INDIVIDUAL ETHICS SECTION

Introduction to Plato’s Individual Ethics

(the pre-Socratics and the Sophists)

We know that the story of Western philosophy begins in Greece. The Greek word “Logos” is the source of the English word “logic” as well as all the “–logies” in terms like “biology”, “sociology” and “psychology”, where “logos” means a theory, or study, or rationalization of something. “Logos” means “word” in Greek, so it involves the act of speaking, or setting forth an idea in a clear manner. “Logos”, therefore, designates a certain kind of thinking about the world, a kind of logical analysis that places things in the context of reason and explains them with the pure force of thought. Such an intellectual exercise was supposed to lead to wisdom (Sophia), and those who dedicated themselves to Logos were thought of as lovers of wisdom (philo = love), hence philosophers.

Prior to philosophy there was “–mythos” a certain way of thinking that placed the world in the context of its supernatural origins. Mythos (myths) explained worldly things by tracing them to exceptional language and sometimes sacred events that caused the world to be as it is now. In the case of the Greeks, “mythos” meant tracing worldly things to the dramatic acts of the gods of Mount Olympus. The narratives describing these origins (myths) are not only explanatory but also morally exemplary for individuals and society. The disadvantage with myths is that the social moral order created was static, resisting innovation, and many would say of being false. Reacting to this “mythos” philosophy emerged. Prior to Plato we can study the Pre-Socratic philosophers (Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus and Democritus). These philosophers studied the elements water, air, fire, earth and argued that reality was either one of these things; others argued it was a combination of these and advanced the idea that reality was always changing, or that it was an ordered number of elements or even that it was still and never changed.

But to the Greeks of the fifth century, the pre-Socratic philosophers had left a legacy of confusion. The only thing the philosophers had succeeded in doing was to undermine the traditional religious and moral values, leaving nothing substantial in their place (As the Greek dramatist Aristophanes said “When Zeus is overthrown, chaos succeeds him, and whirlwind rules.”) Besides, the times in society were changing, socially and politically as well as intellectually. The old aristocracy, dedicated to the noble values of the Homeric legends, was losing ground to a new mercantile class, which was no longer interested in the virtues of Honor, Courage and Fidelity but in Power and Success. How was the new class to achieve these virtues in an incipient democracy? Through politics. And the access to political power was then, as it is today, through the study of rhetoric (rhetoric as “law”) –the art of swaying the masses with eloquent, though not necessarily truthful, argumentation. No surprise that the next group of philosophers were of this kind, also known as “–Sophists” (wise guys). They traveled from city to city, charging admission to their lectures –lectures not on the nature of reality or truth but on the nature of power or persuasion. These sophists were mainly, Protagoras, Gorgias, Thrasymachus, Callicles and Critias. Plato and Aristotle wrote a lot about the Sophists and according to the picture they handed down to us, not just skepticism but cynicism became the rule of the day. Plato wrote extensively in his Dialogues about the character types displayed by the sophists, and by those like them, and consequently the type of corrupt characters and the type of ill or unethical society, which will be treated in the next chapter Plato, and the harmonious personality.

Let us look at an overview of Plato’s individual ethics to understand why the education of values and virtues is a consequence of knowledge, of knowing “the good” and the lack of knowledge –ignorance will make out for the immoral individual.

INDIVIDUAL ETHICS SECTION

PLATO, MORALITY AND THE HARMONIOUS PERSONALITY

• PLATO (427-347 B.C.)

Plato lived from 427 to 347 B.C. He was born into a wealthy family that was both aristocratic and politically influential. His importance to intellectual history was underscored by Alfred North Whitehead, who once stated that all of western philosophy is but a series of footnotes on the work of Plato.

When Plato was 40, he founded the “Academy,” an independent institution of learning which continued to exist for almost nine hundred years until the Roman Emperor Justinian closed it in 529 A.D. The Academy was a quiet retreat where teachers and students could meet to pursue knowledge in a disinterested fashion. Students throughout Greece enrolled to partake in the adventure of learning and to experience personal growth toward wisdom. The Academy can be regarded as the precursor of today’s modern university.

Plato himself studied under Socrates, once described by the Oracle at Delphi as the wisest man in Athens. Fifteen years after the tragic trial and death of Socrates, Plato began to write “dialogues” in which Socrates was the principal speaker. The dialogues explored moral, political, logical, religious, and cosmological topics. Though Socrates never actually recorded his ideas, we derive from the dialogues a profile of Socrates’ personality and a statement of his doctrines which likely bear a very close resemblance to his actual philosophy and the historical figure himself. When reading Plato it is sometimes difficult, therefore, to determine what is attributable to Plato and what comes from Socrates. Some argue that the early works of Plato are more reflective of Socratic thinking, while the later works begin to reflect Plato’s own philosophical investigations. Plato’s most famous work is likely The Republic. Other works by Plato include The Apology, Crito, Phaedo and the Symposium.

Plato’s moral theory reflects a type of self-realization ethics. Concerned with betterment of human character, Plato asks questions like; “What constitutes the good life?” and “What sort of individual should I strive to become?” Such questions frequently entail personality considerations. They address themselves to the intentions, goals, dispositions, and mental states of persons. These questions call for answers about how one’s life ought to be lived and what is ultimately important and worth pursuing.

Essential to an understanding of Plato’s ethics is the

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