CPY679: Commentary on Plato

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CPY679 Commentary on Plato Aristotle

• 3 September 2004

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Discussion Questions

• Compare the excerpt from The Republic, and On
  Memory Reminiscence on the following
• How does learning occur?
• How can a persons learning be facilitated by
  another?
• Compare Meno the excerpts from Nicomachean
  Ethics on the following
• What distinguishes the virtuous man from one who
  is not?
• Can virtue be taught? Why or why not?
• What implications are there for counseling or the
  practice of clinical psychology?

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Learning Education according to Plato
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Learning Education according to Aristotle
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What can we learn from this?
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The Republic The Sun, The Line, The Cave

• The dialogue monologue What does it say about
  the nature of learning and teaching?
• The use of the allegory The next best thing to
  being there
• The choice of characters Socrates, the
  aristocracy, the slave

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Plato The Sun

• The Sun is the Cause of Light
• Illuminated Knowledge
• Unilluminated Belief
• The Form of the Good Teleological explanation
• The Good is part of an entitys essence

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Plato The Line

• Imagination Sense-data about an object
• Confidence Beliefs about the object itself
• Thought Reflection upon sense-dataUnderstanding
  of particulars
• Knowledge Knowledge of FormsUnderstanding of
  universals

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Plato The Cave
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Platos View of the Soul

• Made immortal through reincarnation
• Cannot be destroyed because it is a simple
  substance
• Three parts to the soul
• Appetite Driven by necessary unnecessary
  desires
• Rational Driven by the desire for truth primary
  moving force in the good and honorable man
• Spirited Driven by honor courage keeps the
  appetite in check so that reason is not overriden

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Aristotle On Memory Reminiscence

• Style much more like later modern philosophy
• Statement-challenge-response

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Aristotles Theory of Souls

• Souls Form, or essence, of a living thing
• Vegetative Soul plant life
• Sensitive Soul all animals
• Rational Soul humans
• Each level encompasses the previous levels

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The Sensitive Soul

• Ability to take in sensory data
• Perception does not lie
• The senses are unified in perception
• From sensation comes pleasure pain
• From pleasure pain comes appetite
• Memory comes from the lasting impression of
  sense-data

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The Rational Soul

• Thought is an action upon sensation or
  perception the ability to make something from
  the data
• Thought can lead to error
• Rationality potential intellect active
  intellect
• Potential intellect
• does not reside in any physical organ, but is
  inextricably tied to the body
• evidenced by the processes of everyday thought
• Active intellect
• "The mind seems to be an independent substance
  implanted in the soul and to be incapable of
  being destroyed."
• An indestructable essence that permits knowledge
  of things

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Memory Recollection
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Aristotle Education
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Recollection in Meno
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BREAK!
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Meno Can Virtue Be Taught?
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Plato The Aims of Education

• The Good every soul pursues and does everything
  for its sake, divining what it is and yet baffled
  and not having an adequate apprehension of its
  nature nor a stable opinion about it as it has
  about other things, and because of this failing
  to have any benefit from other things.
• Our constitution will not be perfectly ordered
  unless the rulers know how just and honourable
  things are good and they will not know this
  unless they know the Good.

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Virtue Platos Ideal Republic

• Economic class Correspond to the appetitive part
  of the soul
• Largest class
• Engaged in maintaining the economic health of the
  state
• Artisans, tradespeople, farmers, merchants,
  entertainers, jewelers, etc.
• Education takes the form of
• Defender guardians Correspond to the spirited
  part of the soul
• Referred to as the helpers or auxiliaries, who
  assist the rulers of the city
• Soldiers, law enforcement
• Ruling guardians Correspond to the rational part
  of the soul
• Create laws, oversee assignment to classes, make
  policy decisions
• Guardians
• Do not own property, or engage in economic
  activity
• Trained in schools like Platos
• Position in the upper two classes determined by
  ability Status not achieved by birth, and
  parents of one rank could have children suited
  for a different rank
• Women could be assigned membership in the
  guardian classes
• Justice in the imaginary city consisted of
  members of each class doing the work of that
  class according to the appropriate virtue of the
  class and not becoming involved in the activities
  of any other class.

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How to maintain this structure?

• Assignment to guardian classes in childhood
• Censorship of guardian education
• too much fiction dulls the mind
• Should not be exposed to immoral ideas
• Guardians live communally, without nuclear
  families rigged lotteries for selective
  breeding, children will not know who their
  parents are, and vice versa
• Rulers must lie to citizens of all classes
  regarding their role, saying it is innate and
  unchangeable, to prevent uprising and
  self-determination

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Ethics Can Virtue Be Taught?