PHL 105Y October 19, 2005

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PHL 105YOctober 19, 2005

• For Monday, read to the end of chapter nine of
  the Republic.
• For Fridays tutorial, answer one of the
  following two questions (write about a page it
  will be collected)
• What, according to Socrates, is the difference
  between being interested in seeing beautiful
  things and being interested in beauty itself?
  (see 475d-477a)
• What is the point of the analogy of the ship (at
  488b-489a)?

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Chapter 8 Philosopher Kings

• How could Platos ideal community be made actual?

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Chapter 8

• Is Platos ideal community even possible?
• What does Plato think of this question? (See
  especially 472cd)
• Is that a satisfactory answer?

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Theories and truth

• Is it possible for anything actual to match a
  theory? Isnt any actual thing bound to have
  less contact with truth than a theory, however
  much people deny it? (473a)
• theory circle gt x2 y2c
• O

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How could that ideal community be brought about?

• There is a single change which could make it
  happen

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How could that ideal community be brought about?

• There is a single change which could make it
  happen
• Philosophers must come to rule as kings or kings
  must become philosophers
• Problem 1 what is a philosopher?

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Q Who counts as a philosopher?

• A Someone who loves knowledge (in Greek the word
  literally means lover of knowledge).
• But what counts as knowledge? Is the person who
  goes to every possible play and festival a
  philosopher? Or the person who learns everything
  about coin collections?

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Knowledge

• One doesnt necessarily gain knowledge from
  having many experiences.
• Philosophers are sightseers of the truth (475e)
• But what is that?

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A key passage 476a

• Since beautiful is the opposite of ugly, they
  are two things.
• --Of course.
• In so far as they are two, each of them is
  single.
• --Yes.
• And the same principle applies to moral and
  immoral, good and bad, and everything of any
  type in itself, each of them is single, but each
  of them has a plurality of manifestations because
  they appear all over the place, as they become
  associated with actions and bodies and one
  another.

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Beautiful things and beauty itself

• What Socrates wants to establish beauty,
  morality, and so on are each a single entity (so
  we shouldnt think of the plurality of beautiful
  things as our norm or standard)
• My friend, is there one beautiful thing, in this
  welter of beautiful things, which wont turn out
  to be ugly? Is there one moral deed which wont
  turn out to be immoral? Is there one just act
  which wont turn out to be unjust?
• No, there isnt. ()
• And do those things which are large, small,
  light and heavy deserve these attributes any more
  than they deserve the opposite attributes?
  (479b)

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Dreaming and waking

• Some people focus only on beautiful things, with
  never a thought for what beauty itself might be
  Socrates suggests that they are living in a
  dream-world
• Isnt dreaming precisely the state, whether one
  is asleep or awake, of taking something to be the
  real thing when it is actually only a likeness?
  (476c)

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What makes a philosopher

• Tourists and theatre-goers seek out many
  beautiful things philosophers seek out beauty
  itself
• Beauty itself is the underlying reality, and is
  not to be confused with the way many things may
  appear to be beautiful (sometimes those same
  things may appear ugly beauty itself is never
  ugliness)

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What makes a philosopher

• Non-philosophers are those who can see a
  plurality of beautiful things, but not beauty
  itself, and who are incapable of following if
  someone else tries to lead them to it, and who
  can see many moral actions, but not morality
  itself, and so on They have beliefs, but do
  not know any of the things they believe. (479e)
• Philosophers can see each of these things in
  itself, in its permanent and unvarying nature
  they have knowledge and are not merely
  entertaining beliefs. (also 479e)

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Knowledge and belief

• Knowledge is the faculty that gets us in touch
  with reality
• Belief is the faculty that grasps appearances, or
  some intermediate zone between being and
  non-being (becoming? More on this later)
• Incomprehension gets us in touch with nothing

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Problem 2 the philosophers

• Most people who become adult philosophers (as
  opposed to just studying a bit of philosophy as
  youths) are thought to be weird, rotten or
  useless (487cd)

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Problem 2 the philosophers

• Most people who become adult philosophers (as
  opposed to just studying a bit of philosophy as
  youths) are thought to be weird, rotten or
  useless (487cd)
• The analogy of navigator explains why, in a
  non-ideal society, philosophers are seen that way

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The analogy of the ship

• The (worthy) ship owner large and strong, but
  somewhat deaf and short-sighted
• The sailors struggling to grab the rudder
  killing those who get in their way will drug the
  owner or get him drunk, take over the ship, steal
  the cargo.
• The true sea-captain studies the yearly cycle,
  the stars and winds, everything relevant to the
  job of steering the boat correctly.

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The analogy of the ship

• The (worthy) ship owner large and strong, but
  somewhat deaf and short-sighted the public
• The sailors struggling to grab the rudder
  killing those who get in their way will drug the
  owner or get him drunk, take over the ship, steal
  the cargo. those who gain power in the real,
  non-ideal world
• The true sea-captain studies the yearly cycle,
  the stars and winds, everything relevant to the
  job of steering the boat correctly. the
  philosopher
• Skill-testing question the sailors think there
  is no science of navigation. Why?

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Philosophers and power

• What is it that tends to prevent people from
  simultaneously being good philosophers and
  wielding political power?

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Philosophers and power

• It is possible to use verbal skills to gain
  control over masses of people see the discussion
  of the sophists at 493a-d
• Sophists paid professional teachers of
  rhetoric/public speaking (like Thrasymachus)

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Plato on the masses

• Why does Plato think that it is impossible for
  the masses to love knowledge? (494a)
• Why does he think the masses will only notice
  the plurality of beautiful things rather than
  beauty itself?
• What would Thrasymachus say?

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Philosophers and power

• What is it that tends to prevent people from
  simultaneously being good philosophers and
  wielding political power?
• The very talents that could make you a great
  philosopher (good memory, cleverness, etc.) also
  make you prone to corruption as people recognize
  that you could be useful or influential (see
  494bc)

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Philosophers and power

• Suggestion its easy to become a sophist.
  Attempts at sophistry are awarded with praise
  (say something popular, that people want to
  hear!).
• Meanwhile, its hard to become a philosopher the
  truth is he wont gain intelligence unless he
  works like a slave for it (494d)

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The sorry state of affairs

• In our less-than-ideal community
• Brilliant young people end up as sophists
• Idiots who want a hobby end up as philosophers
  (495d)
• with only a few exceptions, who lie low..

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Possible in principle

• Although our current state of corruption makes it
  difficult for people to attain power while being
  truly philosophical, its not impossible for
  philosophers to take over.
• For example, a philosopher might be born into
  some royal family, and might attain the throne
  without having been corrupted.