Unit 2 - Plato Lecture

Question 1

Reason

Answer 1

Empirical method is subordinate
Fairly social process
2 people are more efficient than one
Dialectical

Question 2

Spirit

Answer 2

Pride
Courage
Aggression
Energy
Striving
Willingness to fight

Question 3

Appetite

Answer 3

Things you want, even to excess
Aside from what spirit wants
Food, drink, sex, video games, etc.

Question 4

Plato’s 3 componenets

Answer 4

Reason
Spirit
Appetite

Question 5

Justice

Answer 5

Balance and reason control justice
Spirit and reason are allies
Appetite has partial freedom but is controlled by reason and spirit

Question 6

The forms

Answer 6

Similar to objects as having essences
Highest form - form of the good
eg. visual image of a horse is not as real as the “form” of the horse - the essence of it
eg. idealized form of the human being would be the genome and we are deviations from it

Question 7

Science based on essences

Answer 7

eg. Newton’s Law - don’t see the laws but they underlie what we see

Question 8

5 types of society

Answer 8

Ideal society
Timarchy
Oligarchy
Anarchic democracy
Tyranny

Question 9

Hierarchy of society

Answer 9

Rulers -> auxiliaries -> workers

Question 10

Rulers

Answer 10

Guided by reason and do not want the excesses

eg. eat plain food, have plain clothes/home etc

Question 11

Problem with hierarchy

Answer 11

No one is perfectly ruled by reason

Someone will try to rise to the top

Question 12

Tyranny

Answer 12

Perfect injustice

Dominated by the worst person who is ruled by the worst appetites

Question 13

Impact of Plato on Kant

Answer 13

Mixed rationalism and empiricism
Concepts w/o percepts = empty
Percepts w/o concepts = blind

Question 14

Aaron Beck & the Socratic method

Answer 14

Soc method = Dialectical Behavioural Therapy
Using questions to get answers, and logic to expose weaknesses
Impact of dialogue as an education tool

Question 15

Plato and psychology

Answer 15

There are underlying principles at work behind what we see

We try to get to the essence of things

Question 16

Chomsky and Skinner

Answer 16

Idea that we are not Tabula Rasa, in terms of language and linguistics

Question 17

Kant & the categorical imperative

Answer 17

Moral action has good consequences
Individual action that makes people happy is not always intuitive
Must engage in actions based on a principle that everyone together leads to good consequences
Result of action is more important than action