Plato Flashcards
Describe Cephalus and his opinions in The Republic. How does Socrates argue against him.
Cephalus is older, religious, and wealthy. He thinks that principles of justice change from place to place and that truthfulness is the most universal essence of justice.
Socrates’ counter: sometimes the truth can hurt people, and then it is both just and unjust
What was the original title of the republic? What did it mean?
“Politeia, or On the Just”
Politeia = political beliefs of a community. Refers to acceptable means to obtain justice in community
“On the just” = what is universally true
Essentially, the book will proceed from opinions on justice to what is universally true
Describe Polemarchus and his opinions in The Republic. How does Socrates argue against him.
Polemarchus is Cephalus’ son. He says that justice is doing good to friends and harm to enemies.
Socrates’ counter: We pick who our friends and enemies are, and we don’t know whether they are truly good or bad.
Describe Thrasymachus and his opinions in The Republic. How does Socrates argue against him.
Thrasymachus is a professional speech writer. He thinks that might is right, and that justice is precisely what the wealthy and powerful say it is.
Socrates’ counter: But if what the powerful want is best for the people, giving the powerful what they want is harming them, so it is both just and unjust
What are the three fundamental parts of the soul?
Reason, desire, willpower
What is the difference between Plato’s “philosophical soul” and “political soul”?
Philosophical soul - believes in a harmony of reason and desire to achieve happiness
Political soul - believes in a hierarchy of reason and desire
What are Glaucon’s views on justice in “The Republic”?
Glaucon thinks that people choose justice because it is less painful, there are less repercussions, but that when given the choice to be unjust they often will. He argues that injustice is the happiest life, you simply need to perfect not getting caught.
What are the three stages of “The City” in The Repiblic?
What do they represent?
City of necessity - Political community (soul) where people develop specializations to make goods needed for human life
City of sows - People start to grow more than they need and turn a profit. Conflict arises between merchants and growers. People start to desire luxury items and simply do nothing all day (thus, city of sows)
Feverish city - further conflict arises between those who can afford luxury items and those who cannot.
These stages can represent a life where one progresses to another. The City of Necessity is the baby, the City of Sows is the lazy teenager, and the Feverish City is an unhappy and conflicted adult. Merchants represent desires, and farmer represent material necessity.
What does Socrates’ image of “the guardians” represent?
“The Guardians” are the protectors of “The City”. They represent your will, which forces you to stop and contemplate your own desires
What four traits must Plato’s Guardians have?
- Are spirited (strong desire to seek the good and reject the bad)
- Gentle (do not suppress desires but instead direct those desires toward the good)
- Love learning
- Have a love of knowledge directed at learning the truth about what is good
What are Plato’s virtues of the soul?
Virtue of reason is wisdom
Virtue of desire is moderation through self control
Virtue of will is courage
Define the difference between Eristic debates and dialectic debates
Eristic - the goal of Eristic debates is to discredit them, primarily by appealing to the prejudices of your audience - attacking opponents “motive”
Dialectic - Involves having a conversation/argument and evaluating someone’s proof
What are Plato’s 3 waves? What do waves one and two have in common?
First Wave - Equality of women. Is the political equality of women possible? Yes. Is it necessarily good? Maybe not. Women have historically performed selfless tasks, so maybe it would be better to have men be more nurturing than having women be less so.
Second wave - Communal wives and children. Knowing your own children is unjust, so children must be removed from the home and reared separately. Is this possible? Maybe. Is it desirable? Not really.
These two waves share the common idea that political communities stifle any expression of eros.
The Third Wave - The philosopher king. Desirable? Yes! The philosopher king would be educated in both Philosophy and politics, best of both worlds. But is this possible? No. It is very hard to master politics AND Philosophy in one lifetime
What are the five characteristics Plato says define a philosopher?
- Eros of the world
- Eros of knowledge
- Desiring knowledge of THE WHOLE
- Desiring knowledge of what “is” - the unchanging, trans historical truth
- Desiring self knowledge
Describe Plato’s image of the cave
Imagine there is a whole bunch of people sitting at the bottom of the cave, each with a piece of wood on each side of their head, holding their head facing forward. They are also chained to the floor of the cave. There are shadows in this cave, indicating that there is a source of light and something blocking it. There is a fire, and a group of people just below the fire, holding puppets and creating shadow puppets. These people are puppeteers.
What are these things images of?
The fire is political doctrine. The people are at the bottom, stuck staring at the shadows that they don’t understand (political prejudices). The puppeteers are the people/methods that political information is filtered through (public art, news, etc.). We are habituated to these ideas via popular art. The wooden boards represent our ignorance of other ideas. What do the chains represent? You. You are chained to the cave because you react to everything with moral indignation (the anger we feel when we are presented with an idea that is contrary to what we are habituated to believe). We passionately reject or appear apathetically indifferent to things that are contrary to our habituated beliefs.
