Term
| Plato: What is the main question Plato addresses in Republic? |
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Definition
| What is the good life to live? |
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Term
| Plato: How does defining the just state serve to answer the main question? |
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Definition
| By analogy: looking at justice in an individual is too small, so we look at the larger example of the city, and then relate it back to the individual |
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Term
| Plato: Identify the main characters, and explain how each defines justice. |
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Definition
-Cephalus (old man): telling the truth and repaying your debts
-Glaucon/Ademaintus: following the rules that are given to you
-Polymarchus: treat your enemies badly and your friends well
-Thrasymachus: advantage of the stronger
-Socrates: doing your own job and not meddling |
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Term
| Plato: Explain Thrasymachus' view that complete injustice is better or more profitable than complete justice (348c). |
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Definition
| If you are truly unjust but appear just, you will reap the benefits of a just person while getting away with any crime. This life is better than a truly just person who appears unjust, and reaps the consequences of an old man. |
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Term
| Plato: What is Socrates' main argument against that view? |
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Definition
1) For anything to fulfill its proper function, they must have the proper arete.
2) The proper function of the soul is to live well/be happy
3) The person will live well only if the soul has the proper arete (the soul needs to be well ordered to be happy)
4) The virtue of the soul is justice (order)
5) A person will be happy if and only if he is just |
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Term
| Plato: Glaucon identifies three reasons why we value things- what are they? Give examples. |
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Definition
1) Good we welcome for its own sake (beauty)
2) Good we welcome for its own sake and its consequences (school)
3) Good we welcome only for its consequences (money, working out) |
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Term
| Plato: What is Glaucon's view of the nature and origin of justice? |
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Definition
| Social Contract Theory of Justice: people are more scared of getting harmed that they won't harm others. We have more to fear than we have to gain, therefore we all come together and make laws that are our protection. It is a contract among us. |
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Term
| Plato: Explain the story of the ring of Gyges, and how it used in the Republic. |
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Definition
| It shows that anyone would be unjust if they could be. A man is given a ring that makes him invisible, and allows him to act unjustly with no fear. Even the most just man would behave unjustly if he had this ring. |
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Term
| Plato: How does Glaucon describe the ideally just person and the ideally unjust person? What is Socrates challenged to prove about these ideal types? |
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Definition
-Ideally just person is someone is is really truly just but appears unjust so reaps the consequences.
-Truly unjust person gets away with everything because they appear to be just, so they reap the benefits of both
-Point of the Republic: to prove that the truly just person who appears unjust has a happier life than the truly unjust person who appears just |
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Term
| Plato: What is Adeimantus' view of justice and the reason why people choose to be just? |
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Definition
| Pushing the same idea as Glaucon, to reap the social benefits of having the reputation of a good person and following the rules |
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Term
| Plato: What is the conceptual link between Glaucon/Adeimantus view of the origin of justice and their view of justice itself? |
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Definition
If the origin of justice is that we all have more to fear than to gain in the state of nature, and make the Social Contract to form rules and follow them, when we do that the new theory of justice becomes following the rules of the leader -- conventional justice
-The laws that come from the Social Contract will be just. Following the laws of the land |
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Term
| Plato: Socrates encounters a difficulty in defining justice in the individual person. What is the problem, and how does Socrates propose to overcome it? |
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Definition
| -To actually find what defines justice in a person is too hard. It's difficult to see it in the individual example. We must look to a larger example where it's more obvious, and that will help us see it. So we look at the state and train that vision on the individual. |
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Term
| Plato: What is Socrates' theory of the origin of the state? What is his fundamental assumption about civil society, and how is this different from the Glaucon/Adeimantus view? |
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Definition
-Does NOT believe in the Social Contract Theory view.
-We are inherently social. Each person has a specialty, no person is entirely self-sufficient, and we come together out of need, not fear.
-Human nature is to share and exchange. It is only when we want more and more that things begin to get tricky. |
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Term
| Plato: Explain the minimal state, and how it eventually leads to the luxurious state. |
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Definition
-Minimal state: only producers. Too limited, boring.
-Glaucon thinks we need more than the bare minimum, we need culture. This luxurious state is not healthy on its own. Now we need doctors for general excess, etc.
-People want more and more, so now there will be conflict and we need an army/peacekeepers |
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Term
| Plato: In the luxurious state there are three distinct classes: what are they, and how do they arise? |
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Definition
1) Producers: the masses
2) Auxiliary Guardians: enforce the rules (military and police)
3) Guardians Proper: only do what's good for the state |
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Term
| Plato: Describe the primary education of the Guardians. |
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Definition
-Virtues he wants to instill: Parents are to be respected/honored, friends are to be respected/ treated well, and Gods are to be revered/ a good example to follow (most of Greek mythology must be expunged)
1) Music (arts): whatever the art form takes, it is heavily censored to instill the virtues
2) Gymnastic
-the whole point is character development so people will be good citizens |
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Term
| Plato: Explain how the Rulers are selected from the Guardian group. |
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Definition
| They have the skills/abilities/virtues of the Auxiliaries, but they are also unshakeable in that they will only do what's good for the state. They are truly noble people, they do not back down or deviate. When you see these people in the primary education, you pick them out to continue with higher education. |
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Term
| Plato: What is the Myth of the Metals supposed to illustrate? |
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Definition
-The first noble lie. Only the rulers can tell it and they do it for the good of the state.
-Producers: bronze/alloys
-If you have the aptitude of a noble pedigree guard dog (Auxiliary Guardians): silver
-If you have the aptitude of wisdom to set the rules, have seen the form of the good: gold
-Illustrates by analogy with these metals what characteristics people have that has them destined for specific places in society |
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Term
| Plato: Define the 4 virtues characteristic of the state? |
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Definition
1) Wisdom: Guardian Propers
2) Courage: Auxiliary Guardians
3) Temperance: in everyone (only in a state of harmony)
4) Justice: comes about from everyone doing his own hob, without meddling or interfering with others |
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Term
| Plato: Define justice in the state. |
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Definition
| Justice is doing one's own job, without meddling or interfering with others. |
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Term
| Plato: Plato claims that the soul is divided into three seperate parts, analogous to the state. How does he defend this view? |
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Definition
| The logical rule that he brings to this argument: the law of non-contradiction. The mind will not embrace a contradiction. The same thing can't have 2 attitudes at the same time and place in regards to a single object, so there AT LEAST must be 2 parts. |
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Term
| Plato: Explain the virtues in the individual soul. How are they analogous to the state? |
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Definition
1) Wisdom: correlates with reason
2) Courage: correlates with spirit
3) Temperance: self-mastery of controlling all 3 parts of the soul (reason, spirit, appetite) - each part realizes that it should not overreach or usurp another
4) Justice: a well-ordered soul, where reason rules appetite with the aid of spirit |
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Term
| Plato: Socrates anticipates 3 objections to his view of the just state, or waves of paradox. Describe. |
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Definition
1) Women are equally capable of ruling: ruling and Auxiliary level
2) Communal Living
-2nd noble lie: marriage partners are picked in a lottery, but it's actually rigged so the people in charge know who will end up with who
-Justification: this policy will be best for the state. This will be for the good of the people.
3) Philosopher-kings should rule. |
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Term
| Plato: The final wave leads to a startling conclusion about who must rule the sate. What is Socrates' view? |
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Definition
| Philosophers should rule because they are the only ones who have seen true knowledge (grasp of a true/unchanging reality) |
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Term
| Plato: In order to fully characterize the philosopher, and why he will be most suited to rule, Socrates makes a distinction between knowledge and belief. Explain. |
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Definition
To understand what philosopher means, need to know what love is - you truly love the whole object, then you need to know what wisdom/knowledge is - cognitive grasp of the forms, understanding of a true, unchanging thing.
-They have complete love, unyielding devotion to, the whole knowledge and objects of knowledge (the forms). They are the only ones who grasp true reality. They have no self-interest in their soul. |
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Term
| Plato: Define philosopher. |
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Definition
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Term
| Plato: Why will there never be too many philosophers? |
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Definition
| Not many people will want to do it. Those who might want to do it won't want to complete the program of study or are even capable of it |
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Term
| Plato: Explain the ship of state analogy. |
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Definition
-Ship=state
-Ship owner=people
-Sailors=politicians
-True captain=philosopher king (looks crazy sometimes, but needs to be in tune with tides, compass, etc.) |
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Term
| Plato: In order to describe the education of the Rulers Plato develops a theory of Forms. Characterize the forms as opposed to sense particulars. What problems do you see arising from this theory? |
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Definition
-Forms and sense particulars become 2 different worlds, dow do you make accurate judgements about this world
-Forms are supposed to be divine-like so we need to worship them, but there are forms of pretty disgusting things- do you worship those too? |
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Term
| Plato: Describe Plato's line of cognitive development. |
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Definition
1) Illusion: objects are images of sense particulars
2) Belief/Opinion: sense particulars
3) Reason: sense particulars used to stimulate thought
4) Intelligence: dialectic, forms
5) Knowledge of highest form: the good |
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Term
| Plato: How is the Cave Analogy supposed to illustrate the line? |
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Definition
| Once you've seen the form of the Good, you don't want to go back from it to lead the people, but somebody's got to do it and if you don't want to be ruled by somebody worse than you, you have to do it |
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Term
| Plato: Knowledge of the forms is the highest form of insight. What is the highest form? How will it inform rules in their role as directors of the just state? |
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Definition
-The form of the good
-Knowing what would make most people happy most of the time |
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Term
| Plato: Describe the degenerate states as Socrates sees them, and how the degenerate individuals compare with them. |
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Definition
| -Democracy to Tyranny: masses become distracted by self-satisfaction, look for the most charismatic leader, who is the tyrant and slave to all master passions |
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Term
| Plato: Give Plato's 3 final arguments to establish that the just person is the happiest person. |
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Definition
1) Political proof: the tyrannical soul is the least happy of all: they are less free, poorer, live in a state of feat, fear their own slaves
2) Pleasure proof A: pleasures of the mind are better than pleasures of the body
3) Pleasure proof B: the pleasures that you'll experience as a just person are more true, more real, and more pure (not mixed with pain) |
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