Ancient Greek Poetic tradition
[[Homer]], Hesiod (8th century BCE),
Archilochos, Solon (7th century BCE)
Simonides (6th century BCE)
Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides (5th century BCE)
(articulate ethical ideals and attitudes)
being educated meant having basically memorised their plays
Very influential background for [[Plato's Dialogues]]
Sophists
(Sophists) Protagoras, Hippias, Prodicus,
(Rhetorician) Gorgias
Athens
Democracy
Every well-off male could participate in politics
→ leads to people needing to learn how to convince others → [[Sophist|Sophists]]
Eudaimonia
alias The good Life
Happiness, Fortune in ancient greek
(sort of like a positive deamon)
Basically used as equivalent to success
There is a strong connection between [[Virtue]] and happiness - basically the same thing in common ancient greek society
In Plato's Dialogues
The search for virtue is not really distinguished from the search for virtue. The best life is a virtues one
But justice might preclude happiness
reaction 1: Callicles, Thrasymachus
They reject the standards of justice (and other virtues), saying that, basically, they are not virtues, but vices
reaction 2: Socrates
rejects the conception of happiness that renders justice not admirable and not beneficial
(→ justice makes u happy)
But why isn't justice admirable (kalon) but sometimes not beneficial (agathon)?
Modern ethics
moral goodness is different from living a good life
Plato
Plato is not unaware of this possibility but rejects it - he does not see a conception of morality divvorced from a living good life as viable - in the same way in which it does not make sense to say that one can have a healthy body and yet lack physical well-being, so it does not seem to him sensible to say that one can be virtuous and yet live a bad life
Homer
Virtue in Homer (excellence)
virtue or excellence is a quality of a warrior (particularly warrior king or chieftain) that depends on his reputation or fame, his fight prowess shown in battle, his property, and the subjects he rules. It is primarily an aristocratic male quality
In this sense, virtue is a competitive quality - in aiming to the best one aims to outdo others. This Peleus famously urges Achilles to 'always be the best (aristeuein) and prevail over others' (Illiad 11.784)
Competitive and Cooperative Virtue
We have city-states with rich internal political lives.
It is this new context, that of the Greek polis which creates virtue of 'the
human (anthrōpinē) and political (politikê) kind'
Within polis, you need to cooperate
- Competitive virtue - you have to be better than others. Only a few can be
- Cooperative virtue - you should excel as you should be. All should have it
Those two aren't well together and aren't differentiated in the greek mind.
Common people still think competitively and go to [[Sophist|Sophists]] to learn
[[Socrates]] appeals to their "moral intuitions" that reflect a cooperative conception, in order to reveal the contradictions
Example: Thrasymachus claims that a virtuos person is one who outdoes others, Socrates shows him that justice precludes outdoing others because that is abad thing - hence, a virtuous person should not be outdoing anyone
Protagoras avoids this trap by saying, the Sophists only teach people who already know what justice is → [[Protagoras' Great Speech]]
Competitive view
- "the superior should take by force what belongs to the inferior, that the better should rule ther worse and the more worthy have a greater share than the less worthy" (448b - Socrates' summary of Callicles' view) in
[[Gorgias]]Dialogue
→ The fact that i can take it makes it mine
That is just!
The Cooperative view
The life of the person who respects, even reveres the norma of equality and justice and pursues worldly success only with those norms, valuing the norms above all else
Virtue
Main Virtues in Plato and Aristotle:
Wisdom (sophia, phronēsis)
Knowledge (epistēmē)
Courage (andreia)
Justice (dikaiosunē)
Temperance (sophrōsunē)