtuypus action is plreasnt by nature Anyhting please by nature does not clash.
Achieve virtue
Two types of virtue: intellectual-comes from teaching and moral virtues which comes from habit. Two reasons you cannot be virtuos are by things that are by nature cannot be changed by habit example stone the same properties of the rock are put by nature, natural place and location and the second reason is virtue of something that is pursued by the relative mean but its not easy, same cause can both produce and destroy time example the lyre, spolied by both excess and defect, example courage, and choose mean relative to us not a genarl mean example milo.
Practicing virtue means greater capacity, for virtue means more virtue and more practice of more virtue.
Viruas man takes pleasure in virtuas action, slefg mastery and the three features of a virtual man are have knowledge, choose for its won sake, must be stable and unapt to change. Vice often action without a mean example hiomicide. Courgae and selfmatery on emust have these in order to be virtuos.
Goal of Life: Choose Well
Delibrate correctly
With the correct p[eopel
