POL200Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Xenophobia, Glaucon, Cephalus
Investigate subject of justice
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Why being just leads to more happiness than injustice
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Just life is flourishing human life
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Cannot be explored separately
▪
Political life and individual life are linked
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Revolutionary ideas revealed
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Defends traditional virtues that are essential for political life
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Young man is corrupted - can't appreciate values, becomes skeptical
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Despite incoherence, it is possible to answer questions, make sense of
them
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What is good and just is not subjective
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210: questioner approaches young man - he can't make sense of questions:
virtues he has lived are ineffective
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Plato's Republic Book 1 Introduction
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Social instability in Athens
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Rapid change
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Peloponnesian war - losing convictions on justice
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Law is just a convention that can be unmade
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Socrates: can correspond to standard outside us
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Sophists radicalized loss of beliefs
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Socrates
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Individual and city are closely related
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Political stability depends on character of society
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Community educates young become the sorts of people they want them to be
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Political climate of community will be passed on
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163: how does the city teach individuals what to be?
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No aristocracy, ships are built here, poor / working class
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Dramatized version, going to harbour - democratic part of city, ships, etc.
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Glaucon --> Plato's brother
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Want Socrates to have a conversation at house
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*theme of persuasion and compulsion
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Socrates spending time to help moderate his ambition?
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For sake of justice?
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Decisions made by Glaucon (politically ambitious)
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"what do you think someone like that will do? Filled with impractical
expectations?" - Socrates at aristocracy
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Greeks were xenophobic, despised non-Greeks
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"barbarians" are non-Greek / foreigners
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Beginning of Book
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Conversation with patriarch of house Cephalus: ready for philosophic
conversation after his physical temptations have died
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Socrates: good of wealth? Have you spent your life well?
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Goods that life bring are ethically trivial
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Cephalus: wealth is useful: can pay debts, make sacrifices for the Gods
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What's important in living well is character, not money
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Debate
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Lecture 1.4: Intro to Plato's
Republic
(Book 1)
October 6, 2016
5:45 PM
LECTURE Page 9
Document Summary
Why being just leads to more happiness than injustice. Defends traditional virtues that are essential for political life. 210: questioner approaches young man - he can"t make sense of questions: virtues he has lived are ineffective. Young man is corrupted - can"t appreciate values, becomes skeptical. Despite incoherence, it is possible to answer questions, make sense of them. What is good and just is not subjective. Law is just a convention that can be unmade. Community educates young become the sorts of people they want them to be. Political climate of community will be passed on. Dramatized version, going to harbour - democratic part of city, ships, etc. No aristocracy, ships are built here, poor / working class. Want socrates to have a conversation at house. Conversation with patriarch of house cephalus: ready for philosophic conversation after his physical temptations have died. What"s important in living well is character, not money.
