PHL244H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Direct Democracy, Laity, Techne
Document Summary
Our motives for self-understanding; to be contemplative, and by understanding ourselves better, we"ll be in a better position to live a rewarding life. There"s a long-standing tradition of locating human nature in human beings as reason; we"re rational. Our nature is rational; now, that"s not the whole of the story. Divine reason gives us a nice contrast, because there might be a kind of embodied mortal rationality, that is separate from the rationality of the gods. In the protagoras, there are two main points; First, the protagoras contains the earliest example of a story, meant to illustrate/bring out facts about the human nature/essence. That story is a story of human development over time, or civilization/culture over time. Paints the picture of human beings living the same lives as animals, and then gradually becoming their own. Second, to pursue further the implications of the story. The implications of what the human soul is, what part reason plays in it.
