Socratics Flashcards
(30 cards)
1
Q
Plato and Socrates
A
- Socrates wrote nothing
- Plato wrote almost nothing in his own voice
- Much of what we know of Socrates is from Plato’s voice
- Almost everything we know about Plato’s philosophy is voiced by (his version of) Socrates
2
Q
Euthyphro (background)
A
- Euthyphro: “direct thinker”
- his father was likely a wealthy landowner
- He thinks of himself as a holy prophet of sorts, though admits he is not well respected in Athens
3
Q
Socratic Literature
A
- became popular after Socrates’s death
- wrote in “Socrates’s voice’ to express one’s views
- often named after the people “Socrates” is talking to
4
Q
‘Stephanus’ numbers
A
- numbers in the margin
5
Q
Socrates and the Orcale
A
- Socrates went to the Oracle of Delphi to see who was the smartest
- It told him he was the wisest
- He believed the oracle, but he also knew that he knew nothing with certainty
- To solve this paradox, Socrates came to the conclusion that nobody knew anything, and that he was only wiser than others because he was the only person who recognized his own ignorance
6
Q
Euthyphro (Plot)
A
- Socrates goes to court and runs into Euthyphro on the steps
- Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for murder
- Socrates thinks, that someone who would make such a serious case against their own father would have to know what the nature of piety is
7
Q
Euthyphro (failed definitions)
A
- Piety is what he is doing now, prosecuting his father for manslaughter
- Soc rejects Euthyphro’s definition, bc it’s not a definition of piety, only an example, and does not provide the essential characteristic that makes pious actions pious
- Piety is what is pleasing to the gods
- Soc applauds this definition, bc it is expressed in general form, but criticizes it bc gods disagree among themselves as to what is pleasing. This means that a given action, disputed by the gods, would be both pious and impious at the same time – a logical impossibility
- “What all the gods love is pious, and what they all hate is impious.”
- central dilemma because contrapositives
- . So suggests Euthyphro intends a definition of “piety”, as that “piety is a part of justice”
- But ‘what’ part is it? How does it relate to the whole of justice?
- “Piety is an art of sacrifice and prayer”.
- But what is art is it? How do we know if we sacrifice and pray correctly?
8
Q
“Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?”
A
- Euthyrpho (central philosophical dilemma)
- If they were both true, then it would be a vicious circle
- if 2nd clause is true, piety seems arbitrary, just the whim of some or all of the gods
- if 1st clause true, it seems piety is a real object distinct from the gods’ love, an object to which, if they are moral, they are bound to love
9
Q
Socrates’s positions on pious acts (Euthyrpho)
A
- there are knowable objective moral standards that are independent of their exemplary instantiations here on earth (independent/rank higher than the divine)
10
Q
Socrates (Euthyrpho) particular actions good/evil or right/wrong?
A
Not because God said so, but because the particular instantiation of right/wrong thing is an instantiation of a Form/Idea. These are intellectual universals that are metaphysically real.
That which IS, is what it is by virtue of its participation in a universal Form or Idea. That individual which is KNOWN to be something, is so known by reference to a universal that explains why it is what it is.
11
Q
Plato’s most important contribution to Western thought
A
- universal properties (wrong/wrong, fair/not fair) are objective universal truths
- Forms and Ideas
That which IS, is what it is by virtue of its participation in a universal Form or Idea. That individual which is KNOWN to be something, is so known by reference to a universal that explains why it is what it is.
12
Q
meno
A
- one of Plato’s dialogues, written in the form of a conversation between Socrates and Meno, a young Thessalian aristocrat
- addresses questions related to virtue, knowledge, and the nature of learning
- named after Meno, who plays a central role in the conversation.
13
Q
Meno’s (Protagoras’s) definitions of virtue
A
- what is virtuous for a man is to conduct himself in the city so that he helps his friends, injures his enemies.
- Virtue is different for a woman (Her domain is obedience to her husband and household management)
- Children (male and female) have their own proper virtue, too.
- So do older folks.
- So do free people or enslaved people.
14
Q
Meno’s next try for virtue definition
A
Virtue is the desire for good things and the power to get them
15
Q
What has Meno’s definitions done?
A
- He has enumerated a set without articulating the principle by which its members are included in that set
- He has provided examples of ‘x’ without specifying the definition of ‘x’ such that one could know whether the examples actually do exemplify ‘x’.
- What is needed is to articulate the definition of the universal term – virtue – such that one might know how its applications, illustrations, and examples relate to it
16
Q
Why is Meno’s inability to provide a definition a problem?
A
- Meno is glad to tell others what to do, to declaim what is moral or immoral, to fight for justice or condemn injustice…all without having a clear idea of what these terms actually mean
- He has plenty of opinions, but no knowledge.
17
Q
What is virtue actually?
A
- This question poses The Learner’s paradox:
- cannot search either for what he knows or for what he does not know; He cannot search for what he knows–since he knows it, there is no need to search–nor for what he does not know, for he does not know what to look for
18
Q
How does Socrates solve Meno’s Learners paradox
A
- The Theory of Recollection
- The soul is presumed to be immortal (Plato/Socrates accept Pythagoras’s theory of metempsychosis)
- Upon our death, soul is separated from our body.
- No longer burdened by sensory knowledge. Our minds can ‘see’ purely the objects of cognition.
- In this disembodied state, our soul apprehends the pure objective ideas, unchanging, universal, and pure: that is, the forms. In that state, we have total enlightenment.
- Just before we are born “again” our soul “forgets” everything and we go through a process of “recollecting” what we have forgotten
19
Q
Innate knowledge
A
- how can we explain intuitive understandings of things like grammatical forms, unexplained dance movements, and any number of end-directed bodily processes without dependence on ‘teaching’
20
Q
universals
A
if every object in the world is distinct, then in reference to what do we identify them by general terms?
- But in virtue of what do we classify them as such if there ARE no more general forms?
21
Q
Learning/Discerning
A
- do we just recite the popular opinions of others? Or is there something real or objective in virtue of which we discern truth from falsity?
22
Q
Plato’s Phaedo (setting)
A
- conversation between Exhecrates and Phaedo after Socrates’s death
- Soc in a holding cell for wealthy people
- Soc sent his wife and kids out so he could talk philosophy with his friends
23
Q
What is the nature of death? (Phaedo)
A
- Soc Answer: “The separation of the Soul and the Body”. This passes unchallenged.
- he isn’t sad/afraid because embodied life is what prevents knowledge
- afterlife is where the forms are
24
Q
Forms (Ideas) (Phaedo)
A
- non-physical essences of all things, of which objects and matter in the physical world are merely imitations
- The world we can experience empirically (see, touch, hear, taste, smell) is NOT the real world or the knowable world
25
Allegory of the sun
- our senses can deceive us to the truth of the world
- the soul's apprehension of knowledge needs a medium
26
Allegory of the divided line
- a metaphor for knowledge, dividing it into two realms and four levels: the visible world (perception) and the intelligible world (reason).
- The lower visible world deals with shadows and reflections, while the higher visible world focuses on concrete objects
- The intelligible world consists of mathematical forms and the ultimate form of knowledge, the Good
- This analogy highlights the hierarchy of knowledge, with the Good representing the highest level of truth and understanding
27
Allegory of the sun in 3 sentences
the Sun Analogy compares the sun's role in illuminating sight to the Good's role in illuminating knowledge. Just as the sun makes physical objects visible, the Good makes truths intelligible, allowing us to access true reality. Without the Good, we're limited to mere shadows and opinions.
28
allegory of the cave
- Ignorance as shadows: Imagine prisoners chained in a cave, mistaking shadows projected by a fire for reality
- Awakening to truth: One prisoner escapes, encountering the painful yet illuminating light of the real world.
- Returning to guide others: Though initially met with disbelief and ridicule, the escaped prisoner attempts to share their newfound knowledge.
- The struggle for enlightenment: The allegory represents the difficulty of escaping ignorance and the responsibility of guiding others towards truth.
29
Why was Socrates killed?
- he was trying to bring people out of ignorance
- in order to do that he had to ridicule and make fun of them and many people hated this
30
