PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Crass, Thrasymachus, Reductio Ad Absurdum
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21 september: thrasymachus complains that socrates gives no answer, then gives his own. Irony: socrates can only give praise, and says he thinks thrasymachus. Will speak well : radical view: justice is injustice justice is the advantage of the stronger (338c, not in physical strength, but power. What counts then, are the rulers who make laws. Argument strategy: redefining terms: rightly interpreted, no craftsman ever errs ; so a ruler qua ruler never makes errors (341a) This removes the factual premise (3: s: contra: look to the point of ruler as (state)craft: Every craft (doctor, shepherd, etc. ) aims at the good of something other than the craftsman: it is to his subjects and what is advantageous and proper to them that [the ruler] looks (340 2e) Thrasymachus grabs onto the shepherd example: ultimately the shepherd eats the sheep. If that weren"t so, all crafts would be the same.
