PHL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Meddle, Cardinal Virtues
4 Dec 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Evan Reed
PHL 101
Introduction to Philosophy
Fall 2018
Professor Herman
Justice
● According to the doctrine of the four cardinal virtues in a good City we’ll have wisdom,
courage moderation and justice (427 c)
● Given that we have found the first three virtues respectively in the conduct of the
philosopher-kings (“perfect rules”), auxiliaries and the public, Justice, according to
Socrates is to be found in the attribute of the City which allows for the first three qualities
to come to the fore (433 a,b,c)
● This is so because for Socrates justice means the harmony that results from the control
and the correct performance of one’s own task (434a) And injustice means harm to the
city that results from the three classes meddling in each other’s affairs
● Socrates’ next move is to suggest by way of analogy (435 b) that if the same kinds of
attributes are found in an individual as in the just City then the individual must be
just too (435 c)
● In the same way that there are three classes of money-makers, auxiliary and deliberative
rulers in the city, the soul of an individual, too, has three parts;
1) Desiring or Appetitive Part
2) Calculating or Rational Part
3) Spirited Part (441c, d)
● Justice did not lie in the individuals external behaviour and actions, but in the way they
acted with themselves and their inner parts whether those three parts were always fighting
each other or were in peace, keeping to their own, proper activity
● Justice for an individual means that he does not allow himself to mind other people’s
business, or for the three parts of his soul to meddle with each other (443d)
● Virtue of justice therefore is a certain health, beauty and good condition of the soul for
Socrates (444c)
Sexual Equality among Guardians
● Peoples ridicule is not a good reason to prevent women from taking up the guardians task
because not long before this time, people laughed at men exercising naked
- Simply because a group of people ridicule something does not invalidate it
● In Book V Socrates argues that the wives of the guardians too should be given the
required training and education in order to perform the same tasks as the male guardians.
(451 c,d). He considers that this might provoke ridicule as it might appear contrary to
costume (452 a) But, for him people’s ridicule is not a good reason to prevent women
from taking up the guardian tasks since not long before then people laughed at men
exercising naked. (452 d,e)
● He then considers the objection that if men and women are different by nature then how
can we expect them to do the same work? (453 b,c) Socrates’ response is that the
difference is not in their nature but in their appearance in the same way that a bald man is
different from a long-haired man (454 c) “Women by nature share all pursuits, as men,
but in all of them women are physically weaker creatures than men.” (454 c, 456)
Document Summary
According to the doctrine of the four cardinal virtues in a good city we"ll have wisdom, courage moderation and justice (427 c) Given that we have found the first three virtues respectively in the conduct of the philosopher-kings ( perfect rules ), auxiliaries and the public, justice, according to. Socrates is to be found in the attribute of the city which allows for the first three qualities to come to the fore (433 a,b,c) Socrates" next move is to suggest by way of analogy (435 b) that if the same kinds of attributes are found in an individual as in the just city then the individual must be just too (435 c) Justice for an individual means that he does not allow himself to mind other people"s business, or for the three parts of his soul to meddle with each other (443d) Virtue of justice therefore is a certain health, beauty and good condition of the soul for.
