PHI 1301 Lecture 5

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Socrates' Challenge

• Socrates is asked to show a perfectly just soul
• His idea: look for justice in a city, see if that applies to the soul of an individual
• This assumes the two are relatable
  • i.e. a city is the sum/average of the souls within it
• There is no such thing as an ideal, perfectly just city
  • "Let's make up our own city"

Does this also mean to Socrates that there is no such thing as an ideal, perfectly just person?

The Healthy City

• self-sufficient city
• bare minimums necessary for survival
• no arts, no enjoyment, just the daily grind
• nothing but a city for "pigs" according to Glaucon

The Luxurious City

• If people are to have life's enjoyments, we need many new jobs
• Need a lot more land
• Fights will start to break out between city and its neighbors over land claims
  • People desire more and more (higher demand, limited supply)
  • need new class of citizens (guardians) to keep the peace

The Guardians

• Guardians will have power over citizens
  • they will abuse it...
  • unless they have proper training/education from the start
• identify enemies and be aggressive toward them
• be gentle to their own

Distinctions in "Necessities"

• Necessary / inevitable
• Necessities / the good

For Next Time

2019-09-11

• Read 376–403
• Especially ponder 401d–402a

Note about "Stephanus numbers"

• Early translation
• The "golden standard" of pagination and reference for writings of Plato and Aristotle, and other "classics"
• Pages broken into five equal divisions: a-e