SOCRATES, PLATO & ARISTOTLE

Muelmar Magallanes

❖Barangay Bagong Silangan in Quezon City was among the worst-hit

communities in the metropolis when Ondoy ravaged vast swaths in
Luzon on September 26. Magallanes, said to be a strong swimmer,
rescued about 30 people but was unable to save himself. While
trying to save other neighbors, a wall collapsed on him and a
television set fell on his head, killing him instantly.
❖"He gave his life for my baby," said Menchie Penalosa. "I will never
forget his sacrifice."
 Jeffrey Almoguerra, a 30-year-
old janitor
❖An envelope full of US-dollar-cash was found by a janitor in the lobby of
Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last Tuesday, January 15, 2019.

According to Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Jeffrey

Almoguerra, a 30-year-old janitor and employee of Philcare Manpower
Services found the cash while he was cleaning near the foreign exchange
counter.
The envelope contained a lot of US dollar bills and Jeffrey rushed to one
of the guards and told him about what he found. The guard went with
him to MIAA Lost and Found Section to turn over the envelope full of
cash.
 Examples

Muelmar and Jeffrey are examples of morally good persons because

of their good character, specifically, their special qualities, namely,
bravery, sacrifice, courage, honesty, integrity.
These qualities are called VIRTUES.
Virtues are trained behavioral dispositions that result in habitual
acts of moral goodness.
The opposite, vice, is trained behavioral dispositions that result in
habitual acts of moral wrongness.
 VIRTUE THEORY (ETHICS)

 An ethical system that is based on the notion of virtue (and its opposite,
vice).
 Central theme: morality involves producing excellent persons, who act
well out of spontaneous goodness and serve as examples to inspire
others.
 Teleologically-oriented
 Focuses on the goal of life; living well and achieving excellence.
 It claims that it is important not only to do the right thing but also have
the proper dispositions, motivations, and emotions in being good and
doing right.
SOCRATES & PLATO
GREEK ETHICAL THOUGHTS
 SOCRATES (470 – 399 B.C.)

 Born in Athens in 470 B.C.

 A son of a sculptor and a midwife
 He became a sculptor himself.
 Married Xanthippe
 Was critical of the Sophists’ teachings, and questioned their self-
knowledge and self-righteousness.
 Was put on trial for atheism and corruption of the youth
 Sentenced to death penalty by drinking a hemlock.
DEATH OF SOCRATES
WHAT IS THE WAY WE OUGHT TO LIVE?

A very important question that

everyone should ponder upon.

Yet most people never seriously

contemplate this question.

This question requires one to

have self-knowledge.
THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING.

Knowing ourselves
leads to knowledge of
how we ought to live.
“once we know ourselves we may learn
how to care for ourselves, but otherwise
we never shall.”
 WHAT IS GOOD?

That which That which

makes us happy. makes us suffer.
EUTHYPHRO: WHAT IS PIOUS AND WHAT IS
IMPIOUS?
What is pious and what is impious?
➢ “what is dear to the gods is pious, what is not
is impious.”

“Consider this: Is the pious being loved by the gods

because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being
loved by the gods.”

Euthyphro points to the first: Pious is what all the

gods love. What all the gods hate is impious.
EUTHYPHRO

SOCRATES:
Tell me then what this form itself is, so that I
may look upon it and, using it as a model, say
that any action of yours or another’s that is of
that kind is pious, and if it is not that it is not.

Someone who can grasp what the forms of justice,

beauty, and goodness are will be far better able to see
what must be done to enhance the justice, beauty, and
goodness of the everyday world.
“VIRTUE IS WHAT GOD DESIRES”

To please the gods one must also love the

good, that is, to be virtuous.
VIRTUE – IS THE SUPREME GOOD

 ARETE – excellence, virtue - “virtuosity”, “virtuoso”

= being brilliant or excellent in a particular area of life

 To attain virtue one must have knowledge of what really virtue is.

 When we arrive at knowledge of what is virtue we become virtuous.

 When we are virtuous we perfect our souls and we will attain
happiness.
EVIL IS THE RESULT OF IGNORANCE

 Why do people do evil acts?

 It’s because they do not know any
better.
 In a sense, either evil actions are
done out of ignorance or done
involuntarily.
SUFFER OR COMMIT INJUSTICE?

 It is better to suffer injustice than to commit

an injustice.
 Socrates was sentenced to death because his
questioning was thought to “corrupt the
youth.” He contended that it was better to do
the right thing and obey God than to obey
man.
 So in his death too, Socrates taught people to
seek virtue and wisdom above self-interest.
 His actual name was Aristocles
 “Son of a wealthy and powerful family.
 At about 20, became student of Socrates
 After Socrates’ death he wandered around
Greece and Mediterranean.
 Founded the Academy in 386.
 “Let no one ignorant of mathematics enter here.”
(Placed above the doorway of the school)
 Died at the age of 80, in his sleep.
SITE OF
PLATO’S
ACADEMY
 PLATO’S IDEAS

WORLD OF IDEAS WORLD OF THE SENSES

COPIES OF
FORMS
• ETERNAL FORMS

• UNCHANGING • WILL DECAY

• NONMATERIAL • EVER CHANGING
ARCHETYPES OF
• IMPERPECT, SINCE THEY
WHICH EVERYTHING
ARE MERELY POOR
IN THE MATERIAL
IMITATIONS
WORLD ARE MERE
IMITATIONS
HUMAN: BODY & SOUL [PSUCHÊ =ΨΥΧΉ]

 Plato argued that the human has body & soul.

 The soul is immortal; it persists after the body dies.
 He believed that each human soul has been in direct
contact with the Forms prior to the soul’s (fall)
embodiment during birth.
 Thus the philosophical task is to recollect the memory
of the Forms
 Though the task is partly epistemological (knowledge)
it is essentially a MORAL task.
The primary Form is the Form of the Good.
Therefore, all attempts to acquire knowledge—to
philosophize—are attempts to achieve knowledge of
the Good.
Thus, whoever knows the Good would become good,
that is, one would acquire knowledge of all virtues and
become virtuous himself.
All moral error is really IGNORANCE.
WHAT IS OUR FUNCTION

Our function is determined by the kind of thing we are.

 A human is a creature with a soul (Ψυχή - psuche)
 The soul consists of three parts
 Reason
 Spirit
 Desires
DIVISION OF THE SOUL

I divide the soul into three:

two horses and a charioteer.
One of the horses is good and
the other bad. (Phaedrus)
PARTS OF THE SOUL

1. Desire (the bad horse)

 If desire gets out of control
then we become indulgent
hedonists with no real sense
of what is good for us overall.
PARTS OF THE SOUL

2. Spirit (the good horse)

 If spirit gets out of control then we become headstrong
impulsive types, always leaping into things and making snap
decisions.
3. Reason (charioteer)
 Controls and shape the impulses
 Maintains a balanced and harmonious soul
 Plato’s virtues
1. Desire - Termperance (or self-control) JUSTICE
2. Spirit – Courage
3. Reason - Wisdom
‘MORAL
GOODNESS’

When he [the JUST man] has bound these elements into a

disciplined and harmonious whole … he will be ready for
action of any kind … whether it is political or personal.
 ARISTOTLE (384–322 B.C.E.)

oBorn at Stagira, in Macedonia, at northeastern Greece. (hence, he’s called the

Stagirite)
oHis father, Nicomachus, was physician of the grandfather of Alexander the Great,
(Amyntas II).
oAt 17, he was sent to Athens to join the Academy of Plato, and remained there until
the death of Plato in 347. Speusippus, Plato’s nephew, took over the Academy.
oAt the invitation of his friend Hermeas, ruler of Atarneus and Assos in Mysia,
Aristotle left Athens to be part of the King’s court.
oHe stayed for three years, married Pythias, the niece of the King.
 ARISTOTLE

oAfter Hermeas’ death (he was overtaken by the Persians), Aristotle

was invited by King Philip of Macedonia to tutor the young (13)
Alexander. Pythias died and Aristotle eventually had a 2nd woman,
Herpyllis, who gave birth to Nicomachus.
o When Alexander succeeded King Philip as emperor, Aristotle
returned to Athens.
o He established his own school at the Lyceum (public exercise area
dedicated to the god Apollo Lykeios, whence its name, the Lyceum).
o He withdrew to Chalcis, in an island off the Attic coast, and died of
natural causes in 322.
ARISTOTLE’S WORKS
1. LOGIC: 5. ON HUMANS:
e.g., Categories, On Interpretation, the e.g., De Anima
Prior Analytics
2. METAPHYSICS: 6. ETHICS AND POLITICS:
e.g., Metaphysics e.g., Nichomachean Ethics; Politics

3. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY: 7. AESTHETICS:

e.g., Physics; On the Heavens e.g., Rhetoric; Poetics

4. ON ANIMALS:
e.g., History of Animals; On the Generation
of Animals
 Ideas on essence, change, act,

Critical of Plato’s ideas:

– Dualism
– Account of change and movement
Aristotle’s position
– Change is not due to poor copying of forms but is an essential part of
reality.
– The substance is constantly moving to fulfil its true form (which is not
separate from itself but inherent in it)
– This view is heavily teleological. → All motion is a kind of purposeful,
goal-seeking, activity.
 What is ethics about?

 The aim of ethical inquiries is not to know what goodness is, but
ultimately to become good.
 “What is goodness?” – is a intermediate question or aim
 “to become good person” – the ultimate aim
 The question “How should one live?” (as asked by Socrates, Plato) –
is for Aristotle: “How can one achieve the best possible life?”
 “best” both in the interest of the agent and best objectively
 NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

the good is ‘that which

all things seek’

 Every rational activity aims to realize some goal which is seen as

good.
 There is also some goal in relation to human life as a whole – the
supreme good.
The Supreme Good

… what it is that we say political

science aims at and what is the
highest of all goods achievable by
action…. it is happiness…
(eudemonia)
▪ EUDAIMONIA [Ety. from two words, eu, which means ‘well’, and
daimõn, a kind of guiding spirit (not necessarily malevolent like an
English demon)]
▪ HAPPINESS – “living well” or “doing well”
▪ Literally – it means “A fulfilled life,” or “fulfilment”
▪ Happiness or fulfilment, then, is something final and self-sufficient,
and is the end of action. (NE 1097b20)
Everybody seeks HAPPINESS for its own sake.
 Eudaimonia is the supreme good

Most ends (goods) are sought for the sake of something else – thus,
not highest nor final.
Eudaimonia satisfies 2 conditions to be a supreme good
1. first that it is sought for its own sake and for the sake of nothing
else
2. second that it is by itself sufficient to make life “choiceworthy and
lacking nothing” (1097b15).
 it means not self-sufficient for the person but for his family and
everybody else. *Since man is born for citizenship. (1097b)
 2 competing views Eudaimonia

1. INCLUSIVE CONCEPTION OF EUDAIMONIA - A conception of the

supreme good as a life in which the best possible combination of
specific goods is achieved.
2. DOMINANT CONCEPTION - the conception of a life devoted as far
as possible to the pursuit of a single specific good.
 The best life for humans

The ERGON argument

– an argument from the function (ergon) of human beings
Aristotle asks: what is the function of the human being?
1. The distinctive function of human being is the activity of the soul
in accordance with reason, or not apart from reason. [rational
activity]
2. It belongs to a good man to perform this rational activity well and
finely, and each thing is completed well when it possesses its
proper excellence.
 The best life for humans

3. The human good turns out to be activity of the

soul in accordance with excellence (and if there
are more excellences than one, in accordance with
the best and most complete).
 EXTERNAL GOODS

❖External goods are necessary for a fully worthwhile life.

❖Ex. health, prosperity
❖ For Aristotle, a full account of eudaimonia, then, is that it is a life of
excellent rational activity “sufficiently equipped with the external
goods, not for any chance period, but over one’s life as a whole”
(1101a14–16).
❖ It is not in the agent’s power to guarantee, unlike the rational
activity. They are extra conditions which one hopes for.
 REASON

▪ Aristotle believes that REASON is unique to human beings.

▪ This uniqueness defines what is most important about human being.
▪ Aside from natural biological functions & sensory functions, our
specifically human natural function is the exercise of our reason.
▪ Exercise of Reason:
• THEORETICAL reason – to seek wisdom, truth
• PRACTICAL reason – to seek the right action in our experience of living
Aristotle’s division of the soul

NON-RATIONAL RATIONAL
ELEMENTS ELEMENTS
NUTRITION/ THEORETICAL
GROWTH REASON
DESIRE/EMOTION PRACTICAL
or APPETITES REASON

Rational elements: two areas

1. Intellect (rational per se, i.e., theoretical reason)
2. Appetites (not rational per se, but derivatively rational)
 Areté (Gk)
excellence
virtue

“virtuosity”, “virtuoso”
= being brilliant or excellent in a particular area of
life
 What is VIRTUE?

As defined by ARISTOTLE:
❖ VIRTUE is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a
mean, i.e. the mean relative to us, this being determined by reason,
and by that reason by which the man of practical wisdom would
determine it.*
❖ [Virtue, therefore, is a characteristic marked by choice, residing in the
mean relative to us, a characteristic defined by reason and as the
prudent person would define it. (1106b36–1107a2)] – trans. Bartlett & Collins
 EXCELLENCE / VIRTUE

❖ Examples: a. Courage (3.6-9), b. Moderation (3.10-12) , c. Liberality (4.1),

d. Magnificence (4.2), e. Greatness of Soul (4.3), f. Ambition (4.4), g.
Gentleness (4.5), h. Friendliness (4.6), i. Truthfulness ( 4·7), j. Wittiness
(4.8), k. Justice (5)

❖It means that: A good thing is one that does well whatever it
characteristically does. What it characteristically does is that which
distinguishes itself from others, that is, what it does that makes it
what it is. The which makes a thing excel in what it characteristically
does is a virtue.
❖ Ex. Knife : What makes a knife an excellent knife?
 VIRTUE = MEAN

❖ Aristotle: a moral virtue is a MEAN between two extremes (the vice

of EXCESS and the vice of DEFICIENCY).
❖ Principle of the Golden Mean: In medio stat Virtus (Virtue lies in the
mean).
THE MEAN

• Similarly, actions also admit of excess, deficiency

and the intermediate condition. Now virtue is
concerned with feelings and actions, in which
excess and deficiency are in error and incur blame,
while the intermediate condition is correct and wins
praise, which are both proper features of virtue.
Virtue, then, is a mean, in so far as it aims at what
is intermediate.
 Clarifications about the Golden
MEAN
1. It is not a mathematical mean.
õ Analogy: archery – Hitting the middle of the target is not
average; on the contrary, it is excellent.
õ Developing virtues requires effort. Luck is not enough.
õ Buddha: it is easier to conquer others than it is to conquer
oneself.
 Clarifications about the golden
MEAN
2. It is not a precise mean but rather a mean relative to us.
¤ Analogy: baseball bat – the best place to hit the ball on the bat
is not the exact center of the bat; the mean is relative.
¤ Ethics is not a precise science: Ethics is about living a good life,
and that is not something one can do with absolute precision.
 Example: IN THE FACE OF DANGER

EXCESS: foolhardiness

DEFICIENCY: cowardliness

MEAN: COURAGE
 Intellectual and Moral virtues

❑ Virtue, then, is twofold, intellectual and moral. Both the coming-

into being and increase of intellectual virtue result mostly from
teaching—hence it requires experience and time—whereas moral
virtue is the result of habit, and so it is that moral virtue got its
name [ethike] by a slight alteration of the term habit [ethos]. It is
also clear, as a result, that none of the moral virtues are present in
us by nature, since nothing that exists by nature is habituated to be
other than it is.
- continued
 Intellectual and Moral virtues

❑For example, a stone, because it is borne downward by nature,

could not be habituated to be borne upward, not even if someone
habituates it by throwing it upward ten thousand times. Fire too
could not be borne downward, nor could anything else that is
naturally one way be habituated to be another. Neither by nature,
therefore, nor contrary to nature are the virtues present; they are
instead present in us who are of such a nature as to receive them,
and who are completed1 through habit. [1103a15-25]
 Intellectual virtues (Excellences of reason)
acquired by education plus experience & time

1. Scientific knowledge (episteme) - knowledge of what is necessary and

universal.
2. Artistic or technical knowledge (techne), - knowledge of how to make
things, or of how to develop a craft
3. Intuitive reason (nous) - the process that establishes the first principles
of knowledge.
4. Practical wisdom (phronesis) - the capacity to act in accordance with the
good of humanity.
5. Philosophic wisdom (sophia) - the combination of intuitive reason and
scientific knowledge.
Moral virtues
by habit resulting in states of character

1. Courage 7. Liberality
2. Temperance 8. Magnificence
3. Gentleness 9. Proper pride
4. Modesty 10. Honesty
5. Righteous 11. Wittiness
6. Indignation 12. Friendliness
 Actions with no intermediate

❑ There are actions that admit no intermediate point.

❑ They are simple bad, and there’s no “excellent” way of doing them.
❑ Ex. Theft, adultery, murder, suicide, abortion, etc.
❑ The mean only applies to actions and dispositions that are not bad
in and of themselves.
 PHRONESIS

❖ Phronesis, (prudence) the practical wisdom - is knowledge that

deals with practical matters and not just with ideas.
▪ determines or manages moral choices like determining the mean
relative to the agent.
▪ Consider situations “without easily giving in to the push and pull
of the various desires coming from the appetitive part of the
soul.”*
▪ A virtuous person is one who has phronesis, practical wisdom.
 Developing virtue: habits

❖ Virtue of character results from habit … Hence it is also clear that

none of the virtues of character arises in us naturally… Thus the
virtues arise in us neither by nature nor against nature, but we are
by nature able to acquire them, and reach our complete perfection
through habit.
 Developing a Moral Character

1. Moral training – our parents and other people tell us what is good
for us
2. Personal experience – by experience we learn which sorts of
behaviors are good and which are not good for us.
 Developing a Moral Character

3. By example – we learn from examples or lives of virtuous people.

• People who interact with a virtuous person will benefit from her.
• Flipside: people who deal with the individual who have vices will
be negatively affected.
4. By figuring out for ourselves – a process of practical reasoning
which is called PHRONESIS (or prudential reasoning)
 Phronesis & Sophia

A. Phronesis, practical wisdom, is the excellence of the practical

intellect.
B. Sophia is the excellence of the theoretical intellect.
 Both are intrinsically valuable.
 But Sophia has higher intrinsic value than phronesis
 Phronesis, aside from its intrinsic value, has an instrumental role in
promoting Sophia.
 Phronesis & Sophia

 Sophia is sought and enjoyed not apart from itself, and constitutes
the complete happiness of a human being.
 Ultimately Sophia is the best excellence attainable by humans
closer to the divine.
 Theoria (or contemplation), which is theoretical thought is the most
valuable human rational activity.
 Virtues of virtue ethics

❖Both consequentialist and deontological theories seem to propose a

rigid, almost mechanical ways of calculating ethical decisions.
❖No compassion
❖No sympathy
❖No regard for people as people
❖The moral agent and his action are deeply connected.
❖Virtue ethics requires us to think of our development as full human
beings, and from this good and right actions flow.
 Virtues of virtue ethics

❖Virtue ethics is able to bring values, virtues into our ordinary moral
discussions, i.e., they become part of our moral vocabulary.
❖Virtue ethics develops our character.
❖It is about having practical wisdom (phronesis), the ability to render
appropriate moral judgment or decision in a particular situation
according to general principles.
❖Virtues ethics does not ignore the values of act-centered theorists;
it just incorporates them within its theory of virtues.
 Virtues of virtue ethics

❖Flexibility (not present in Kantian deontological ethics) – having

disposition to be honest but not always honest in all situations
regardless of other circumstances.
❖Virtue ethics also incorporates the values of consequentialism also.
❖E.g. benevolence, courage, kindness, generosity – concerned with
consequences
❖However, the virtuous person has disposition to consider
consequences and principles, while not being rigidly tied to either.
 Criticisms of virtue ethics
Who decides what are virtues
and what are vices?
• There seems to be no
accepted criteria for
determining what a genuine
virtue and what is not.
• It seems that deciding what
is a virtue is a matter of
personal opinion. It can also
be cultural.
Virtue Ethics seems to be a
very imprecise moral theory
• Aristotle: to feel or act towards the
right person to the right extent at
the right time for the right reason
in the right way – that is not easy.
• There are no hard-and-fast rules
that will simplify the decisions we
have to take and the moral
judgment we have to make.
 More criticisms

▪ Virtues apparently change over time or different in different

historical period. Aristotle’s list of virtues reflected the society. But
his society accepted slavery and gender hierarchy.
▪ There is also the question of the degree of effort and discipline
required to be virtuous. Ex. Who is more courageous: the one who
wants to run away but does not; or the one who is brave and does
not run away?
▪ Kant criticizes and rejects the Golden mean.