Unit 5: GREEK PHILOSOPHY

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Unit 5 GREEK PHILOSOPHY

• January 23 Plato, Euthyphro
  January 30 Plato, Apology, Crito

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Notice

• February 1 is the last day to drop the course
  without receiving a grade.

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Lecture Outline Euthyprho

• Critical Skill Genre Criticism
• Dialogue
• Dramatic Dialogue
• Critical Skill Cross-cultural comparison
• Philosophical Dialogue
• Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis

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1. Critical Skill Genre Criticism

• Genre Criticism answers the question, What kind
  of text is this text?, and, In what way is it
  to be interpreted?
• What genres have we met so far in this course?

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Dialogue

• A dialogue is a conversation or discussion
  between two persons.
• Dialogue is a feature of Athenian drama, and is
  found in The Oresteia and The Bacchae.
• Dialogue is also a feature of Platos writings
  namely, his philosophical dialogues.

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Dramatic Dialogue

• There are dialogues in Athenian drama that pose
  questions that have a philosophical content in
  that they are questions about what it is to be a
  human being.
• Here are three example two from The Oresteia and
  one from The Bacchae

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Agamemnon 265-321

• Clytaemnestra
• You will hear a joy beyond your hopes.
• Priams citadel!the Greeks have taken Troy!
• Leader
• No, what do you mean? I cant believe it.
• C Troy is ours. Is that clear enough?
• L And you have proof?
• C I do, / I must. Unless the god is lying.

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Agamemnon 265-321

• L That, / or a phantom spirit sends you into
  raptures.
• C No one takes me in with visionssenseless
  dreams.
• L Or giddy rumour, you havent indulged
  yourself
• C You treat me like a child, you mock me?
• L Then when did they storm the city?
• C Last night, I say, the mother of this morning.
• L And who on earth could run the news so fast?
  (280)

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Comments

• The senior citizens of Argos do not believe that
  Clytaemnestra knows that Troy has been captured.
• The senior citizens ask if C has proof.
• When C says she does, they suggest two reasons
  dreams, and rumour, which C. rejects.

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Comments

• Cs explanation implies that empirical evidence
  alone counts as knowledge in this kind of case.
• Empirical evidence in this case is visual
  observation of a beacon (the watchman).
• C continues (281-319) with an account of the
  series of beacons that she had arranged

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Comments

• (continued)
• C And I ordained it all.
• Torch to torch, running for all their lives,
  
• one long succession racing home my fire.
• There you have my proof, my burning sign, I
  tell you
• the power my lord passed on from Troy to me!
  (313-318)
• 7. The question What kind of thing is
  knowledge? is a philosophical question.

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Comments

• According to C, dreams and rumours are not ways
  of knowing.
• Empirical evidence is a ground or basis for
  making a knowledge claim.
• It may be the case that part of the concept of
  knowledge is that to know something, or, to have
  knowledge, is to be able to provide evidence,
  and, indeed, to provide it when it is requested.
• Knowledge claims must be justified, and empirical
  evidence is the justification.

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Comments

• A qualification is needed C I do, / I must.
  Unless the god is lying.
• Cs knowledge claim allows for a mistake the
  beacon near Troy may have been struck by
  lightning (the god of fire, Hephaestus so while
  the watchmans observation would be correct, his
  inference that Troy had fallen would be incorrect.

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Comments

• Cs knowledge claim is not a direct observation
  of the fall of Troy, but depends upon the
  watchmans report. He may have been mistaken (as
  indicated), or had a hallucination.

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Eumenides 665-684

• Apollo
• Here is the truth, I tell yousee how right I
  am.
• The woman you call the mother of the child
• is not the parent, just a nurse to the seed,
• the new-sown seed that grows and swells inside
  her.
• The man is the source of lifethe one who
  mounts. (665-671)

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Comments

• A mother is not a parent,
• Because she is not the source of life
• Only the man is.
• A man can produce a child without a woman
• Apollos proof is Athena

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Comments

• (continued)
• A Here she stands, our living witness.
• Look
• Exhibiting
  ATHENA.
• Child sprung full-blown from Olympian
• Zeus,
• never bred in the darkness of the
• womb
• but such a stock no goddess could
• conceive!

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Comments

• Is Apollos knowledge claim justified?
• What is the concept of parent?

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The Bacchae 451-519

• Pentheus And where is he, then? I certainly
  dont see him!
• Dionysus Whee I am but you are impious
  yourself, and so do not see him.
• P to the soldiers Seize him! He is mocking me
  and Thebes!
• D I tell you, do not bind meI have control of
  my senses and you have not.
• P And I say bindmy authority exceeds yours.

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The Bacchae 451-519

• Dionysus You do not know what your life is, or
  what you do, or who you are.
• Pentheus I am Pentheus, son of Agaue my father
  was Echion.
• Dionysus You have a name that makes you ripe for
  disaster. (501-508)

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Comments

• In this dialogue, Dionysus tells Pentheus that he
  lacks control of his sensesPentheus is acting
  immoderately.
• Dionysus tells Pentheus that he lacks
  self-knowledge.
• The motto over the shrine of Apollo at Delphi is
  Know yourself.
• Harry Callahan A mans got to know his
  limitations.

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Comments

• What are the conditions of self-knowledge?
• Self-knowledge is a topic in ethical philosophy.
• Self-knowledge is a topic that Plato explores,
  and particularly in the dialogues that we are
  reading.
• Dionysus tells Pentheus that he is impious.

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Comments

• What is piety? is the central question in The
  Euthyphro.

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Genesis 1817

• Now the LORD had said, Shall I hide from Abraham
  what I am about to do.

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4. Cross-cultural comparison Genesis 18 22-33

• 23Abraham came forward and said, Will You sweep
  away the innocent along with the guilty? 24What
  if there should be fifty innocent within the
  city will You then wipe out the place and not
  forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who
  are in it? 25Far be it from You to do such a
  thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well
  as the guilty, so

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4. Cross-cultural comparison Genesis 18 22-33

• That innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it
  from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth
  deal justly?
• 26 And the LORD answered, If I find within the
  city of Sodom fifty innocent ones, I will forgive
  the whole place for their sake.
• 27 Abraham spoke up, saying, Here I venture to
  speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28
  What if the fifty innocent should lack five?.

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Comments

• innocent just
• Judge as in the book, Judges.
• There is dialogue between Abraham and God.
  Abraham initiated the dialogue.
• innocent and guilty ought not to fare
  alike
• The innocent, or the just, ought not to be
  punished.
• The guilty ought to be spared for the sake of the
  innocent.

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Comments

• This narrative enforces a rigid distinction
  between just (innocent) and guilty.
• This dialogue concerns ethics, and, in
  particular, the question
• What is justice?

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5. Philosophical Dialogue The Euthyphro

• References are to the arabic numerals in the
  margin the text begins with St. I. p.2
  Stephanus (the printer), volume 1, page 2
  thereafter, 3 some editions add letters, ae,
  and line numbers. The opening statement by
  Euthyphro is 2a1-3.
• Construction themes that appear in this dialogue
  show up in The Apology, and The Crito for
  example

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The State is a mother 2

• Socrates He must be a wise man who, observing my
  ignorance, is going to accuse me to the state, as
  his mother, of corrupting his friends.

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The Divine Guide 3

• Socrates He says that I am a maker of gods and
  so he is prosecuting me, he says, for inventing
  new gods and for not believing in the old ones.
• Euthyphro It is because you say that you always
  have a divine guide.

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Prophecy 3

• Socrates But if they are going to be in
  earnest, then only prophets like you can tell
  where the matter will end.
• Comment Euthyphro is a prophet.

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Prejudice 3

• Euthyphro So he is prosecuting you for
  introducing religious reforms and he is going
  into court to arouse prejudice against you,
  knowing that the multitude are easily prejudiced
  about such matters.

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Service 15

• Piety is a kind of service to the gods.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis

• Thesis I argue that Socrates accomplishes two
  things in The Euthyphro (1) he gives an analysis
  of the requirements for answering the question,
  What kind of thing is piety? and (2) eliminates
  inadequate answers, even though he does not (3)
  formulate the correct answer.
• Procedure Critical Skill Close Reading of the
  text to identify the steps in the analysis.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis

• Thesis I argue that Socrates accomplishes two
  things in The Euthyphro (1) he gives an analysis
  of the requirements for answering the question,
  What is piety? and (2) eliminates inadequate
  answers, even though he does not (3) formulate
  the correct answer.
• Procedure Critical Skill Close Reading of the
  text to identify the steps in the analysis.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis

• Preliminary End of 3-5
• Socrates Tell me what are righteousness and
  sacrilege with respect to murder and everything
  else. I suppose that piety is the same in all
  actions, and that impiety is always the opposite
  of piety, and retains its identity, and that, as
  impiety, is always has the same character, which
  will be found in whatever is impious.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Socrates Tell me what are righteousness and
  sacrilege with respect to murder and everything
  else.
• I suppose
• that piety is the same in all actions, and
• that impiety is always the opposite of piety,
  and retains its identity, and
• that, as impiety, it always has the same
  character, which will be found in whatever is
  impious.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Socrates Tell me, then, what is piety and what
  is impiety?
• Euthyphros answer, for which he has clear
  proofHesiods Theogony
• 1Piety is prosecuting the unjust individual.
• Socrates response to Euthyphro
• (1) he is incredulous that Euthyphro believes the
  stories about the gods.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Socrates response to Euthyphro
• (2) The gods quarrel.
• (3) Euthyphro has not answered the question,
  What is piety? but has said that prosecuting
  his father for murder is a pious act.
• Socrates But many other actions are pious, are
  they not, Euthyphro?
• Socrates then states another condition for
  answering the question, What is x?

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Socrates I want to know what is characteristic
  of piety which makes all pious actions pious. You
  said, I think, that there is one characteristic
  which makes all pious actions pious, and another
  characteristic which makes all impious actions
  impious. Do you not remember?
• It was Socrates who said it (5)

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Comment Euthyphro had given an example of a
  pious action as Socrates said, But many other
  actions are pious.
• A list of pious actions does not explain
  what they all have in common.
• The characteristicthe piety-making
  characteristic is what we need in order to know
  what goes on the list, and what does not go on
  the list.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Socrates gives a further analysis of the concept
  answering-the-question-What is x (piety)?
• Socrates explain to me what is this
  characteristic, that I may have it to turn to,
  and to use as a standard whereby to judge your
  actions and those of other men, and be able to
  say that whatever action resembles it is pious,
  and whatever does not, is not pious.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Euthyphro Well, then, what is pleasing to the
  gods is pious, and what is not pleasing to them
  is impious.
• 2Piety is what is pleasing to the gods.
• Socrates response
• E. has now given the right kind of answer
• But is the answer correct?

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• (3) The things and the men that are pleasing to
  the gods are pious
• (4) 7-8 Euthyphro had already agreed with
  Socrates that the gods disagreed one does not
  disagree over testable matters of fact, but over
  questions of the just, unjust, good and bad
• S But you say that the same action is held by
  some of them to be just, and by others to be
  unjust

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• (5) S Then, according to your account, the same
  thing will be pious and impious
• (6) Therefore, E has not answered the question,
  What is piety?
• Euthyphro suggests that all the gods will agree,
  however, that if one man kills another unjustly,
  he must be punished (8).
• S What proof have you that all the gods think
  that a laborerdies unjustly?

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Socrates suppose that Euthyphro were to
  provethat all the gods think such a death
  unjust,how has he brought me any nearer to
  understanding what piety and impiety are? (9)
• S But shall we correct our definition Socrates
  himself proposes this answer.
• 3Piety is what all the gods love. OR
• Piety is what is pleasing to all the gods.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Socrates now enunciates a further condition for
  answering the question
• S Are we to examine this definitionOr must we
  examine the statements? (9)

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• What follows is the most difficult text in
  Platos writings, 10-12
• S Do the gods love piety because it is pious, or
  is it pious because they love it? (10)
• I am going to cut to the conclusion of Socrates
  refutation of definition 3

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• S My question, Euthyphro, was, What is piety?
  But it turns out that you have not explained to
  me the essential character of piety you have
  been content to mention an effect which belongs
  to itnamely, that all the gods love it. You have
  not yet told me what its essential character is.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Comment pleasing is an effect, not a defining
  characteristic of something. Lots of things may
  be pleasing piety, justice, ice-cream, The
  Young and the Restless, and the Shopping
  Channel, but we cannot identify what each of
  these things is by saying that they are pleasing
  or give pleasure, any more than one say what this
  lecture was about by saying that it was
  interesting (well, it isnt anyway) What was it
  about? Is the question.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Therefore, 3Piety is what all the gods love,or,
• Piety is what pleases all the
• gods
• does not identify what those things are, because
  being pleasing is not a defining characteristic
  of the thing in question. Being pleasing is not
  a characteristic that distinguishes tea from
  coffee.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Socrates proposes the next candidate (12)
• S Tell me, do you not think that all piety must
  be just?
• 4Piety is justice.
• S Well, then, is all justice pious, too?
• S Or, while all piety is just, is a part only of
  justice pious, and the rest of it something else?

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• S for fear, I take it, is wider than
  reverence.
• S 4aPiety is a part of justice.
• E 4bRighteousness Piety is the part of justice
  concerned with careful attention which ought to
  be paid to the gods.
• Justice the part that is not piety is the
  careful attention which ought to be paid to men.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• Piety is not attention1 benefiting, improving
• the gods.
• 5Piety is a kind of service to the gods.
• 6Piety is a science of prayer and sacrifice the
  science of asking of the gods and giving to them.
• But, S how are the gods benefited by the gifts
  which they receive from us? (15) attention1.
• 6Piety is equivalent to 3Piety

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis
Displaying the Argument

• S Then we must begin again and inquire what
  piety is.
• It will be worth re-visiting
• 5Piety is a kind of service to the gods.
• when reading The Apology.

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6. Critical Skill Conceptual Analysis Summary
of Answers

• 1Piety is prosecuting the unjust individual.
• 2Piety is what is pleasing to the gods.
• 3Piety is what is pleasing to all the gods.
• 4Piety is justice.
• 4aPiety is a part of justice.
• 4bRighteousness Piety is the part of justice
  concerned with careful attention which ought to
  be paid to the gods.
• 5Piety is a kind of service to the gods.
• 6Piety is a science of prayer and sacrifice the
  science of asking of the gods and giving to them.

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Cross-Cultural Comparative ConclusionGenesis
1923-25
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• 23As the sun rose upon the earth and Lot entered
  Zoar, 24 the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah
  sulfurous fire from the LORD out of heaven. 25 He
  annihilated those cities and the entire Plain,
  and all the inhabitants of the cities and the
  vegetation of the ground.

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Analysis and Comments

• Premise 1 Destroying S and G was
• pleasing to God.
• Premise 2 Piety is what is pleasing to
• 
  God .
• Conclusion Therefore, God acted piously,
  contrary to Abrahams argument.