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Com 310 ETHICS: Foundations of Ethical Philosophy and Thought Part 1: Greek Philosophers
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Dr. Janet McMullen
Read: Chapter 3: Moral and Ethical Reasoning (in Day)
Moral reasoning is a systematic approach to ethical decision making. THREE AREAS must be understood:
Context: all the factors that might influence an individual resolution of a moral dilemma.
Discuss context:
The Philosophical Foundations of the study of Ethics began in ancient Greece.
First discussion about if goodness and right could be identified appeared at this time. If it could be identified, could it be put into practice?
Socrates said, "yes."
Ex. The PRIME DIRECTIVE -- identify the good and do it -- Non-interference.
Plato was Socrates' disciple, and he wrote down Socrates' lectures in the form of DIALOGUES. The most famous is the REPUBLIC.
The main idea was "harmony" in all things:
Plato believed that knowledge was achieved through experience: through experience, one gained knowledge of the world. Plato believed that there were "ideals" and that these were truly real.
"Chairness" exists beyond the qualities of a recliner, a ladder-back chair or a directors chair.. . . . .Goodness exists might be something different that what was mandated by behavioral standards. (Would Nicholai agree? Will Riker?)
Aristotle was Plato's student and took his ideas and made them more practical. Aristotle developed what he called "Virtue Ethics" based on what he called
"THE GOLDEN MEAN"
Moderation was the key: "all things, but all things in moderation"
Characteristics in life existed on continuum:
Foolhardiness- - - - - courage - - - -- -- cowardice
Did Aristotle think the Golden Mean applied to all circumstances? NO: some things are always wrong:
spite
shamelessness
envy
adultery
theft
murder
If one behaved virtuously, one will BECOME virtuous. This doesn't happen BECAUSE of the behavior, but because the behavior becomes part of ones personal identify. [Takes PRACTICE, practice, practice]
Christianity and Judaism call this a leap of faith.. .
. . . . . Put our toe in to the River Jordan....THEN it parts. March around Jericho
7 times THEN the walls fall down.
In order to really understand where these philosophers were coming from, it's important examine the cultural background of the times....
Historical Background:
Socrates:
His wife, Xanthippe, probably came from a good family and was remembered as an emotional woman who was probably frustrated with him (maybe because didn't spend a lot of time at home). She's characterized as a shrew, but we might cut her a little slack, since she had at least two kids at home and he was known to have had little home life.
He did take part in required military service of the day and when he's chosen by lot for a leadership role in the government, he took the unpopular side of the law vs. the unruly demands of the Assembly.
Socrates' primary activity was thinking:
I want you to take some time and think about this. What would you do if I assigned you to THINK for six hours? No TV, Radio, CD-player. You couldn't do laundry or clean your house or read. No naps. You could take a walk or sit on the porch and THINK. How would you react? Could you do it? Why not? Take some time this weekend to think about these issues.....
Athens was very much like a small town: everyone knew everyone else.
Socrates mistrusted books and never wrote anything down. (Keep this in mind for when we read Postman) He believed that books didn't work well because you couldn't talk back to a book, nor could you ask the author questions. He felt that the true approach to knowledge was not through books but through conversation and questions, discussion, beating a subject down until the "chaff was separated from the wheat."
At the same time, there were two other schools of thought. . . . .
Both of these groups taught for pay and were very proud of their position in society . They were the Pharisees of ancient Greece. They didn't like Socrates, because his position disagreed with theirs. He also didn't have much respect for them or their position in society.
Socrates believed that universals could be defined: the meaning of truth, goodness, beauty, justice, etc. could be found. There were UNIVERSAL DEFINITIONS for these things.Socrates was 70 when he was tried and found guilty on two charges:
Irreligion:
Corrupting the Young:
BACKGROUND/ HISTORY:
At the time of Socrates' Birth Greece was a country of city states:
A look at Sparta, might offer some insight into how different their culture was from ours.
"The Spartans now constituted themselves a perpetual army and transformed their city into an unwalled camp. Their whole life was occupied with training. This principle controlled marriage, the birth and education of children, economy, and occupation-in brief, every activity of life. In other countries of Greece custom gave the father the option of rearing his child or of putting it to death immediately after birth. In Sparta this function was usurped by a board, which might order the exposure of a weak child on Mt. Taygetus. If, however, the child was allowed to live, he was put in the care of his mother and a nurse until his seventh year. On reaching the age of seven he was taken from his mother and placed directly under the control of the state. Under youthful captains the boys were organized for athletic and military drill. They had no bedclothes, cooked their own meals, and contributed to the mess what they had stolen, for theft was encouraged as an exercise in agility and cleverness, though one caught in the act was punished. Once a year the supreme test of endurance was applied, when at the altar of Artemis Orthia the boys submitted to a flogging. The severe training resulted not only in strength, agility, and endurance, but also in a quiet, modest bearing which has not parallel in modern life." (Botsford, p. 71)
At the age of 20 the boys joined the military service. He could marry, but could see his wife only by sneaking in to see her. Men never had the pleasure of a home, but lived always in the barracks.
At 30, the man could become a member of the assembly.
Women therefore controlled the property and had a fair amount of luxury and leisure at home. Labor was provided by the helots (the lowest class) but they belonged to the state, not the individual land owners. They were considered part of the land. They could win their freedom by fighting bravely during a war.
It is known as the 1st democracy.
The Persian War
The 4th Century B.C. was difficult and dramatic time politically. Before Socrates was born, the Persian war had been fought.
Darius (the Meade) (the same Darius of Daniel and the Lion's Den (Dan. 7) attempted to invade Greece. The Persian empire was determined to grow. They controlled IONIA, the Greek Islands in Asia Minor. The Ionians had been the standard bearers of civilization and culture for centuries creating poetry, music, art, commerce. They saw the culture threatened by the Persians and revolted.
Darius wasn't pleased. Miletus, was one of the most beautiful cities in the Ancient world, and it was Blotted OUT OF EXISTENCE by the Persians. The Athenians were terrified -- they fined a playwright a thousand drachmas just for writing a PLAY about the capture of Miletus.
This fear for safety brought about the Rise of Themistocles. He wanted to improve the harbors, the fleets and get supremacy at sea. (TO protect Greece) He gained support and power from the people.
Miltiades returned to Athens at this time. He had served with Darius earlier, but had joined the Ionian revolt. He concentrated on heavy infantry.
The Ionian revolt gave the Athenians time to prepare. In the Summer of 490 B.C. they prepared to defend the narrow pass at Vrana: This was the battle of MARATHON. Pheidippides was the young man who ran to Sparta to get help. The Athenians won, losing 194 men to the Persian losses of 6,400. The Spartans arrived a day late after a 3-day forced march.
Miltiades the general was leading the Athenians. He led a battle with seventy ships against the Persians. He promised victory, but got defeat. He was condemned to death, but because of his past service he only got a fine.
Thermopolyae: the other famous battle.
Themistocles wanted power for himself and rearranged the government. Suggested the Archonship be drawn by lot, that reduced their power and preserved his. He couldn't serve back to back terms with things the way there were. The merchants of the city back him.
Xerxes, son of Darius came to the thrown in 486 -- He came after Greece.
It was during the invasion that the 300 Spartans held off the whole Persian Army and enable the evacuation of Athens. The Persian army sacked and burned Athens, but the people and most of the property were evacuated.
The city states united for a time and ultimately repelled the invasion, but the cost was heavy.
Even though Sparta was still in tact, they didn't seize the leadership. Athens did.
That allowed the formation of the Delian League -- a group of city states under the leadership of Athens.
This later became known as the Athenian Empire and that was a direct result of the leadership and statesmanship of Themistocles.
Cimon was the son Miltiades (and a noble too) and he won great victories and usurped the power of Themistocles eventually. He however, expanded the empire by force, not friendly persuasion. Sparta didn't like it. That led to the Pelopnesian War 431 BC - 404 BC. Sparta, Corinth and Thebes united to overthrow Athens. It was a long and painful conflict (26 years!)
PERICLES was the leader who took the helm prior to and during that period. He wanted a strong government and power for himself. Still, he wanted the preservation of democracy. He was generally a benevolent and fair leader. However there was a Horrible Plague in 430 BC and one third of the population died! Pericles himself died of it in 429.
After the war, Government changed. First there was a constitutional change, then it changed again, and finally it fell into the hands of the THIRTY TYRANTS. They KILLED OFF their enemies in what resulted as 8 months of total lawlessness.
Democracy reasserted itself, having overthrown the tyrants. It was under this regime that Socrates was killed. Three prosecutors brought charges of irreligion and corrupting the young. He had to defend himself before a jury of 500 citizens. He was found guilty by majority of 60.
He could have proposed his own sentence, and banishment was an option. Had he proposed it, it probably would have been accepted. Instead he suggested that the state "support him' as it did some honored people and maybe even put him in the Athenian "hall of fame."
That didn't go down well. Still after all that sarcasm, only a majority of 110 voted for the death penalty. Socrates was forced to drink hemlock and poison himself.
WHY NOW?
The was a liberal regime for the first time in a long time It would seem like they'd be more tolerant! They should have left him alone. Nor did the charges make much sense:
Corrupting the young-- Even though he had been in conflict with the Thirty Tyrants, he had the wrong friends:
Irreligion
He refused to escape. He believed in the law, even if he didn't like the people who used it. He became the scapegoat of the TYRANTS and the Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War.
In the APOLOGY, the last of the Socratic Dialogues written by Plato, he addresses the issue of his impending death.
"So, my judges, face death with good hope, and know for certain that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. I see clearly that the time had arrived whit it was better for me to die and be released from trouble; and so the oracle gave no sign. For this reason, also, I am not angry with my condemners, or with my accusers; they have done me no harm, although they did not mean to do me any good; and for this I may gently blame them.
"Still I have favor to ask of them. When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, my friends, to punish them, and I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about 'virtue'; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing. And if you do this, both I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.
"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways ---- I to die, and you to live. Which is better is known to God and only to him." (Livingston, 1968, p.47-8)
Consider Socrates comments in the Apology and how they relate to those in Gorgias?
Why spend all this time telling the history of the ancient Greeks?
Because as you read Plato's work, it will help you understand what some of the references are about, and you can see where Socrates was in the scheme of things and where Plato was.
They believed that the politicians had messed up Athens pretty badly: They were supposed to be smart and selfless, but instead they were selfish and stupid.
Plato:
Plato's chief concern was with ethics:
The greatest of all ideas, he taught, is God who
By doing good and learning, man comes closer to God. (Plato believed, that if he didn't a person came back as a lower life form. . . . . . and you thought reincarnation was part of Eastern religions, alone...)
Politics was a division of ethics. In his Republic he describes the ideal state. He believed the baser parts of a society should be subordinate to the nobler, so his perfect society had three classes:
Individual wealth and family was abolished. Each person would spend his entire life being trained for the role to played in the society. The focus was only to be on education. Women were equal to men. Eugenics were pushed to the extreme. He knew this wouldn't be accepted, and so he later compromised and substituted a milder system.
ARISTOTLE: (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle was less concerned with forms and ideal than with practical concerns. Valued friendship above all else.
Obviously the most important philosophers to your study of Gorgias are Plato and Socrates. This political and historical background should help in the preparation of your tutorial.
Resources:
Copyright, 2002
Dr. Janet McMullen