Greek philosophy and Ethics

8/7/2019 Greek philosophy and Ethics

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Greek

Philosophyand Ethics


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Western modernculture is

basically

Aristotelian

ARISTOTLE


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- born at Stagira, in

Thrace, in 384 B.C.

- His father was a

physician to the king of

Macedon

ARISTOTLE


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At the age of seventeen, he

went to Athens and joined

Plato's school, where he

stayed until Plato's death in

347.

A few years later, he became

the tutor to the young prince

of Macedon, Alexander the

Great

ARISTOTLE


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Aristotle returned to

Athens and foundedhis own school, the

Lyceum, and taught

and studied there fortwelve years

ARISTOTLE


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Fundamentally

disagreed with his

teacher Plato:

Abstract vs. Empirical

ARISTOTLE


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Plato: Abstract (The world

ofForms)

Aristotle: Empirical

The world could be

understood through thedetailed observation and

cataloging of phenomena

ARISTOTLE


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knowledge (which is what the

word science means) is

fundamentally empirical.

Aristotle literally wrote about

everything: poetics, rhetoric,

ethics, politics, meteorology,

embryology, physics,mathematics, metaphysics,

anatomy, physiology, logic,

dreams, and so forth

ARISTOTLE


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Aristotle on the problem of

evidence.

When he approached a problem,he would examine:

a.) what people had previously

written or said on the subject,

b.) the general consensus of

opinion on the subject,

c.) and a systematic study of

everything else that is part of or

related to the subject

ARISTOTLE


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In his treatise on animals, he

studied over 500 species

In studying government, he

collected and read 158

individual constitutions of

Greek states as his

fundamental data

ARISTOTLE


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This is called inductive

reasoning:

observing as many examplesas possible and then working

out the underlying principles.

Inductive reasoning is thefoundationof the Western

scientific method.

ARISTOTLE


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Outside of the empiricalmethod, three characteristics

stand out in Aristotle's

thought:

1. the schematization of

knowledge

2. the four causes

3. the ethical doctrine of the

mean.

ARISTOTLE


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The Classificationof

Knowledge

The most fundamental

aspect of Aristoteleanism

is the classificationof

knowledge accordingthe objects of that

knowledge

ARISTOTLE


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The Greeks for some time

had been concernedabout the nature of human

knowledge called

epistemology, or the

"study of knowledge

ARISTOTLE


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Greek philosophy dealt

with questions of

certainty

How could one be certain

of knowledge? Suppose

everything was an

illusion?

ARISTOTLE


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Aristotle resolved the

question by categorizingknowledge based on their

objects and the relative

certainty with which you

could know those objects

ARISTOTLE


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CERTAIN AND PRECISE

KNOWLEDGE

For instance, certainobjects (such as in

mathematics or logic)

permit you to have a

knowledge that is true

all the time (two plus two

always equals four).

ARISTOTLE


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PROBABLE

KNOWLEDGE

Other objects such ashuman behavior don't

permit certain knowledge

(if you insult somebody

you may not make them

angry or you may make

them angry).

ARISTOTLE


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PROBABLE KNOWLEDGE

These types of knowledge arecharacterized by probability

and imprecise explanations

Knowledge that would fall intothis category would include

ethics, psychology, or politics

ARISTOTLE


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CERTAINTY DEPENDS ON

THE NATURE OF THE

OBJECT OF STUDY

Unlike Plato and Socrates,

Aristotle did not demand

certainty in everything. One

cannot expect the same levelof certainty in politics or ethics

that one can demand in

geometry or logic

ARISTOTLE


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InE

thics I.3, Aristotle defines thedifference in the following way:

"we must be satisfied to indicate

the truth with a rough and generalsketch: when the subject and the

basis of a discussion consist of

matters which hold good only as a

general rule, but not always, the

conclusions reached must be of

the same order. . . .

ARISTOTLE


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In Ethics I.3, Aristotle defines thedifference in the following way:

For a well-schooled man is one

who searches for that degree of

precision in each kind of study

which the nature of the subject at

hand admits: it is obviously just as

foolish to accept arguments ofprobability from a mathematician

as to demand strict demonstrations

from an orator."

ARISTOTLE


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THE FOUR CAUSES

Aristotle's "four causes" stand at

the heart ofWestern rationality andWestern science.

In order to know a thing, anything

at all, Aristotle says that one mustbe able to answer four questions

(Physics ).

ARISTOTLE


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PLATO VS. ARISTOTLE:DIFFERENCES IN APPROACH

Plato looked at the world and saw

nothing but change. He wondered

how we can know anything at allwhen everything is in motion and

change.

Plato solved the problem by

postulating an unchanging world of

intelligible Forms or Ideas of

which our world is but an imperfect

copy.

ARISTOTLE


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PLATO VS. ARISTOTLE:

DIFFERENCES IN APPROACH

Aristotle embraced the visible

world of change and motion and

sought all his life to describe the

principles which bring about

change and motion

ARISTOTLE


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Therefore, the question thatdominated his thought at all points

was: what is the cause (in Greek,

aitia , which also means

"responsible factor" of this

particular change or motion thatI'm observing?

ARISTOTLE


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PLATO VS. ARISTOTLE:DIFFERENCES IN APPROACH

W

hat causes this thing to comeinto existence? What causes it to

pass out of existence

Aristotle was the first major thinker

to base his thought and scienceentirely on the idea that everything

that moves or changes is caused

to move or change by some other

thing.

ARISTOTLE


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What causes motion and change

in the universe?

The four causes

ARISTOTLE


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THE FOUR CAUSES

a.) the material cause: the matter

out of which a thing is made (clayis the material cause of a bowl)

b.) the formal cause: the pattern,

model, or structure upon which a

thing is made (the formal cause ofa bowl is "bowl-shaped"; the formal

cause of a human is "human-

shaped

ARISTOTLE


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THE FOUR CAUSES

c.) the efficient cause: the means

or agency by which a thing comesinto existence (a potter is the

efficient cause of a bowl)

d.) the final (in Greek,telos )

cause: the goal or purpose of athing, its function or potential

(holding cereal and milk is the final

cause of a bowl)

ARISTOTLE


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THE FOUR CAUSES

The final cause is the most

unscientific, but is far and away the

most important "cause" of a thing

as far as Aristotle was concerned.Aristotle's analysis of phenomenon

and change, then, is fundamentally

TELEOLOGICAL

ARISTOTLE


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THE FOUR CAUSES

Aristotle's thought is consistently

teleological:

everything is always changing and

moving, and has some aim, goal, orpurpose (telos ).

To borrow from a Newtonian physics, we

might say that everything has potential

which may be actualized (an acorn ispotentially an oak tree; the process of

change and motion which the acorn

undertakes is directed at realizing this

potential).

ARISTOTLE


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THE DOCTRINE OF THE

MEAN

The Four Causes are universally

applicable.

Ethics is a science that admits of a

high degree of uncertainty becauseof the infinite variety of human

actions and motivations.

ARISTOTLE


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THE DOCTRINE OF THE

MEAN

He works out an entire system ofethics based on the "mean" to

serve as a guideline to human

behavior.

There is no proper definition of anymoral virtue, but rather every moral

virtue stands in relationship to two

opposing vices.

ARISTOTLE


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THE DOCTRINE OF THEMEAN

Therefore, every action needs to

be judged according to all the

relevant circumstances and

situation.

Aristotle called judging actions in

this manner, "equity," and equity isthe foundation of modern law and

justice, and is absolutely critical in

understanding foundational

Christianity.

ARISTOTLE


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a dialogue which discusses the

education necessary to produce

such a society. It is an

EDUCATION he called it paideia.

Paideia refers to the process

whereby the physical, mental and

spiritual development of the

individual is of paramount

importance.

It is the educationof the total

individual

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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discusses a number of topics

including the nature of justice,

statesmanship, ethics and the

nature of politics.

For Plato, the citizens are theleast desirable participants in

government.

Instead, a philosopher-king or

guardianshould hold the reigns ofpower. An aristocracy if you will

an aristocracy of the very best

the best of the aristoi.

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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Plato's Republicalso embodies

one of the clearest expressions of

his theory of knowledge.

In The Republic, Plato asks what

is knowledge? what is illusion?

what is reality? how do we know?

what makes a thing, a thing? whatcan we know?

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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These are epistemologicalquestions

that is, they are questions about

knowledge itself.

He distinguishes between the reality

presented to us by our senses sight,touch, taste, sound and smell and the

essence orForm of that reality.

In other words, reality is always

changing knowledge of reality is

individual, it is particular, it is knowledge

only to the individual knower, it is not

universal.

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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Plato argued that reality is known

only through the mind.

There is a higher world,independent of the world we may

experience through our senses.

Because the senses may deceive

us, it is necessary that this higherworld exist, a world of Ideas or

Forms

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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The world of Ideas or Forms -- of what

is unchanging, absolute and universal.

In other words, although there may be

something from the phenomenal world

which we consider beautiful or good or

just, Plato postulates that there is a higher

unchanging reality of the beautiful,

goodness or justice.

To live in accordance with these universalstandards is the good life -- to grasp the

Forms is to grasp ultimate truth.

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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The unphilosophical man that is,all of us is at the mercy of sense

impressions and unfortunately, our

sense impressions oftentimes fail

us. Our senses deceive us. But

because we trust our senses, weare like prisoners in a cave we

mistake shadows on a wall for

reality.

This is the central argument of

Plato's ALLEGORY OF THE

CAVE in Book VII ofThe Republic.

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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Plato realized that the Athenian

state, and along with it, Athenian

direct democracy, had failed torealize its lofty ideals.

Instead, the citizens sent Socrates

to his death and direct democracyhad failed.

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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The purpose ofThe Republic

was something ofa warning

to all Athenians that without

respect for law, leadership

and a sound education for the

young, their city wouldcontinue to decay

PLATOS REPUBLIC


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Plato wanted to rescue Athens from

degeneration by reviving that sense of

community that had at one time made the

polis great. The only way to do this, Plato

argued, was to give control over to the

Philosopher-Kings, men who had

philosophical knowledge, and to give little

more than "noble lies" to everyone else.

The problem as Plato saw it was that

power and wisdom had traveled divergentpaths -- his solutionwas to unite them

in the guise of the Philosopher-King.

PLATOS REPUBLIC

Greek philosophy and Ethics

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