Backgrounds to English Literature Lecture 10: Greek Philosophy 2

=Platonic Idealism -Plato’s criticism against poetry in terms of representation and the allegory of the cave are essentially based on the Idealism -Definition of Platonic Idealism: Eternal truths exist in the realm of Ideas ("Idealism" = "Ideas") rather than in what we would call the natural, physical world. -So, for Plato, the experiential world (empirical reality) is fundamentally unreal and is a mere appearance. Ultimate reality is constitutive of abstract universal essences of things.   =Four Divisions of the Reality -Forms and Ideas (Intelligible World) -Logic and Mathematics (Intelligible World) -Objects and Physical Things (Sensible World) -Shadows and Reflections (Sensible World)

=Plato’s ideal state of the Republic -Absolute Monarchy (the philosopher king) ruling on the basis of reason, not on appetite -3 Major classes: the ruling class (reason) / military class (courage) / the professional class (appetite) -Communism: in order to control the economic lusts of the two classes (the ruling class and military class) to give attention the state administration. So he deprived the two important classes of private ownership of property and children. -Importance of education: Plato provided for a sate regulated education system 1. Age 1-6: being told stories for differentiating in good and bad 2. Age 6-18: physical and mental education 3. Age 18-20: being philosophically educated

-Dominance of Philosophy -Justice: to provide one with what is “due.” -Sexual equality: equal rights to male and female. According to Plato, maximum services may be taken from female for the uplift of the state -Is it just imaginary?   =Books influenced by The Republic -Plato, The Republic -St. Augustine, City of God -Thomas More, Utopia -Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis -James Hilton, The Lost Horizon

=Literature Criticizing Plato’s Utopia: -Aristophanes, Birds -Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels -Aldous Huxley, Brave New World -George Orwell, 1984 Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) =Who is Aristotle? -Born in Stagira, in Thrace, near Macedonia in 384 B.C. -Son of Nichomacus, prominent physician. -Sent to Athens age 17 to Academy of Plato; attended lectures at Academy for 20 years, and eventually lectured himself. -Left the Academy in 347, he settled briefly on islands near the Ionian coast, then accepted an invitation to teach the son (Alexander) of the Macedonian king, Philip II, whose father had been attended by Aristotle’s own father.

-In 335 B.C., Aristotle returned to Athens and established his own school, in competition with the Academy, called Lyceum -He lectured to a small groups in the morning, then publicly in the evening. -After the fall of Macedonian rule in 323 B.C., a charge of impiety was brought up against Aristotle. To avoid execution, he fled to Chalcis in Euboea. -He died in 322 B.C. as result of stomach illness.   =Aristotle’s works -What we have as Aristotle’s works are about 30 closely written, terse, treatises on a full range of philosophical and scientific topics. -Aristotle’s works – more than Plato’s – laid the groundwork for the systematic development of philosophy and the basic framework for the understanding of nature.

-His philosophy covers various areas: politics, biology, science, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, ethics, literary theory, etc. -Most famous student of Plato, but his thoughts are different from Plato  

=Empiricism -Archetypal empiricist, whose theories were based on observation of the physical world -According to Plato, knowledge is not based on sense experience, but on rational apprehension of invisible forms. -Aristotle rejected Plato's theory, insisting that knowledge is based on sensory experience. -Beginning with the perception of particulars, which are “better known to us,” and moving through memory and experience, we arrive at knowledge of universals. -His approach, which ostensibly began with phenomena, was one he adopted not only for physics, astronomy, and biology, but also for ethics

=Nicomachean Ethics: Virtue -Virtue is aretê, or excellence -Everything has a virtue: slaves, plants, animals, humans all have virtues -Virtue means acting well, in accordance with one’s nature -So, to know one’s nature is of great significance -Teleological: All nature is teleological (purposive) -Pre-designed telos: Plants (nutrition), Animals (sensation), Humans (nutrition, sensation, and reason) =The Functionalist Account of Human Nature -The nature of a human being is not what he is born as, but what he is born for.

-“Reason is the true self of every person, since it is the supreme and better part, It will be strange, then, if he should choose not his own life, but some other’s. What is naturally proper to every creature is the highest and pleasantest for him. And so, to man, this will be the life of Reason, since reason is, in the highest sense, a man’s self.” (NE, 10.7) -Virtue: actualizing your highest potential for good using reason -Some humans fulfill this function better than others 1. Ethics refers primarily to character: the criterion for moral rightness is good character 2. The virtuous person acts out of a set disposition to do the right act in the right way, at the right time, and for the right reason 3. If you don’t know what the right thing to do is, find the good person and watch what he does

=2 Types of virtues: Moral and Intellectual -Moral virtue 1. In the Ethics, Aristotle identifies moral virtue as a habit (II.4). It derives from attitudes in us (habit). 2. The goodness is never in the action but only in the doer. 3. No action is good or just or courageous because of any quality in itself. Only when one acts while holding oneself in a certain way. 4. Habitual choice of actions between two vices, excess and deficiency -Intellectual virtue 1. The virtues of the rational part of the soul 2. There are 5 intellectual virtues: sophia-wisdom (of first principles) / episteme-knowledge of empirical truth / phronesis-practical wisdom/prudence / techne-craft knowledge / nous-intuition.

3. Prudence: The virtue which is manifested in acting so that one’s adherence to other virtues is exemplified in one’s actions. The virtue of practical intelligence of knowing how to apply general principles in particular situations. The ability to act so that principle will take a concrete form. Is not only a virtue but it is the keystone to all virtues.   =Correlation between intellectual and moral virtues -For virtue makes us aim at the right mark, and practical wisdom makes us take the right means. -Intellectual virtues points out the suitable means but they do not point out the ends themselves -The true ends and aims are grasped by the ethical virtues that directs the will in the correct way -It is not possible to be virtuous without prudence or to be wise without moral virtues.

=Nicomachean Ethics: Happiness -All of our actions have goals or aims. -The end goal for humans is happiness. -Happiness is an end in itself, never chosen as a means to something else. -Yet, the question is “what is happiness?” or “what is good life?” or “what kind of life is most worth living?” -“There is general agreement; for both the common person and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness, and identify living well and doing well with being happy; but with regard to what happiness is they differ, and many do not give the same account as the wise. For the former think it is some plain and obvious thing, like pleasure, wealth or honor.” (NE, I.4) -The chief characteristics of happiness for Aristotle: 1. It is not merely a subjective state of pleasure or contentment but the kind of life we would all want to live if we understood our essential nature.

2. Our function (essence) is to live according to reason and thereby become a certain sort of highly rational being. 3. When we fulfill the ideal of living the virtuous life, we are truly happy. “Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance to reason.”   =Aristotle’s contribution to Literature -Notion of imitation 1. For Plato, the mimetic world (the world of representation) is inferior for it consists of imitations which will always be subordinate to their original. 2. For Aristotle, imitation is rooted in human nature in two aspects The instinct for imitation: a "natural" human inclination described as "inherent in man from his earliest days. The instinct to enjoy works of imitation 3. Art imitates not the mere shows of things, but the ‘ideal reality’ embodied in very object of the world.

-Poetic Truth and Historical Truth 1. Historical truth tells of what has happened (particular facts) 2. Poetic truth tells of the kinds of things that might happen (universal truths) 3. Poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history   =Aristotle’s Moral View of Poetry -Aristotle was the first to distinguish aesthetics from morals. -The end of poetry is a refined pleasure that never allows the moral purpose of the poet or moral effects of his art to replace the aesthetic end. -The poet's primary function is to give pleasure.

Group discussion -What is the notion of a happy life to you?