Care of the Self Ethics and Politics in

Plato
 Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the
heavens and establish it in the towns and introduce it into
homes and force it to investigate life, ethics, good and ev il.
(Cicero Tus. Dis.)
 Apology
“persuading you, young and old, not to
care for your bodies or possessions
before or as much as your souls, to make
them as good as possible’ (Ap. 30a7-b2).
 Socratic Claims
one must care for oneself
unexamined life is not worth living
 Socrates as a gad-fly
If you put me to death you will not easily find another
man…attached to you by the will of the gods in order to
stimulate you like a horsefly stimulates a horse.” Apology 30e
 SELF KNOWLEDGE

“he who enjoins knowledge of oneself bids us become

acquainted with the soul (psyche) (Alcibiades 1, 130e)
 Virtue and the Soul
For I go about doing nothing else than
urging you, young and old, not to care for
your persons or property more than…for
the perfecting of your souls; and I tell you
that virtue is not derived from wealth,
but that virtue is itself the source of
wealth and all other goods, both for the
individual and for the state.” (Ap.30b
No appeal to the gods
virtue is itself the source of wealth and
all other goods, both for the individual
and for the state.
 VIRTUE AND THE STATE
If a state (polis) or any office, is lacking in virtue (aretê), it
will be overtaken by failure.
 Arete
Virtue
Excellence
THE CARDINAL VIRTUES
Wisdom
Courage
Temperance
Courage
 VIRTUE IS KNOWLEDGE
In what sense does he think that knowledge is the only virtue
or excellence? What kind of knowledge does he have in
mind?
SOCRATIC INTELLECTUALISM

TO BE VIRTUOUS YOU MUST KNOW

TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
MORAL KNOWLEDGE
 MORAL KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
AN UNDERSTANDING HEART…THAT
I MAY DISCERN BETWEEN GOOD
AND EVIL (1 KINGS 3.9)
 LOGOS
SPEECH
ARGUMENT
REASON
logismos has two basic meanings. It has a narrow meaning of “counting” or “numerical
calculation” often paired with number (arithmos). in a more general sense of “the
exercise of reason in rational inference and thought” with no reference to numbers
(Irwin 1985: 422)
the Rational and Irrational

Since neither the body nor the combination of the two

[body+soul] is man, we are reduced to this: either man is
nothing at all or…he turns out to be nothing else than soul
(psyche) Alc.1 130c
 BODY AND SOUL
BODY AS UNTHINKING PERISHABLE
SOUL AS THINKING IMPERISHABLE
 PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHY
IS

PREPARATION
FOR

DEATH (PHAEDO 64A4-6)

PHILOSOPHY AS MEDICINE
PHILOSOPHY CONCERNED WITH
PSYCHIC HEALTH
VICE AS A DISEASE
THERAPY OF THE WORD
PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATIONS
AS A CURE FOR IGNORANCE
THE PLACE OF ARGUMENT
Discussion obliges or forces men by
means of arguments or reasons to
confess error or to recognize the truth;
the narration of an enchanting myth on
the other hand, is able to persuade the
favourable acceptance of that which can
and should be believed.” (Laws X 903a
 MISOLOGY
there is no worse evil that a man could
suffer than this—hating arguments
Phaedo 89d2-3
 Reason as argument
regard Socrates of little account, but the
truth as of much more, and if you think
that anything I say is true, then agree
with me, but if not, resist every
argument…
Vita Activa Vita Contemplativa
The active live
The contemplative life
 The Division of the Soul
Rational Forms/Ideas
Non-rational Feelings
Irrational Appetites
Farmers and craftsmen are far from knowing themselves…since they
know but things of the body…so if knowing one self is
sophrosune/temperance, none of these are temperate in respect of his
art…that is why these arts are held to be sordid, and not things to be learnt
for a good man.” (Alcibiades 1, 130a-b)
 Reason
Rational Soul knows reality
Reason rules irrational passions
Rational rulers rule unruly many
 The Aristocracy of Reason
How to criticize democracy?” was a
central problem for classical Athenian
intellectuals. By the end of the fifth
century, it seems to have become the
central problem” (J. Ober 2001)
 The Old Oligarch
Because among the best people there is
minimum wantonness and injustice but a
maximum of scrupulous care for what is
good, whereas among the common
people (demos) there is a maximum of
ignorance, disorder, and wickedness. (Ps.
Xenophon 1.5)
 Rational Rulers
It belongs to the rational part (logistikos) to rule (archein)…being
wise and exercising forethought (prometheian) on behalf of the whole
soul. (441e)… The logistikon, with help from its auxiliaries “will
persuade the appetitive part which is the mass (pleiston) of the soul in
each of us and the most insatiate by nature of wealth” (442a)

ruling principle and its two subjects, are at one in the belief that reason
(to logistikon) ought to rule, and do not raise faction (stasis) against it.
Civil war (stasis) fattening on men’s ruin shall not thunder in our
city…let them render grace for grace.” “Let love be their common
will; let them hate with a single heart.” (Aeschylus Eum. 976-77,
983-85)

“is it not..the community of pleasure and pain the tie that binds,
when…all the citizens rejoice and grieve alike at the same births
and deaths? (Rep. 5.462b)
 Philosopher rulers
it involves knowing what is right, for the just person who is to
be a just ruler, must be a philosopher, is to be distinguished
from non-philosophers by knowledge (Annas 1981:191)
This rational part (ton logiston) is destroyed by those who appeal, as
“

poets and painters do, to the inferior or irrational part. The poet
stimulates and fosters this [irrational] element in the soul, and by
strengthening it, tends to destroy the rational part, just as in a state
one puts bad men in power and turns the city over to them and ruins
the state.” (605b)
Those who are to share in the highest function of the state must enter in the
study of calculation” (logistiken) For the study of calculation (logismous
mathematos) facilitates the conversion of the soul from the world of
generation to that of essence and truth” (525c-d)
 The appetites
will force the rational and high spirited principles to crouch…like
slaves and allow the one to calculate (logizesthai) and consider
nothing but the ways of making more money from a little.” (553d
 Self Knowledge again
I investigate…myself to discover whether
I am a beast more complex and savage
than the Typhon, or a gentler and simpler
creature, sharing in my nature some
divine lot (Phdr.229e)
 The Task of Philosophy
Theoretical Aims: to improve the cognitive
capacities of men
Practical Aims to make everyone as happy
as possible by making them just.
 Two Senses of Reason
Instrumental Reason: calculates means to
ends
Higher Reason: grasps ends (the Good)
a“certain wavering in terminology between logos, to
logikon, nous, hegemonikon, mens, ratio, and other terms”
a wavering that is indicative of the fact that there is no
common or everyday notion of reason that is being refined
by philosophers, but a construct of their own”