POLB72H3 Study Guide - Summer 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Democracy, Aristotle, Soul
POLB72H3
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Lecture 1 – Introduction to political theory
Aristotle answer in the politics: man is by nature a political animal, he who is unable to live in society or
who has no need because he is sufficient for himself must either be a beast or god He says that humans
are political animals because we have moral insights and we depend on others.
“ocrates: hat e are engaged in here is no chance conversation but a dialogue about the way we
ought to lie our lies
The liberty of the ancients
• Athenian Democracy: direct and participatory (polis – a city state)
• More public/collective rather than private/individualistic
• Political participation is founded upon exclusion of those necessarily confined to the sphere of
labour slaves
• The most contentious political is whether or not to wage war
• The end/telos of politics is the cultivation of virtuous citizen
The liberty of the modern
• Modern liberal democracy: representative (indirect) and impersonal
• More private/individualistic rather than public/collective
• Liberty as the self-determination of the rights-bearing individual
• Political participation is founded upon the formal equality of citizens as property owners
engaged in exchange and commerce
• The most contentious political questions concern the size of government and taxation
• The end/telos of politics is the consolidation realization of profit
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lecture 2 – the ancients (understanding the ancients as they understood themselves)
Plato (points up, forms of good) and Aristotle (empirical approach, this world and society) disagree on
what the good life is and how you arrive at the conception of good
• Plato born 428/127 BC and died in 348/347 BCE. Pupil of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle and
founder of the academy and has a noble upbringing
• Writes dialogues and narrator of “oates ad his philosophy “oates did’t ite particularly
after Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth. Known as the philosopher who
discovered the forms of the good and wrote the republic around 380 BCE
The Socratic Method: philosophic dialectic
• The starting point is always a question concerning a perennial philosophic issue of problem eg.)
what is justice? The method of inquiry involves a dialogue among interlocutors, the aim of which
is to arrive at a better conception of truth
• Socrates: how can someone give an answer, when first of all he does not know and does not
claim to know? Socrates: the unexamined life is not worth living
• The only way of arriving at a higher conception of truth is by taking the arguments of ones
opponents seriously and demonstrating their logical deficiencies and contradictions
Republic: major characters
1. Socrates – narrator
2. Cehalus – retied old businessman
3. Polemarchus – son of cephalus
4. Thrasymachus – sophist rhetorician
5. Glaucon – plaato brother
6. Adeimantyus – platos older half brother
Opening scene of the republic: what does it tell us?
• Socrates returns from the Port with Piraeus – with Glaucon
• After making a prayer, Socrates and Glaucon are noticed by Polemarchus who commands his
slave boy to ask (s and g) to wait for him. The slave boy complies and exits the scene
• It is almost as if the dialogue about justice cannot begin until the slave has exited the scene
• It appears that a dialogue can only take place among equals. Who are the equals? Socrates
interlocutors, slave boy is not an equal, it shows us the nature of the society
What is justice?
• First attempt at an answer: Cephalus who is a retired man of wealth, reflecting on his life-long
experience and seeking to impart wisdom upon the younger men. He recognized the Socrates is
right
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Ocrates: (cid:862)(cid:449)hat (cid:449)e are engaged in here is no chance conversation but a dialogue about the way we ought to li(cid:448)e our li(cid:448)es(cid:863) The liberty of the modern: modern liberal democracy: representative (indirect) and impersonal, more private/individualistic rather than public/collective, political participation is founded upon the formal equality of citizens as property owners. Liberty as the self-determination of the rights-bearing individual engaged in exchange and commerce: the most contentious political questions concern the size of government and taxation, the end/telos of politics is the consolidation realization of profit. Lecture 2 the ancients (understanding the ancients as they understood themselves) Known as the philosopher who discovered the forms of the good and wrote the republic around 380 bce. Socrates: the unexamined life is not worth living: the only way of arriving at a higher conception of truth is by taking the arguments of ones opponents seriously and demonstrating their logical deficiencies and contradictions.
