LISTEN
LH
1. What kind of conversation did Socrates consider a success?
2. What was wisdom, for Socrates?
3. It is mostly through what texts that we know the ideas and beliefs of Socrates?
1. What kind of conversation did Socrates consider a success?
2. What was wisdom, for Socrates?
3. It is mostly through what texts that we know the ideas and beliefs of Socrates?
4. With what Platonic theory does the parable of the cave connect?
5. Was it abstract or empircal reasoning that Plato valued more?
6. According to Plato, how was the ideal society organized?
6. According to Plato, how was the ideal society organized?
FL 13-14
10. What Englightenment attitude resulted in the tendency to "disbelieve official explanations?"
11. What do religious and conspiratorial explanations have in common?
12. What was the Freemasons' Secret, according to Ben Franklin?
13. How did many Northerners account for their side's early setbacks in the Civil War?
14. What novel idealized the South and was considered "an antidote to the abolition mischief?"
15. Who did Mark Twain blame for "measureless harm" that reversed southern progress and led to the Civil War?
DQ
DQ
- Given the near-universal acknowledgement by all but the most hateful racists that slavery was wrong, why do you think there remains-at least in some quarters of the south-significant opposition to the removal of statues and other commemorative markers of the old Confederacy?
- Will the South ever get over the Civil War? Can southerners admit that the south was wrong, without also acknowledging the continuing legacy of racist oppression as a source of disequilibrium in our society?
- Do you agree with Socrates' conception of philosophy as "an intimate and collaborative activity" requiring "discussions among small groups of people"? (150) What part should reflecting and writing play in this activity?
- Is devotion to reason accurately characterized as a form of faith? How do you define faith? Is it the same as belief?
- How do you personally rank the importance of making money, having a comfortable home, achieving vocational or social status, helping others, ...?
- Do you try to see beyond superficial qualities in friends and acquaintances, in assessing their attractiveness, or do you tend to judge by appearances? (If the latter, does that make you a shallow person?)
- Must a good teacher always have some specific doctrine or factual content to teach?
- Do you think Socrates really heard the voice of an inner "guardian spirit" or daimon? Or was he talking about what we might call the voice of conscience or reason?
- Do you think you'd have found Socrates' arguments persuasive, if you'd been a member of his jury? (145)
- Should everyone philosophize? Or are some just "called" to that vocation? How do Socrates and Plato differ on this point?
- Socrates says "goodness brings wealth and every other blessing"... (148) What would he say about people who achieve wealth and success by behaving badly? (Tom Brady maybe, for instance?) What would he say about our society, and those who value money-making above all? Would he agree with Wm James regarding "success"? (See sidebar quote...)
- How do you rank the virtues? (152)
- What's your response to the Euthyphro question? (158)
- What role do you think your early environment, including the music and stories you heard, played in the formation of your character? (161)
- Was Diogenes "Socrates gone mad"? (169) Is it a mistake to accept and follow the conventions of your community? Should a philosopher flout convention and live like a dog (who's not been trained)?
- Is talking better than writing? (LH 4)
- Where do you imagine you would be in the social hierarchy, if you lived in Plato's ideal republic? (LH 6)
- Do you think Socrates did in fact "corrupt the youth"? (LH 7)
- Do humans ever achieve or encounter perfection in any respect?
- Do you agree with Socrates/Plato about the ladder of love?
- Is there an important difference between practical and theoretical knowledge? Is knowledge for its own sake as valuable as knowing "how to"?
- Does human nature mirror society, and vice versa? Can we learn how to manage one by imitating the other?
- Was Plato right to suggest that the fate of Socrates was like that of the escaped cavedweller in his Republic? (199)
 | Socrates (@socratesquots) |
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Why do souls exceeding long to behold the truth? Because truth is where rest is found.
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Socrates, cosmopolitan
When asked where he came from, Diogenes replied: “I am a citizen of the world (kosmopolitês)”. Socrates (470-399 BC) concurred: “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”
"There are four main witnesses for the intimate thoughts of Socrates..." (Dream of Reason)
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"I facilitate philosophical discussions, which I call Socrates Cafe..."
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“I don't think that virtue—what we call arete—exists anymore.” No such thing as virtue? How can that be,in this of all places? I'm in the ancient agora of Athens, Greece, and I have just posed the question “What is virtue?"... Six Questions of Socrates
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5 Best Books on Socrates (MM McCabe)... on Plato (Melissa Lane)... "Philosophy's Martyr-Socrates and the Socratics" (in The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottlieb)... Dear Socrates(Philosophy Now)... Euthyphro... Finding your better half (on Plato's Symposium, Socrates in Love, etc.)... Plato's Academy is now a public park (Critchley)...
5 Best Books on Socrates (MM McCabe)... on Plato (Melissa Lane)... "Philosophy's Martyr-Socrates and the Socratics" (in The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottlieb)... Dear Socrates(Philosophy Now)... Euthyphro... Finding your better half (on Plato's Symposium, Socrates in Love, etc.)... Plato's Academy is now a public park (Critchley)...
Soc. ...The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods. Euth. I do not understand your meaning, Socrates. Soc. I will endeavour to explain...==
Arts & Letters Daily search results for “socrates”
2019-04-04 | The real Socrates. We see him as pious, unremitting ethical, and committed to lofty ideas. But what about his surprisingly wide-ranging love life? more »
2019-01-15 | The real Socrates? Plato’s version is pure rationality. Xenophon’s dispenses practical advice, like the merits of dancing alone more »
2014-04-15 | Living?and dying?for a cause. For a poet, for a suffragette, and for Socrates, self-sacrifice was a principled last act. But what does it actually mean? more »
2018-12-08 | Writing weakens the intellect, or so claimed Socrates. Despite this, two new books set out to rehabilitate classical philosophy more »
2016-10-27 | Socrates set the bar too high. Sage, ascetic, gadfly: His purity of motivation is impossible for philosophers to sustain in modern capitalist society more »
2011-01-01 | Socrates dismissed money as irrelevant and even inimical to the good life. But what is so morally corrosive about material comfort? more »
2011-01-01 | 'Late in life, Rousseau acknowledged that it was arrogant of him to promote virtues he couldn''t live up to. Sorry, Socrates, the examined life isn''t what it''s cracked up to be' more »
2018-06-08 | Did you know that Aristotle spoke with a lisp? That Socrates enjoyed dancing? The third-century gossip of Diogenes Laërtius is fascinating, if not always factual more »
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...for “plato” (13)
2017-01-05 | What would Plato tweet? Social media feels like liberation because it seems to unburden us of our shame. But a man without shame, Plato warned, is a slave to desire more »
2012-08-20 | The conscience has long been considered the site of moral reasoning. But from Plato to Sara Ruddick, the female conscience has proven confusing more »
2014-10-22 | It's been said ? Alfred North Whitehead said it ? that the history of philosophy is a 'series of footnotes to Plato.' Funny. And completely wrong more »
2017-12-30 | What, exactly, are thought experiments? Glimpses into Plato’s heavenly realm? Simple, ordinary argumentation? They may be something else entirely: mental modeling more »
2012-08-16 | Plato was wary; Horace, too. And why not? Magic is irrational, a false science. Yet our fascination continues unabated in this rationalist age more »
2015-10-12 | If everything is amazing, why is nobody happy? Consider the answers of two philosophical giants: Plato and Louis C.K. more »
2017-12-06 | Equality is a modern idea. Its detractors have included Plato and Aristotle; indeed, for most Western thinkers, humanity was marked by chasms of distinction more »
2014-03-11 | Plato had strong views about many things: beauty, education, virtue, knowledge. In short, he had a mouth on him. But a cable TV talking head? more »
2010-01-01 | Should some kinds of music, especially pop, be positively discouraged, others encouraged? Standing with Plato, Roger Scruton answers a resounding yes more »
2016-06-01 | It’s odd that poetry can inspire hatred, and yet denunciations of the genre have been lobbed for centuries. It all started with Plato more »
2018-05-12 | For Plato, uprightness made us human; for Kant, people were inherently bent; Hegel worried about stiffness. Why does posture attract such philosophical attention? more »
2016-07-14 | Helen DeWitt went to Oxford to study Euripides and discovered she’d rather be Euripides. Now she rages against the publishing industry: “Plato did not have an editor” more »
2017-03-15 | A democracy with an exceptionalist heritage is unprepared to respond wisely when arrogance takes over. That's the lesson of Athens and Plato: Greatness has to be earned again and again more »
Jesus & Mo
 | Massimo Pigliucci (@mpigliucci) |
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4 essays on Socrates patreon.com/PlatoFootnotes… pic.twitter.com/RTfQ9AKmTu
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 | Dave O'Hara (@Davoh) |
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I love teaching Plato's Socratic dialogues. Not because I am a Platonist but because they invite good questions and good conversation. Their incompleteness suggests that the work of philosophy is not to learn Socrates' alleged doctrines but to continue the dialogue without him.
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...Socrates was not elitist in the normal sense. He didn’t believe that a narrowfew should only ever vote. He did, however, insist that only those who had thought about issues rationally and deeply should be let near a vote. We have forgotten this distinction between an intellectual democracy and a democracy by birthright. We have given the vote to all without connecting it to wisdom. And Socrates knew exactly where that would lead: to a system the Greeks feared above all, demagoguery.
Ancient Athens had painful experience of demagogues, for example, the louche figure of Alcibiades,a rich, charismatic, smooth-talking wealthy man who eroded basic freedoms and helped to push Athens to its disastrous military adventures in Sicily. Socrates knew how easily people seeking election could exploit our desire for easy answers. He asked us to imagine an election debate between two candidates, one who was like a doctor and the other who was like a sweet shop owner. The sweet shop owner would say of his rival: Look, this person here has worked many evils on you. He hurts you, gives you bitter potions and tells you not to eat and drink whatever you like. He’ll never serve you feasts of many and varied pleasant things like I will. Socrates asks us to consider the audience response: Do you think the doctor would be able to reply effectively? The true answer – ‘I cause you trouble, and go against you desires in order to help you’ would cause an uproar among the voters, don’t you think? We have forgotten all about Socrates’s salient warnings against democracy. We have preferred to think of democracy as an unambiguous good – rather than as something that is only ever as effective as the education system that surrounds it. As a result, we have elected many sweet shop owners, and very few doctors.
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From Russell's History-
CHAPTER XI Socrates SOCRATES is a very difficult subject for the historian. There are many men concerning whom it is certain that very little is known, and other men concerning whom it is certain that a great deal is known; but in the case of Socrates the uncertainty is as to whether we know very little or a great deal. He was undoubtedly an Athenian citizen of moderate means, who spent his time in disputation, and taught philosophy to the young, but not for money, like the Sophists. He was certainly tried, condemned to death, and executed in 399 B. C., at about the age of seventy. He was unquestionably a well-known figure in Athens, since Aristophanes caricatured him in The Clouds. But beyond this point we become involved in controversy. Two of his pupils, Xenophon and Plato, wrote voluminously about him, but they said very different things. Even when they agree, it has been suggested by Burnet that Xenophon is copying Plato. Where they disagree, some believe the one, some the other, some neither. In such a dangerous dispute, I shall not venture to take sides, but I will set out briefly the various points of view. Let us begin with Xenophon, a military man, not very liberally endowed with brains, and on the whole conventional in his outlook. Xenophon is pained that Socrates should have been accused of impiety and of corrupting the youth; he contends that, on the contrary, Socrates was eminently pious and had a thoroughly wholesome effect upon those who came under his influence. His ideas, it appears, so -82- far from being subversive, were rather dull and commonplace. This defence goes too far, since it leaves the hostility to Socrates unexplained. As Burnet says ( Thales to Plato, p. 149): "Xenophon's defence of Socrates is too successful. He would never have been put to death if he had been like that." There has been a tendency to think that everything Xenophon says must be true, because he had not the wits to think of anything untrue. This is a very invalid line of argument. A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand. I would rather be reported by my bitterest enemy among philosophers than by a friend innocent of philosophy. We cannot therefore accept what Xenophon says if it either involves any difficult point in philosophy or is part of an argument to prove that Socrates was unjustly condemned. Nevertheless, some of Xenophon's reminiscences are very convincing. He tells (as Plato also does) how Socrates was continually occupied with the problem of getting competent men into positions of power. He would ask such questions as: "If I wanted a shoe mended, whom should I employ?" To which some ingenuous youth would answer: "A shoemaker, O Socrates." He would go on to carpenters, coppersmiths, etc., and finally ask some such question as "who should mend the Ship of State?" When he fell into conflict with the Thirty Tyrants, Critias, their chief, who knew his ways from having studied under him, forbade him to continue teaching the young, and added: "You had better be done with your shoemakers, carpenters, and coppersmiths. These must be pretty well trodden out at heel by this time, considering the circulation you have given them" ( Xenophon, Memorabilia, Bk. I, Chap. II). This happened during the brief oligarchic government established by the Spartans at the end of the Peloponnesian War. But at most times Athens was democratic, so much so that even generals were elected or chosen by lot. Socrates came across a young man who wished to become a general, and persuaded him that it would be well to know something of the art of war. The young man accordingly went away and took a brief course in tactics. When he returned, Socrates, after some satirical praise, sent him back for further instruction (ib. Bk. III, Chap I). Another young man he set to learning the principles of -83- finance. He tried the same sort of plan on many people, including the war minister; but it was decided that it was easier to silence him by means of the hemlock than to cure the evils of which he complained. With Plato's account of Socrates, the difficulty is quite a different one from what it is in the case of Xenophon, namely, that it is very hard to judge how far Plato means to portray the historical Socrates, and how far he intends the person called "Socrates" in his dialogues to be merely the mouthpiece of his own opinions. Plato, in addition to being a philosopher, is an imaginative writer of great genius and charm. No one supposes, and he himself does not seriously pretend, that the conversations in his dialogues took place just as he records them. Nevertheless, at any rate in the earlier dialogues, the conversation is completely natural and the characters quite convincing. It is the excellence of Plato as a writer of fiction that throws doubt on him as a historian. His Socrates is a consistent and extraordinarily interesting character, far beyond the power of most men to invent; but I think Platocould have invented him. Whether he did so is of course another question... (continues)
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An old post-
Socrates & Plato
Western philosophy began well before Socrates, but we'll leave the pre-Socratics to themselves for now and pretend that Socrates was indeed the first (western) philosopher. We'll also soft-pedal Bertrand Russell's judgment (later shared by Izzy Stone) that the Platonic Socrates is "dishonest and sophistical in argument... smug and unctuous... not scientific in his thinking... [guilty of] treachery to truth" and so on. If the esteemed Socrates-as-paragon and personification of intellectual integrity ("I'd rather die than give up my philosophy" etc.) didn't exist we'd have had to invent him. Perhaps Plato did.
In the southern part of Europe is a little country called Greece… the Greeks have lived in it for more than three thousand years. In olden times they believed that before they came to the land it was the home of the gods, and they used to tell wonderful stories…
And then Socrates came along to challenge some of those stories. (There actually were some important pre-Socratics like Thales and Democritus already challenging what everybody knew, but we’re jumping ahead in our Little History.) And that’s why, from a western philosopher’s point of view, the Greeks matter.
The old Parthenon must have been lovely, but I think ours is prettier nowadays. And btw, our Parthenon's city ("The Athens of the South") is hot (as in cool) lately.
[There's a new theory about the old Parthenon, btw. "Horses and riders, youths and elders, men and women, animals being led to sacrifice: What is the Parthenon’s frieze telling us?"... more]
Socrates, from Alopece, near Athens, asked a lot of questions. Like Gilda Radner's Roseanne Roseannadanna. Like Bertrand Russell:
Bertrand Russell @B_RussellQuotesJan 31
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
Did curiosity kill the philosopher? No, a narrow plurality of 500 jurors did. (His unrepentant attitude during sentencing didn't help, either.) They convicted him of "impiety" (atheism) and corrupting the youth of Athens. One more reason I'm lucky to live in the 21st century: I don't like hemlock. I'm like Woody Allen, that way. (But if shocking new allegations are true, hemlock may be too good for him.) Steve Martin (did I mention that he was a philosophy major?) had a go at it too. Here's a good Discussion Question: what would you do, in Socrates' cell?
He was “snub-nosed, podgy, shabby and a bit strange,” says our text. "He was ugly," says podcastee Mary McCabe. But brilliant and charismatic too, as gadflies go. Said he had nothing to teach, but those around him (including young Plato) said they learned plenty from him, especially how
to discuss with others in this open-minded, open-ended way that allows them to reflect on what they think and us to reflect on what we think, without dictating, without dogma, without insistence, and without imperative... to be true to themselves: to be sincere about their beliefs and to be honest... and to have some respect for their companion. If that's not good teaching, what is?
Socrates & Plato
Western philosophy began well before Socrates, but we'll leave the pre-Socratics to themselves for now and pretend that Socrates was indeed the first (western) philosopher. We'll also soft-pedal Bertrand Russell's judgment (later shared by Izzy Stone) that the Platonic Socrates is "dishonest and sophistical in argument... smug and unctuous... not scientific in his thinking... [guilty of] treachery to truth" and so on. If the esteemed Socrates-as-paragon and personification of intellectual integrity ("I'd rather die than give up my philosophy" etc.) didn't exist we'd have had to invent him. Perhaps Plato did.
In the southern part of Europe is a little country called Greece… the Greeks have lived in it for more than three thousand years. In olden times they believed that before they came to the land it was the home of the gods, and they used to tell wonderful stories…
And then Socrates came along to challenge some of those stories. (There actually were some important pre-Socratics like Thales and Democritus already challenging what everybody knew, but we’re jumping ahead in our Little History.) And that’s why, from a western philosopher’s point of view, the Greeks matter.
The old Parthenon must have been lovely, but I think ours is prettier nowadays. And btw, our Parthenon's city ("The Athens of the South") is hot (as in cool) lately.[There's a new theory about the old Parthenon, btw. "Horses and riders, youths and elders, men and women, animals being led to sacrifice: What is the Parthenon’s frieze telling us?"... more]
Socrates, from Alopece, near Athens, asked a lot of questions. Like Gilda Radner's Roseanne Roseannadanna. Like Bertrand Russell:
Bertrand Russell @B_RussellQuotesJan 31In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
Did curiosity kill the philosopher? No, a narrow plurality of 500 jurors did. (His unrepentant attitude during sentencing didn't help, either.) They convicted him of "impiety" (atheism) and corrupting the youth of Athens. One more reason I'm lucky to live in the 21st century: I don't like hemlock. I'm like Woody Allen, that way. (But if shocking new allegations are true, hemlock may be too good for him.) Steve Martin (did I mention that he was a philosophy major?) had a go at it too. Here's a good Discussion Question: what would you do, in Socrates' cell?
He was “snub-nosed, podgy, shabby and a bit strange,” says our text. "He was ugly," says podcastee Mary McCabe. But brilliant and charismatic too, as gadflies go. Said he had nothing to teach, but those around him (including young Plato) said they learned plenty from him, especially how
to discuss with others in this open-minded, open-ended way that allows them to reflect on what they think and us to reflect on what we think, without dictating, without dogma, without insistence, and without imperative... to be true to themselves: to be sincere about their beliefs and to be honest... and to have some respect for their companion. If that's not good teaching, what is? The annotated and hyperlinked Last Days of Socrates is a gripping and inspiring tale, whether or not its hero was really as heroic through all the days of his life as Plato and his other admirers would have us believe. The honored pedestal version of this gadfly remains a worthy ideal for philosophy.
"Plato, they say, could stick it away..." -they being Monty Python. And the late great Hitch sang it too, sorta. But Plato was a serious and sober fellow, in Reality, usually capitalizing that word to distinguish it from mere appearance. The everyday world is not at all what it appears to be, he said. If you want Truth and Reality and the Good, get out of your cave and go behold the Forms. He seemed to think that’s what his hero Socrates had done. I’m not so sure. But read the relevant Platonic dialogues telling the tragic and inspiring story of the last days of Socrates and see what you think.
He also had interesting thoughts about love and eros, as expressed through his constant dialogue character "Socrates" (who may or may not have spoken faithfully for his martyred namesake) in Symposium. Angie Hobbs says Plato rejected Aristophanes' mythic notion that we all have one unique other "half," formerly parts of our hermaphroditic spherical selves, that would complete us and make us happy. But he defended a view some of us find equally implausible, the idea that the true and highest love spurns (or spins upward from) particular persons and embraces the Form of Beauty.
The Form of Beauty "is always going to be there for you," but on the other hand "it's never going to love you back." Unrequited affection is hardly what most of us think of as Perfect Love. There's a myth for you. This really was an early foreshadowing of the phenomenon recently deplored in the Stone, our modern turn to abstraction and virtual experience in lieu of immediacy and reality and touch. ("Losing Our Touch", nyt). Reminds me, too, of Rebecca Goldstein's Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away.
We romantics (as Angie Hobbs pronounces herself, and as I confess to being too) should know better than to seek a perfect match. We should know better than to think that any enduring relationship can be wholly free of "pain, fragility, and transience." Those are inevitable parts of the story and the glory of human (as against Ideal, Platonic, Perfect) love, no? Just ask Cecil the Butler about Sidney Poitier. ["Guess Who's Coming to DInner?"]
*Th20
Aristotle-LISTEN
LH 2
1. What did Aristotle mean by "one swallow doesn't make a summer"?
2. In Raphael's School of Athens, who reaches out towards the world in front of him?
1. What did Aristotle mean by "one swallow doesn't make a summer"?
2. In Raphael's School of Athens, who reaches out towards the world in front of him?
3. What does eudaimonia mean?
4. How can we increase our chance of eudaimonia?
5. Eudaimonia can only be achieved in relation to what?
6. How is "truth by authority" hostile to the spirit of philosophy?
4. How can we increase our chance of eudaimonia?
5. Eudaimonia can only be achieved in relation to what?
6. How is "truth by authority" hostile to the spirit of philosophy?
JW
9. The American pastoral ideal grew out of what?
10. Who called himself a transparent eyeball?
11. What extraordinary (and false) astronomical discovery was reported and widely believed in 1835?
12. What fundamental Fantasyland mindset was exploited and illustrated by the early career of P.T. Barnum?
13. What event celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the new world featured more than a dozen temporary, disposable, full-size facsimile neoclassical buildings?
14. What complex was founded in America over the course of the nineteeth century?
DQ
- What's the difference, for you, between pleasure and happiness?
- If you were depicted in Raphael's School of Athens whose side would you be on, Plato's or Aristotle's? Or would you be in a posture more like Diogenes's?
- Do you agree with Aristotle that tragic events occurring after your death, like your child's tragic illness, can still impact your happiness?
- Are you happy? Are you a hedonist?
- Do you believe anything strictly on the basis of authority, whether that of a person, an institution, or a tradition? Why or why not?
Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall...
Edith Hall on the 5 Best Books on Aristotle:
I was brought up in a strict Protestant family by an Anglican priest of the Calvinist end of the spectrum. I lost my religion completely at the age of 13 and this left a yawning gap. I nearly went off the rails because I could not see why there was any advantage in practising virtue. Without an interventionist or providential deity, I could see no point in trying to be a good person. Of course, I later discovered that it was a major discussion topic in moral philosophy. I had a disturbed teens, as many of us do: I tried all sorts of weird religions and spiritualism and narcotics. I was six years in the moral wilderness and miserable because I needed to have a goal in life, and a reasoned set of guideposts to what would make me happier and those around me happier and, by extension, the whole of society happier.
The first bit of Aristotle I read was book three of the Nicomachean Ethicsfor an undergraduate essay on how characters deliberate and make decisions in tragedy. I was completely blown away by it. I realised that this was exactly what I had been looking for...
...at the risk of sounding flippant, my theory is that Plato invented the theory of the Forms because he was, in contrast [to Aristotle], short-sighted. I am very myopic myself and have had to create an advanced set of images in my head of what things look like to help me move around when I can’t find my contact lenses. I think Plato was the brainy, geeky boy born into a military-minded family of statesmen with tyrannical or oligarchic leanings. He became a philosopher because he couldn’t be a general, whereas Aristotle came striding down from Northern Greece with his 20/20 vision. So, of course Aristotle was interested in empirical study of material, physical reality and what Plato would have thought of as the superficial appearance of things...
He fled Athens because he was accused, just like Socrates, of impiety. But unlike Socrates (who wanted to be a martyr and could have left but didn’t), Aristotle sensibly removed himself back to safe exile in his maternal ancestral home. He died, probably of stomach cancer, not long after getting there, a disappointed man, at the age of sixty-two...
His theory of conscious recollection, which only humans can perform, was a support to me [when my mother was dying]. Animals have memory, he argues, but they cannot deliberately recollect. Aristotle says that this is a uniquely human skill. That idea has also influenced me as an academic: I think I’m a custodian of deliberate recollection because I write history books and consciously retrieve memories of our human past, activate our historical consciousness. But the same notion became invaluable to me, personally, as I went through my memory bank and shared with my mother all my happiest memories of childhood with her. I think that helped my mother as well.
We know that Aristotle used all sorts of aides-memoires. He had a painting of his mother of whom he had been very fond. He never forgot his wife, who died young. He had a bust of Socrates and a picture of a much-loved former student in the Lyceum too. He wrote a poem in memory of the ruler of Assos who had been a close friend. He used deliberate recollections to keep links with the past, even though he didn’t believe in any life after death. I think that is moving. The man who faced death full in the face, one of the very few people in Antiquity who did that, had this brave awareness that life is not only not a dress rehearsal, but it’s the sole performance and premiere rolled into one. I found him extraordinarily helpful in one of life’s most difficult situations.
I think Aristotle is quite simply the most important intellectual who ever lived. He has foundational status in so many academic disciplines, as well as having invented a revolutionary human-centred ethics. Everybody deserves to get access to this marvellous thinker.
(continues)
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The Stagirite said...
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
“One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
“The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.”
==
Edith Hall on the 5 Best Books on Aristotle:
The first bit of Aristotle I read was book three of the Nicomachean Ethicsfor an undergraduate essay on how characters deliberate and make decisions in tragedy. I was completely blown away by it. I realised that this was exactly what I had been looking for...
...at the risk of sounding flippant, my theory is that Plato invented the theory of the Forms because he was, in contrast [to Aristotle], short-sighted. I am very myopic myself and have had to create an advanced set of images in my head of what things look like to help me move around when I can’t find my contact lenses. I think Plato was the brainy, geeky boy born into a military-minded family of statesmen with tyrannical or oligarchic leanings. He became a philosopher because he couldn’t be a general, whereas Aristotle came striding down from Northern Greece with his 20/20 vision. So, of course Aristotle was interested in empirical study of material, physical reality and what Plato would have thought of as the superficial appearance of things...
He fled Athens because he was accused, just like Socrates, of impiety. But unlike Socrates (who wanted to be a martyr and could have left but didn’t), Aristotle sensibly removed himself back to safe exile in his maternal ancestral home. He died, probably of stomach cancer, not long after getting there, a disappointed man, at the age of sixty-two...
==
The Stagirite said...
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
“One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
“The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.”
==
Arts & Letters Daily search results for “aristotle” (18)
2013-08-08 | Aristotle thought it witless. St. Augustine called it a disease. Only in the 1600s did society start to tolerate curiosity more »
2016-10-17 | Philosophy, which, according to Aristotle, begins in wonder, has embraced pedantry and protocols and office charts. Can it be saved from itself? more »
2018-05-14 | Aristotle in America. His understanding of the middle class was a truth upon which the country's founders depended when legislating their own republic more »
2017-01-14 | Because the study of logic ended with Aristotle, Kant believed, the field had run its course. But what was logic for in the first place? more »
2014-09-02 | According to Aristotle, to understand something we must grasp what it is not. We must come to terms with nothingness. But how? more »
2017-05-03 | Welcome to Scrutopia, the English countryside enclave of farmers and philosophers, Wagner and wine, animals and Aristotle. Roger Scruton calls it home more »
2014-04-29 | Can anyone 'sigh blood? or play ?whisper music? on her hair? No matter: As Aristotle knew, a command of metaphor is 'the mark of genius? more »
2017-12-06 | Equality is a modern idea. Its detractors have included Plato and Aristotle; indeed, for most Western thinkers, humanity was marked by chasms of distinction more »
2018-06-01 | Aristotle’s ethics of virtue offers a flexible philosophy for the 21st century. Yet few people read him today. The problem: his academese more »
2014-02-04 | Aristotle noted four types of lies; Augustine eight. Both frowned on fibbing. But some truths can be conveyed only through falsehoods more »
2014-06-06 | Aristotle was a big walker ? thus we call his philosophical school Peripatetic ? but is there really a connection between moving feet and moving minds? more »
2014-08-25 | Long before Cuvier, Darwin, and Mendel, Aristotle was deciphering the mysteries of the cuttlefish's abdominal tract, the ambiguities of hyena genitals more »
2013-07-17 | A philosopher's biography contends with philosophy's dismissal of biography. To wit, Heidegger on Aristotle: ?He was born, he thought, he died? more »
2016-08-15 | Aristotle called plot "the first principle." Though many revolutions have tried to replace it with intellectual or aesthetic dazzle, plot always returns more »
2018-06-08 | Did you know that Aristotle spoke with a lisp? That Socrates enjoyed dancing? The third-century gossip of Diogenes Laërtius is fascinating, if not always factual more »
2016-12-15 | What does it mean to “know” the future? The question has perplexed Aristotle, Newton, Laplace, Thomas Nagel, and quantum theorists alike. Is an answer possible? more »
2018-07-23 | Aristotle wrote an essay, “On Sleep and Sleeplessness,” wondering how and why we sleep. Maybe the real wonder is why we bother to stay awake more »
2018-08-11 | How would Aristotle cater a luncheon? What would he say about résumés or global warming? Such tidbits, among other fluff, make up a new book more »
==
Russell: IN the corpus of Aristotle's works, three treatises on ethics have a place, but two of these are now generally held to be by disciples. the third, the Nicomachean Ethics, remains for the most part unquestioned as to authenticity, but even in this book there is a portion (Books V, VI, and VII) which is held by many to have been incorporated from one of the works of disciples. I shall, however, ignore this controversial question, and treat the book as a whole and as Aristotle's. The views of Aristotle on ethics represent, in the main, the prevailing opinions of educated and experienced men of his day. They are not, like Plato's, impregnated with mystical religion; nor do they -172- countenance such unorthodox theories as are to be found in the Republic concerning property and the family. Those who neither fall below nor rise above the level of decent, well-behaved citizens will find in the Ethics a systematic account of the principles by which they hold that their conduct shold be regulated. Those who demand anything more will be disappointed. The book appeals to the respectable middle-aged, and has been used by them, especially since the seveteenth century, to repress the ardours and enthusiasms of the young. But to a man with any depth of feeling it cannot but be repulsive. The good, we are told, is happiness, which is an activity of the soul. Aristotle says that Plato was right in dividing the soul into tow parts, one rational, the other irrational. The irrational part itself he divides into the vegetative (which is found even in plants) and the appetitive (which is found in all animals). the appetitive part may be in some degree rational, when the goods that it seeks are such as reason approves of. This is essential to the account of virtue, for reason alone, in Aristotle, is purely contemplative, and does not, without the help of appetite, lead to any practical activity. There are tow kinds of virtues, intellectual and moral, corresponding to the two parts of the soul. Intellectual virtues result from teaching, moral virtues from habit. It is the business of the legislator to make the citizens good by forming good habits. We become just by performing just acts, and similarly as regards other virtues. By being compelled to acquire good habits, we shall in time, Aristotle thinks, come to find pleasure in performing good actions. One is reminded of Hamlet's speech to his mother: Assume a virtue if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel, yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. We now come to the famous doctrine of the golden mean. Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice. This is proved by an examination of the various virtues. Courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness; liberality, between prodigality and -173- meanness; proper pride, between vanity and humility; ready wit, between buffoonery and boorishness; modesty, between bashfulness and shamelessness. Some virtues do not seem to fit into this scheme; for instance, truthfulness. Aristotle says that this is a mean between boastfulness and mock-modesty (1108a), but this only applies to truthfulness about oneself. I do not see how truthfulness in any wider sense can be fitted into the scheme. There was once a mayor who had adopted Aristotle's doctrine; at the end of his term of office he made a speech saying that he had endeavoured to steer the narrow line between partiality on the one hand and impartiality on the other. The view of truthfulness as a mean seems scarcely less absurd. Aristotle's opinions on moral questions are always such as were conventional in his day. One some points they differ from those of our time, chiefly where some form of aristocracy comes in. We think that human beings, at least in ethical theory, all have equal rights, and that justice involves equality; Aristotle thinks that justice involves, not equality, but right proportion, which is only sometimes equality...
IEP: Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. He was a student of Plato who in turn studied under Socrates. He was more empirically-minded than Plato or Socrates and is famous for rejecting Plato's theory of forms.
As a prolific writer and polymath, Aristotle radically transformed most, if not all, areas of knowledge he touched. It is no wonder that Aquinas referred to him simply as "The Philosopher." In his lifetime, Aristotle wrote as many as 200 treatises, of which only 31 survive. Unfortunately for us, these works are in the form of lecture notes and draft manuscripts never intended for general readership, so they do not demonstrate his reputed polished prose style which attracted many great followers, including the Roman Cicero. Aristotle was the first to classify areas of human knowledge into distinct disciplines such as mathematics, biology, and ethics. Some of these classifications are still used today.
As the father of the field of logic, he was the first to develop a formalized system for reasoning. Aristotle observed that the validity of any argument can be determined by its structure rather than its content. A classic example of a valid argument is his syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. Given the structure of this argument, as long as the premises are true, then the conclusion is also guaranteed to be true. Aristotle’s brand of logic dominated this area of thought until the rise of modern propositional logic and predicate logic 2000 years later.
Aristotle’s emphasis on good reasoning combined with his belief in the scientific method forms the backdrop for most of his work. For example, in his work in ethics and politics, Aristotle identifies the highest good with intellectual virtue; that is, a moral person is one who cultivates certain virtues based on reasoning. And in his work on psychology and the soul, Aristotle distinguishes sense perception from reason, which unifies and interprets the sense perceptions and is the source of all knowledge.
Aristotle famously rejected Plato’s theory of forms, which states that properties such as beauty are abstract universal entities that exist independent of the objects themselves. Instead, he argued that forms are intrinsic to the objects and cannot exist apart from them, and so must be studied in relation to them. However, in discussing art, Aristotle seems to reject this, and instead argues for idealized universal form which artists attempt to capture in their work.
Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum, a school of learning based in Athens, Greece; and he was an inspiration for the Peripatetics, his followers from the Lyceum... IEP
“One swallow does not make a summer,
neither does one fine day;
similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.”
==
Abstract: Aristotle's ethics is reviewed and his distinction between pleasure and happiness is explained.
A summary of Aristotle's ethics clarifies several important distinction between happiness and pleasure.
2013-08-08 | Aristotle thought it witless. St. Augustine called it a disease. Only in the 1600s did society start to tolerate curiosity more »
2016-10-17 | Philosophy, which, according to Aristotle, begins in wonder, has embraced pedantry and protocols and office charts. Can it be saved from itself? more »
2018-05-14 | Aristotle in America. His understanding of the middle class was a truth upon which the country's founders depended when legislating their own republic more »
2017-01-14 | Because the study of logic ended with Aristotle, Kant believed, the field had run its course. But what was logic for in the first place? more »
2014-09-02 | According to Aristotle, to understand something we must grasp what it is not. We must come to terms with nothingness. But how? more »
2017-05-03 | Welcome to Scrutopia, the English countryside enclave of farmers and philosophers, Wagner and wine, animals and Aristotle. Roger Scruton calls it home more »
2014-04-29 | Can anyone 'sigh blood? or play ?whisper music? on her hair? No matter: As Aristotle knew, a command of metaphor is 'the mark of genius? more »
2017-12-06 | Equality is a modern idea. Its detractors have included Plato and Aristotle; indeed, for most Western thinkers, humanity was marked by chasms of distinction more »
2018-06-01 | Aristotle’s ethics of virtue offers a flexible philosophy for the 21st century. Yet few people read him today. The problem: his academese more »
2014-02-04 | Aristotle noted four types of lies; Augustine eight. Both frowned on fibbing. But some truths can be conveyed only through falsehoods more »
2014-06-06 | Aristotle was a big walker ? thus we call his philosophical school Peripatetic ? but is there really a connection between moving feet and moving minds? more »
2014-08-25 | Long before Cuvier, Darwin, and Mendel, Aristotle was deciphering the mysteries of the cuttlefish's abdominal tract, the ambiguities of hyena genitals more »
2013-07-17 | A philosopher's biography contends with philosophy's dismissal of biography. To wit, Heidegger on Aristotle: ?He was born, he thought, he died? more »
2016-08-15 | Aristotle called plot "the first principle." Though many revolutions have tried to replace it with intellectual or aesthetic dazzle, plot always returns more »
2018-06-08 | Did you know that Aristotle spoke with a lisp? That Socrates enjoyed dancing? The third-century gossip of Diogenes Laërtius is fascinating, if not always factual more »
2016-12-15 | What does it mean to “know” the future? The question has perplexed Aristotle, Newton, Laplace, Thomas Nagel, and quantum theorists alike. Is an answer possible? more »
2018-07-23 | Aristotle wrote an essay, “On Sleep and Sleeplessness,” wondering how and why we sleep. Maybe the real wonder is why we bother to stay awake more »
2018-08-11 | How would Aristotle cater a luncheon? What would he say about résumés or global warming? Such tidbits, among other fluff, make up a new book more »
==
Russell: IN the corpus of Aristotle's works, three treatises on ethics have a place, but two of these are now generally held to be by disciples. the third, the Nicomachean Ethics, remains for the most part unquestioned as to authenticity, but even in this book there is a portion (Books V, VI, and VII) which is held by many to have been incorporated from one of the works of disciples. I shall, however, ignore this controversial question, and treat the book as a whole and as Aristotle's. The views of Aristotle on ethics represent, in the main, the prevailing opinions of educated and experienced men of his day. They are not, like Plato's, impregnated with mystical religion; nor do they -172- countenance such unorthodox theories as are to be found in the Republic concerning property and the family. Those who neither fall below nor rise above the level of decent, well-behaved citizens will find in the Ethics a systematic account of the principles by which they hold that their conduct shold be regulated. Those who demand anything more will be disappointed. The book appeals to the respectable middle-aged, and has been used by them, especially since the seveteenth century, to repress the ardours and enthusiasms of the young. But to a man with any depth of feeling it cannot but be repulsive. The good, we are told, is happiness, which is an activity of the soul. Aristotle says that Plato was right in dividing the soul into tow parts, one rational, the other irrational. The irrational part itself he divides into the vegetative (which is found even in plants) and the appetitive (which is found in all animals). the appetitive part may be in some degree rational, when the goods that it seeks are such as reason approves of. This is essential to the account of virtue, for reason alone, in Aristotle, is purely contemplative, and does not, without the help of appetite, lead to any practical activity. There are tow kinds of virtues, intellectual and moral, corresponding to the two parts of the soul. Intellectual virtues result from teaching, moral virtues from habit. It is the business of the legislator to make the citizens good by forming good habits. We become just by performing just acts, and similarly as regards other virtues. By being compelled to acquire good habits, we shall in time, Aristotle thinks, come to find pleasure in performing good actions. One is reminded of Hamlet's speech to his mother: Assume a virtue if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel, yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. We now come to the famous doctrine of the golden mean. Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice. This is proved by an examination of the various virtues. Courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness; liberality, between prodigality and -173- meanness; proper pride, between vanity and humility; ready wit, between buffoonery and boorishness; modesty, between bashfulness and shamelessness. Some virtues do not seem to fit into this scheme; for instance, truthfulness. Aristotle says that this is a mean between boastfulness and mock-modesty (1108a), but this only applies to truthfulness about oneself. I do not see how truthfulness in any wider sense can be fitted into the scheme. There was once a mayor who had adopted Aristotle's doctrine; at the end of his term of office he made a speech saying that he had endeavoured to steer the narrow line between partiality on the one hand and impartiality on the other. The view of truthfulness as a mean seems scarcely less absurd. Aristotle's opinions on moral questions are always such as were conventional in his day. One some points they differ from those of our time, chiefly where some form of aristocracy comes in. We think that human beings, at least in ethical theory, all have equal rights, and that justice involves equality; Aristotle thinks that justice involves, not equality, but right proportion, which is only sometimes equality...
IEP: Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. He was a student of Plato who in turn studied under Socrates. He was more empirically-minded than Plato or Socrates and is famous for rejecting Plato's theory of forms.
As a prolific writer and polymath, Aristotle radically transformed most, if not all, areas of knowledge he touched. It is no wonder that Aquinas referred to him simply as "The Philosopher." In his lifetime, Aristotle wrote as many as 200 treatises, of which only 31 survive. Unfortunately for us, these works are in the form of lecture notes and draft manuscripts never intended for general readership, so they do not demonstrate his reputed polished prose style which attracted many great followers, including the Roman Cicero. Aristotle was the first to classify areas of human knowledge into distinct disciplines such as mathematics, biology, and ethics. Some of these classifications are still used today.
As the father of the field of logic, he was the first to develop a formalized system for reasoning. Aristotle observed that the validity of any argument can be determined by its structure rather than its content. A classic example of a valid argument is his syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. Given the structure of this argument, as long as the premises are true, then the conclusion is also guaranteed to be true. Aristotle’s brand of logic dominated this area of thought until the rise of modern propositional logic and predicate logic 2000 years later.
Aristotle’s emphasis on good reasoning combined with his belief in the scientific method forms the backdrop for most of his work. For example, in his work in ethics and politics, Aristotle identifies the highest good with intellectual virtue; that is, a moral person is one who cultivates certain virtues based on reasoning. And in his work on psychology and the soul, Aristotle distinguishes sense perception from reason, which unifies and interprets the sense perceptions and is the source of all knowledge.
Aristotle famously rejected Plato’s theory of forms, which states that properties such as beauty are abstract universal entities that exist independent of the objects themselves. Instead, he argued that forms are intrinsic to the objects and cannot exist apart from them, and so must be studied in relation to them. However, in discussing art, Aristotle seems to reject this, and instead argues for idealized universal form which artists attempt to capture in their work.
Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum, a school of learning based in Athens, Greece; and he was an inspiration for the Peripatetics, his followers from the Lyceum... IEP
“One swallow does not make a summer,
neither does one fine day;
similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.”
==
Abstract: Aristotle's ethics is reviewed and his distinction between pleasure and happiness is explained.
A summary of Aristotle's ethics clarifies several important distinction between happiness and pleasure.
What's the difference, for you, between pleasure and happiness?
ReplyDeleteI think that pleasure is a fleeting form of happiness, kind of tied to instant gratification. I think happiness is more of a state of mind where as pleasure is tied to more physical senses.
I agree! Pleasure is a feeling in the moment. It is only temporary and often leads you in trouble. I think happiness is essential to one's being, while pleasure is not.
DeleteI feel like you can never really maintain happiness, but should rather be complacent with whats going on your life. Although I definitely believe there are times where you are happy and have happy moments.
Deletepleasure is very short term, gratifying, and quickly fleeting. happiness is the long term sense of wholeness and satisfaction with yourself. while happiness can have brief breaks where other emotions are able to take over, it is the sense of trust that you will be okay in the end and finding peace with where youre at.
Deletesection 6
That's definitely a good way to put it. They absolutely go hand in hand, but also have different senses behind them.
DeleteI agree in the sense that pleasure is usually a more brief feeling than happiness. The satisfaction obtained by doing pleasurable things is considerably shorter lived than doing things that bring you happiness. I also believe that happiness has a lot to do with your circumstances and your attitude towards the things around you, while pleasure is usually more focused on the things surrounding you in that exact moment.
DeleteSection 6
I believe logic is needed because in this age of information, misinformation is just as plentiful. Discernment between the two by use of logic is necessary.
ReplyDeleteLogic is very important. This statement reminds me of the quote that "facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
DeleteI agree, without the use of logic many would assume everything to be fact.
Deletei agree with you logic is really needed to be in the right path.
ReplyDeleteThis quote really touched me “Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.” which also remind me on what my middle school teacher used to say that the people that gave birth to us are not our only parents but also the people that tells you what is wrong and right.
ReplyDeleteThis quote is close to me due to my mother being a teacher. I have volunteered in her classroom multiple times, and I can say first hand that educators do a lot more than teach your children that 2+2=4. The future of your children are in the hands of an educator.
DeleteSection 6
There is a great deal more effort in educating a child opposed to conceiving one. First of all you must have educated yourself. Only then are you qualified to educate another. Also, I think your actions must be consistent with the ideas you are teaching or you will not be respected. #11
DeleteHere is a little bit about Plato.
ReplyDeletePlato is one of the world's best known and most widely read and studied philosophers. He was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, and he wrote in the middle of the fourth century B.C.E. in ancient Greece. Though influenced primarily by Socrates, to the extent that Socrates is usually the main character in many of Plato's writings, he was also influenced by Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Pythagoreans.
There are varying degrees of controversy over which of Plato's works are authentic, and in what order they were written, due to their antiquity and the manner of their preservation through time. Nonetheless, his earliest works are generally regarded as the most reliable of the ancient sources on Socrates, and the character Socrates that we know through these writings is considered to be one of the greatest of the ancient philosophers.
Plato's middle to later works, including his most famous work, the Republic, are generally regarded as providing Plato's own philosophy, where the main character in effect speaks for Plato himself. These works blend ethics, political philosophy, moral psychology, epistemology, and metaphysics into an interconnected and systematic philosophy. It is most of all from Plato that we get the theory of Forms, according to which the world we know through the senses is only an imitation of the pure, eternal, and unchanging world of the Forms. Plato's works also contain the origins of the familiar complaint that the arts work by inflaming the passions, and are mere illusions. We also are introduced to the ideal of "Platonic love:" Plato saw love as motivated by a longing for the highest Form of beauty—The Beautiful Itself, and love as the motivational power through which the highest of achievements are possible. Because they tended to distract us into accepting less than our highest potentials, however, Plato mistrusted and generally advised against physical expressions of love.
This is straight off the Internet encyclopedia of philosophy, but I respect it. I know because I used this for my presentation. Overall thought good information.
Delete-Michael DeLay Sec. 5
How do you personally rank the importance of making money, having a comfortable home, achieving vocational or social status, helping others, ...?
ReplyDeleteThis is a hard question. For many of these, you can't have one without the other. To have a comfortable home, one must make money. To financially help others, one must also have money.
Personally my list, in order of increasing need, would be: achieving social status, helping others, making money, and finally having a comfortable home. I think that once I am able to help myself, I'll be able to help others.
#6
DeleteI believe making money gives you a sense of relief in your life as it frees you of money related stresses, but having money is not the only thing there is in life. I believe there are much more meaningful ways to live your life like helping others
DeleteI agree that having one of those things more easily leads to creating the path to do another. Money would make it easier to help people by easing their financial stresses and have a comfortable home in the sense that more money allows you to purchase a larger home. I can't help to also think that sometimes lending an ear, a hug, or being kind to someone can also help them far more than money in some situations. Also the comfort of your home can depend on the environment you create, and not so much on the size.
DeleteSection 6
In psychology it is known that strong long term relationships are directly correlated with happiness. Nothing else has been found to have this affect except for wealth, in that when someone is below the poverty line they experience less happiness. You won’t be happy all the time, but if you seek happiness then spending time with your friends and family is a good place to start. #11
DeleteMust a good teacher always have some specific doctrine or factual content to teach?
ReplyDeleteI think it depends. In medical school, I sure hope they have factual content to teach. This is essential to the well-being of many people. However, for teachers in the arts, it is definitely better if they teach creatively rather than doctrine. Both creative thinking and specific doctrine have a place in this world.
#6
DeleteYeah I agree, it all matters what one is trying to learn.
DeleteI also agree, just as we are learning philosophy, we all have our own beliefs and go by our own philosophies
DeleteI agree with you, however even if factual stuff aren't taught, you are in a way learning something at the end of the day.
DeleteI think having factual content is important when a teacher is teaching because if its not it is just the teachers opinion of bias. But having an opinion can help the student in other ways by elaborating more on the facts.
DeleteHow do you personally rank the importance of making money, having a comfortable home, achieving vocational or social status, helping others, ...?
ReplyDeleteI personally believe the end goal is to help others, but to reach that point one must achieve social status that be through anything such as becoming a medical provider, teacher, enforcer of the law, etc. Once you reach that status, you are able to make money then living comfortably.
My list would be from most to least and it can be switched easily- Helping others, achieving status, stable income, and comfortable home.
Is talking better than writing?
ReplyDeleteIn most cases I believe talking is better than writing. When talking to someone, you are able to see body language, and facial expressions, and that holds more weight than words.
I agree with this, however I also believe that when you aren't able to truly express yourself, writing is good. You can articulate you emotions better. When it comes to others talking is better in the sense you stated, emotions, body language,... etc.
DeleteI agree with you. I also believe that talking is better than writing because you are at that moment and you can express your mood or feelings. With writing, you can put as many details as you want but in the end, your point of view will still be a mystery to lots of people.
DeleteI think so too. The tones and volumes you can use in your voice can really have a greater affect than reading words off of a paper. Doing that, you have to find yourself creating the different tones on your own, which isn't a bad thing. However, things can be read and deciphered wrong a lot easier than hearing it straight from the source.
DeleteDo you think you'd have found Socrates' arguments persuasive, if you'd been a member of his jury?
ReplyDeleteI would have agreed that he did nothing wrong and that it is not a crime to be curious or ask questions. Although people get angry at certain questions that does not call for death.
How do you personally rank the importance of making money, having a comfortable home, achieving vocational or social status, helping others, ...?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe that to help people you have to be able to help yourself and have the ability to support others.
Should everyone philosophize? Or are some just "called" to that vocation?
ReplyDeleteI think everyone should philosophize because someone very wise once said, "an unexamined life is not worth living" (Socrates). I can't put into words how important I think it is to figure things out for yourself and form sound beliefs and thoughts about how the world works and more importantly WHY the world works.
I agree with you, even though there are so many beliefs put out there for us, it should come from your own ideas. Whether it questions other's ideas.
DeleteSection 6
ReplyDeleteQ: Will the South ever get over the Civil War? Can southerners admit that the south was wrong, without also acknowledging the continuing legacy of racist oppression as a source of disequilibrium in our society?
I believe that with the rise of online communication through the internet, we've entered a more homogenous culture where tribes of people aren't separated by region. Because of this, majority of the youngest generation of adults who have grown up in the South seem to completely accept and understand that the South was wrong in holding onto their slave-based economy, and their loss in the Civil War was ultimately for the best. As we've moved into the 21st century, young individuals no longer rely on the stories from their elders to tell them what's right, but rather turn to the wealth of information on the internet. I have faith that people in the South will recognize and put a halt to the idea of blindly holding onto a hateful heritage—but maybe I'm just a wishful thinker.
Question: do you try to see beyond superficial qualities of friends and acquaintances?
ReplyDeleteYes i try to see beyond peoples appearances, though they can have an effect. Appearances can not determine who a person is or the ideologies they associate themselves with. Someone's personality and attitude are much more important to me than their looks. People who judge someone solely on looks tend to be shallow and ignorant.
section 6
I agree. ideology, personality, intentions, and attitude are major driving factors making up friends and acquaintances. appearances don't make a huge impact on the friends I choose as they are superficial and shallow and the person has no control over it. everything the person exudes however, is perfectly controllable and therefore of the utmost importance
Deletesection 6
https://youtu.be/YaDvRdLMkHs
ReplyDeletesection 6
https://youtu.be/D9JCwkx558o
ReplyDeletesection 6
How do you personally rank the importance of making money, having a comfortable home, achieving vocational or social status, helping others, ...?
ReplyDeleteFor me right now, money is only important in that it can provide me with independence, security, and the ability to take care of my loved ones. The act of making money to become wealthy has never been the number one driving factor for me. Having a comfortable home is definitely at the top of the list. I want to be excited to come home at the end of a long day and be able to feel cozy and safe, whether if I'm living by myself or with other people. When it comes to social status, what matters to me is having recognition in my profession and upholding standards that make others admire my work. I don't care about fame or fortune, but I do rank professional respect high. Helping others will always be of the highest rank for me. Although sometimes I place other things before it, I think a life filled with helping others is a life well-lived and I hope to dedicate a majority of my life doing just that,
Section #6
Do you try to see beyond superficial qualities in friends and acquaintances, in assessing their attractiveness, or do you tend to judge by appearances? (If the latter, does that make you a shallow person?)
ReplyDeleteYes, I definitely try to see beyond superficial and material qualities when it comes to assessing everyone I meet. Unfortunately, when first meeting someone, it's nearly impossible for me not to take note of the more shallow physical aspects of the person, which can push aside the deeper, more meaningful aspects of the person. However, when it comes down to it, it is never the way someone looks that determines whether or not I like them or want to be friends with them. Even though initially I might be drawn to someone based on attractiveness, in the end, it is their character and personality that always wins. I don't think initially judging someone based on appearance is, at the heart, shallow, because I think it's something that all humans can't help but do. It is shallow if this aspect persists in being your only credential for valuing someone.
Section #6
Will the South ever get over the Civil War? Can southerners admit that the south was wrong, without also acknowledging the continuing legacy of racist oppression as a source of disequilibrium in our society?
ReplyDeleteBeing an optimist, I do think the South can get over the Civil War. Of course, this will gradually happen over the course of generations. As new generations move in and are able to see matters more objectively, then eventually the South will be able to move on. I mean, I think a part of admitting that the South was wrong also includes acknowledging how that past oppression still persists in society today. I don't think the South has truly apologized unless they recognize how this inequality has continued to affect African Americans economically, socially, politically, and psychologically to this very day. You can admit that you were wrong all you want, but it isn't a true apology until you acknowledge in entirety the repercussions of your actions and own up to it.
Section #6
Joseph Cooper 11
ReplyDeleteIs devotion to reason accurately characterized as a form of faith? How do you define faith? Is it the same as belief?
Faith is a monolith, faultless in the eyes of the devout. Whether that be to a father figure or the concept of logic, absolute faith blinds absolutely. It binds the probing hands that question what's before them. It's smooth edges not offering a nook or cranny to be explored. Belief builds upon itself, like a tower it sits upon a foundation. As it grows the builder can look upon others' before they start the next story. Each one of their own making, carrying with what they learned. It's rough around the edges, but it's theirs.
Must a good teacher always have some specific doctrine or factual content to teach?
What makes a teacher a good teacher should have some form of structure. It doesn't need to be spread sheet or easily repeated montra, but there needs to be a backbone to build off of. A student should feel like they've taken away something valuable from each discussion, or have a array of burning questions to go and pursue. Things should build upon one another until the student starts to see the connections and pieces together their whole.
How do you personally rank the importance of making money, having a comfortable home, achieving vocational or social status, helping others, ...?
I would be lying if I said that material things mean nothing to me. A cool place with my computer, some good food, and what ever show I want to be watching is my ideal world at times. I want to succeed in my field as well, gaining wealth and notoriety along the way. Though priority number one has always been leaving this world a better place than it was when I'm gone. Cultivate a place the breeds communication between others, putting cooperation before competition with those around us.
How often do you examine your own life? What is the value in doing so?
ReplyDelete--I'd say i examine my life every month or so. Basically my life is a routine of school during the week and work on the weekends. I value my time of taking a moment to review what has happened and think about certain situations that happen or might be coming up. "Taking charge" of how I might handle those situations.
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I agree with you. That's basically majority of all college students. But one thing that we always need to value is ourselves. We need to understand how valuable we are.
DeleteHow do you personally rank the importance of making money, having a comfortable home, achieving vocational or social status, helping others, ...?
ReplyDeleteA lot of people thought that having lots of money and big social status will make them happy but in the end they're the one that could be backstabing us. So I personally think that, helping others will always come first then the rest will follow.
1. What kind of conversation did Socrates consider a success?
ReplyDelete2. What was wisdom, for Socrates?
3. It is mostly through what texts that we know the ideas and beliefs of Socrates?
4. With what Platonic theory does the parable of the cave connect?
5. Was it abstract or empirical reasoning that Plato valued more?
6. According to Plato, how was the ideal society organized?
1.A conversation that ended in everyone realizing how little they knew was for him a success.
2.For Socrates, wisdom was understanding the true nature of our existence, including the limits of what we can know.
3.Platonic Dialogues
4.Plato’s Theory of Forms
5.Abstract
6.Like a totalitarian state
10. What Enlightenment attitude resulted in the tendency to "disbelieve official explanations?"
ReplyDelete11. What do religious and conspiratorial explanations have in common?
12. What was the Freemasons' Secret, according to Ben Franklin?
13. How did many Northerners account for their side's early setbacks in the Civil War?
14. What novel idealized the South and was considered "an antidote to the abolition mischief?"
15. Who did Mark Twain blame for "measureless harm" that reversed southern progress and led to the Civil War?
10. Skepticism
11. Both types of explanations tend to connect all sorts of dots, real and imaginary, drawing lines to impute intention and design and purpose everywhere, ignoring the generally greater power of randomness and happenstance.
12. Their grand secret is that they have no secret at all.
13. the “Slave Power Conspiracy”
14. “Swallow Barn”
15. Sir Walter Scott
Do you try to see beyond superficial qualities in friends and acquaintances, in assessing their attractiveness, or do you tend to judge by appearances? (If the latter, does that make you a shallow person?)
ReplyDeleteUsually, when I meet someone new, I am drawn to them because of their appearances, but I choose to stay acquainted with them based on their internal qualities. I feel like those people who base entire relationships solely off of appearances are definitely shallow.
I agree, people that have friendship because of the superficial qualities, later seem to regret that.
DeleteShould everyone have a mentor/teacher that passes down a doctrine/philosophy or helps the student use critical thinking to develop their own?
ReplyDelete-Michael DeLay Sec.5
Yes and no. Some people need others to help them come up with their own philosophies but some are born with that open-mindedness
DeleteI think almost everyone has a mentor whether or not they know it. They may realize years later that someone had such a profound impact on their life
DeleteLH 2
ReplyDelete1. What did Aristotle mean by "one swallow doesn't make a summer"?
2. In Raphael's School of Athens, who reaches out towards the world in front of him?
3. What does eudaimonia mean?
4. How can we increase our chance of eudaimonia?
5. Eudaimonia can only be achieved in relation to what?
6. How is "truth by authority" hostile to the spirit of philosophy?
1.The point he was making was that just as it takes more than the arrival of one swallow to prove that summer has come, and more than a single warm day, so a few moments of pleasure don’t add up to true happiness.
2.Aristotle
3.The opposite
4.We (humans) decide what we want to do and be.
5.Eudaimonia can only be achieved in relation to life in a society.
6.Authority doesn’t prove anything by itself. Aristotle’s own methods were investigation, research and clear reasoning.
9. The American pastoral ideal grew out of what?
ReplyDelete10. Who called himself a transparent eyeball?
11. What extraordinary (and false) astronomical discovery was reported and widely believed in 1835?
12. What fundamental Fantasyland mindset was exploited and illustrated by the early career of P.T. Barnum?
13. What event celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the new world featured more than a dozen temporary, disposable, full-size facsimile neoclassical buildings?
14. What complex was founded in America over the course of the nineteenth century?
9. Pretending to be different people living in a different century
10. Henry David Thoreau
11. Life on the moon
12. “If some imaginary proposition is exciting, and nobody can prove it’s untrue, then it’s my right as an American to believe it’s true.”
13. The Columbian Exposition
14. modern American Christianity and the modern American news media, advertising, entertainment, politics, and pharmaceutical industries
What do you see as the value of logic?
ReplyDeleteThe value of logic, to me, is seeing the world through clear eyes. We are taught to believe the ideas and beliefs of those in power, causing a lot of people to neglect their own God-given brain and ability to process information. It is important to try to make sense of a lot of things; however, humans, especially religious humans, are taught to live in fear of asking questions and using reason.
What's the difference, for you, between pleasure and happiness
ReplyDeletePleasure is a short term feeling almost of no significance to your life, it can be things such as clothes, ice cream, or etc. Happiness is the sense of feeling that everything in your life is in order. Things that can cause that are careers, family, and friends.
I agree with you sometimes people can get lost and mix up pleasure or happiness.
DeleteHave you ever sharply disagreed with a teacher whom you nonetheless deeply admired?
ReplyDeleteYes, I admired my English AP Teacher in High school, but once she tired attaching religion to class, despite it only being an English class and people had other religious beliefs. I did not agree with that.
I agree , I think happiness is a more profound feeling as opposed to pleasure
DeleteWhat do you see as the value of logic?
ReplyDeleteThe value of logic holds many meanings.Logic can be used to justify a purpose, support an argument or idea, and support your character as a whole to establish and solidify your credibility.
Section #6.
I agree with you. The value of logic holds many meaning. Which means everyone can have their own opinion on it. And your way of defining logic is similar to what I thought as well.
DeleteHave you ever sharply disagreed with a teacher whom you nonetheless deeply admired?
ReplyDeleteYes, I once had a teacher I had the upmost respect for but we disagreed on certain things yet that never effected my view on him.
That is good that you had that mind set and didn't let the disagreement get in the way.
DeleteDo you agree with Plato that "laughing at comedies makes us cynical, shallow and ignoble"?
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with that at all. Humor has been used to make people happy for millennia. Many people have "been saved" by comedians and by humor.
Would you rather attend Plato's Academy or Aristotle's Lyceum? Why?
ReplyDeleteProbably the Lyceum. To me, Aristotle seems more sane than Plato. Whenever I personally think of ancient Greek philosophers, I think Aristotle. So more on personal bias, than actual facts would I attend the Lyceum.
I agree with you. Aristotle's Lyceum is more like a research types institution which sounds a lot more fun and easy for me as a college student.
DeleteIf you side with Aristotle in preferring to study "earthly things" does that imply less interest in "thoughts of the heavens"? (290)
ReplyDeleteI don't believe so, no. I think he just focused and heavily relied on reality, and the physical "beings" around him. He seemed to be so focused on his present life and logic so deeply that he sometimes just got so caught up in his "earthly things" that he simply forgot about other things around him at moments. I guess on a much simpler note, he also could have just been extremely interested in biology and found great joy in studying it.
"Given the near-universal acknowledgement by all but the most hateful racists that slavery was wrong, why do you think there remains-at least in some quarters of the south-significant opposition to the removal of statues and other commemorative markers of the old Confederacy?"
ReplyDeleteJust because a part of a culture was bad doesn't mean the entire culture was bad. People of the south don't want their entire history eradicated because slavery was a part of it. This would be like saying "because certain Native American people used to perform human sacrifices, we should tear down every remnant of native culture".
Connor Coughran 06
DeleteI think Socrates had the right idea about philosophy. It should be a joint effort between people. That is the only way to expand ones view point.
ReplyDelete6
I agree, when you have multiple people collaborating together you eliminate the individuals "own truth."
DeleteJoseph Cooper 11
ReplyDeleteDo you believe anything strictly on the basis of authority, whether that of a person, an institution, or a tradition? Why or why not?
Generally I avoid trying to take anything as fact without verfication, there are some givens that I make with in the realm of science, but for the most part I question most things.
Is change the only constant in the Universe? Is that paradoxical?
Change can be a constant with out it being paradoxical. Change is just the absence of stagnation.
What do you see as the value of logic?
Logic allows us to approach problems in a way that can be approached by all. Logic can be followed by others as well as passed on.
What's the difference, for you, between pleasure and happiness?
ReplyDelete-To me pleasure is of the moment type of feeling while happiness is more of a long term type of feeling.
Section 11
I agree. That was a great way of depicting it.
DeleteHow do you personally rank the importance of making money, having a comfortable home, achieving vocational or social status, helping others, ...?
ReplyDeleteI would rank these importance by helping others, making money, comfortable home, and achieving vocational or social status.
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