Module 4: Plato and Socrates

Objectives:
By the end of this module, you should be able to:
 Articulate the meaning of virtue as good life drawn from regulating the soul:
reason, will and appetite;
 Differentiate the concept of Platonic virtue as opposed to the Sophist’s
conception of it.

Plato
Plato (c. 427–348 b.c.e.) is actually the nickname of Aristocles, the son of one of the
oldest and most elite Athenian families… Aristocles, meant ―best, most renowned.‖
Plato was a member of the Athenian aristocracy and Socrates‘ most famous and
important pupil. Socrates‘ trial and death convinced Plato that Athenian democracy
was irrational mob rule. He founded his famous Academy to educate wise rulers.

According to Plato, knowledge is unchanging. The Sophists could not discover truth
because they were only concerned with the world of ever-changing perceptions
and customs. Truth and knowledge are found at the level of being. Plato‘s theory of
Forms was part of his refutation of sophistry.

The Republic
In the Republic, Plato argued that there is a reciprocal relationship between the
individual and the kind of society in which he or she lives. Th e ideal state meets
three basic categories of needs: (1) nourishing needs; (2) protection needs; (3)
ordering needs. These needs are best met by members of three corresponding
classes of people: (1) workers; (2) warriors; (3) guardians or philosopher-kings.

The Republic contrasts two views of morality. The instrumental theory of morality
asserts that right and wrong must be determined by the consequences our acts
produce, and the functionalist theory of morality holds that right and wrong can only
be understood in terms of the way they affect our overall functioning as human
beings.

According to Plato, the just state functions fully; the unjust state is dysfunctional.
Only when all classes of people are virtuous according to their natures is the
state whole, healthy, balanced, and just. The good life consists of each
individual functioning well according to his or her own nature, in a state that is
ordered and wisely ruled.

According to Plato, the human soul resembles the state in that it too is divided into
three parts: reason, spirit, and appetite. A just (healthy, good, or virtuous) soul is one
in which all parts function harmoniously. The just society is one ruled by guardians in
such a way that each class functions at its best.
Plato identified four cardinal (essential, basic) virtues. The virtue of temperance is
important for the worker classes but necessary for all classes of people. Courage is
the essential virtue of the warrior class; in the individual, courage is a quality of will
that provides a person with stamina and energy. Wisdom is the virtue associated
with the guardians and the rational part of the soul. Justice, the result of the other
three cardinal virtues, is excellence of function for the whole.

Plato rejected democracy as unjust because rule by the majority usurps the rightful
role of the guardian class. The result is an excess of liberty and rule by impulse,
appetite, and emotion in which all classes suffer. Democracy violates the principle of
functional order and rule by reason. According to Plato, the excessive liberty found in
democracies contains the seeds of tyranny, a type of government in which all power
rests in a single individual, the tyrant, the most imbalanced type of personality.

Plato‘s Dualism
1. The World of Form- the essence of a thing, the quality that makes it what it
is. … Th e Greek root for ―form‖ (eidos) is sometimes translated as
―idea‖… Plato insists that the Forms are independent of any minds (real).

2. The World of Sensible- Particular things differ in terms of what Plato

variously refers to as their ―participation in,‖ ―sharing in,‖ ―resembling,‖
or ―reflecting‖ the Form.

Plato
The Republic, trans. G. M. A. Grube (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1974), p. 32f.
 Thrasymachus
Thrasymachus (c. 450 b.c.e.) is the kind of Sophist who is less interested in theories
and philosophy than in political and social action.
According to Thrasymachus, the values that prevail in all areas of life—economic,
political, racial, educational—reflect the interests of the strong.

In Book I, section 3 of the Republic, Plato paints a vivid portrait of the volatile,
aggressive style Thrasymachus used in con fronting his opponents.

The Republic consists of a series of dialogues between Socrates and various

individuals, chiefly about the nature of justice.

 Cephalus suggests that justice involves nothing more than telling the truth
and repaying one's debts.
 Polemarchus offers a refinement of the definition of Justice. He proposed
Justice is
giving back what is owed.
 Justice means doing good to a friend and harming your enemies. -
Polemarchus
 Justice is the advantage of the stronger party. – Thrasymachus

Socrates

Socrates was the first major Western philosopher. He wrote no philosophy, and what
we know of him comes chiefly from his pupils Plato and Xenophon. Socrates
challenged the Sophist doctrines of relativism, moral realism, and might makes
right. He also insisted that no one who took money for teaching could teach the
truth.

He sought a cure for the ills of the society not in politics, but in philosophy.

Socrates struggled with one of the great problems of our time: Who am I? How can I
discover my true identity? How shall I live?

 Method
Socrates perfected a style of philosophical inquiry known as the Socratic Method or
Socratic Dialectic. Socratic dialectic consists of a series of guided questions that
continually refines the ideas under scrutiny. Definitions are required for all key terms,
and logical inconsistencies are brought to light and resolved.
 Socrates famous statements
Among Socratic teachings, the most persistent command was “Know thyself,”
meaning, among other things, that a life devoid of philosophical speculation is hardly
a human life, because only philosophical reflection can help us discover what is real
and important from the standpoint of the psyche….He believed that the ―real
person‖ is not the body, but the psyche.

“The unexamined life is not worth living. Know thyself!”

 The Oracle of Delphi
I said to myself, What can the god mean? and what is the interpretation of his riddle?
for I know that I have no wisdom, small or great. What then can he mean when he
says that I am the wisest of men? And yet he is a god, and cannot lie; that would be
against his nature. After long consideration, I thought of a method of trying the
question. I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go
to the god with a refutation in my hand. I should say to him, ―Here is a man wiser
than I am; but you said I was the wisest.‖ Accordingly I went to one who had a
reputation of wisdom, and observed him—his name I need not mention; he was a
politician whom I selected for examination—and the result was as follows: When I
began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise, although
he was thought wise by many, and still wiser by himself; and thereupon I tried to
explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was not really wise; and the
consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity was shared by several who were
present and heard me. So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away: Well, although
I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am
better off than he is—for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know
nor think that I know. In this . . . , then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him.
Then I went to another who had still higher pretensions to wisdom, and my
conclusion was exactly the same. Whereupon I made another enemy of him, and of
many others besides him.

The Trial and Death of Socrates

Socrates was accused of two things: impiety against Athens' gods by introducing
new gods and the corruption of Athenian youth
 Excerpt of Apology
I dare say, Athenians, that some of you will reply, ―Yes, Socrates, but what is the
origin of these accusations which are brought against you; there must have been
something strange which you have been doing? All these rumours and this talk about
you would never have arisen if you had been like other men: tell us, then, what is the
cause of them, for we should be sorry to judge hastily of you.‖ Now I regard this as a
fair challenge, and I will endeavour to explain to you the reason why I am called wise
and have such evil fame. Please to attend then. And although some of you may think
that I am joking, I declare that I will tell you the entire truth. Men of Athens, this
reputation of mine has come of a certain sort of wisdom which I possess. If you ask
me what kind of wisdom, I reply, wisdom such as may perhaps be attained by man,
for to that extent I am inclined to believe that I am wise; whereas the persons to
whom I was speaking have a superhuman wisdom, which I may fail to describe,
because I have it not myself; and he who says I have, speaks falsely, and is taking
away my character. citizen. . . .

At last I went to the artisans, for I was conscious that I knew nothing at all, as I may
say, and I was sure that they knew many fine things; and here I was not mistaken, for
they did know many things of which I was ignorant, and in this they certainly were
wiser than I was. But I observed that even the good artisans fell into the same error
as the poets—because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all
sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom; and
therefore I asked myself whether I would like to be as I was, neither having their
knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both; and I made answer to myself and
to the oracle that I was better off as I was. This inquisition has led to my having
many enemies of the worst and most dangerous kind, and has given occasion
to many
calumnies. And I am called wise, for my hearers always imagine that I possess the
wisdom which I find wanting in others; but the truth is, O men of Athens, that God
only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of men is
worth little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using my
name by way of illustration, as if he said,
He, O men, is wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth
nothing. And so I go about the world, obedient to the god, and search and make
enquiry into the wisdom of anyone, whether citizen.

 the Physician of the Soul

Men of Athens, I honour and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and
while I have strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of
philosophy, exhorting any one whom I meet and saying to him after my manner: You,
my friend,—a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens,—are you not
ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honour and reputation,
and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul,
which you never regard or heed at all? And if the person with whom I am arguing,
says: Yes, but I do care; then I do not leave him or let him go at once; but I proceed
to interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no
virtue in him, but only says that he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater,
and overvaluing the less. And I shall repeat the same words to everyone I meet,
young and old, citizen and alien, but especially to the citizens . . . For know that this
is the command of the god; and I believe no greater good has happened to this state
than my service to the god. For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and
young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but fi rst and
chiefl y to care about the greatest improvement of your soul. I tell you that virtue is
not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man,
public as well as private. This is my teaching.

 Ethical Theory
For Socrates, virtue is Wisdom. It is precisely because knowledge (wisdom)
always produces behavioral results, because behavior is always guided by beliefs.
―To know the good is to do the good.

Virtue comes from the Greek arete, meaning “that at which something excels,”
or “excellence of function.” If virtue implies excellence of function, then the
appearance of the body is less important than how well it functions. True beauty is
inner beauty, beauty of spirit and character

 Meno
Passage from the Meno:

Socrates: The next question is, whether virtue is knowledge or of another species?
Meno: Certainly. . . .
Socrates: Do we not say that virtue is good? . . .
Meno: Certainly....
Socrates: Then virtue is profitable?
Meno: That is the only inference. . . .
Socrates: And what is the guiding principle which makes [things] profitable or the
reverse? Are they not profitable when they are rightly used, and hurtful when they
are not rightfully used? Meno: Certainly.
Socrates: Next, let us consider the goods of the soul: they are temperance, justice,
courage, quickness of apprehension, memory, magnanimity, and the like? Meno:
Surely.

Socrates: And such of these as are not knowledge, but of another sort, are
sometimes profitable
and sometimes hurtful; as, for example, courage wanting prudence, which is only a
sort of
confidence? When a man has no sense he is harmed by courage, but when he has
sense he is
profited?
Meno: True.
Socrates: And . . . whatever things are learned or done with sense are profitable, but
when done
without sense they are hurtful?
Meno: Very true.
Socrates: And in general, all that the soul attempts or endures, when under the
guidance of wisdom, ends in happiness; but when she is under the guidance of folly,
the opposite?
Meno: That appears to be true. Socrates: If then virtue is a quality of the soul, and is
admitted to be profi table, it must be wisdom or prudence, since none of the things of
the soul are either profitable or hurtful in themselves, but they are all made profitable
or hurtful by the addition of wisdom or folly; and therefore if virtue is profitable, virtue
must be a sort of wisdom or prudence?
Meno: I quite agree. . . .
Socrates: And is this not universally true of human nature? All other things hang
upon the soul, and the things of the soul herself hang upon wisdom, if they are to be
good; and so wisdom is inferred to be that which profits—and virtue, as we say, is
profitable?
Meno: Certainly. Socrates: And thus we arrive at the conclusion that virtue is either
wholly or partly wisdom?
Meno: I think that what you are saying, Socrates, is very true.