Rellsun

Can anyone answer any of these questions?


Lecture 1, Republic, Book 7
1. What does the cave mean in Plato's allegory of the cave?
2. Explain "the world of being" and "the world of becoming" in this allegory.
3. How would Plato respond to the proclamation "man is the measure of all things"?

Lecture 2, NE Book 1
1. What does Aristotle mean by "eudaimonia," translated as "happiness"?
2. Explain Aristotle's function argument and his understanding of virtue.
3. What is "teleology"? In what sense is Aristotle a teleologist?

Lecture 3, NE Book 2
1. What is "the doctrine of the mean"?
2. How can we acquire virtues of character, according to Aristotle?
3. Does Aristotle call a person painfully following his or her conscience virtuous? Why or why not?

Lecture 4, NE Book 3
1. In what sense is an activity rational?
2. Why should our goal in life not be simply to stay healthy and grow?
3. What is deliberation? How is it different from mulling over various possibilities?

Lecture 5, NE Book 4
1. What is a "practical syllogism"?
2. What are Aristotle's two conditions for voluntary action?
3. Can a person knowingly do wrong? Explain with an example.

Lecture 6, NE Book 8-9
1. What are the three types of friendship, according to Aristotle?
2. Explain Aristotle's account of true love.
3. Do friends inevitably "use" one another? Or are there genuine acts of friendship in which self-interest is not a motive? Explain Aristotle's position based on self-love between the two extreme views.

Lecture 7, NE Book 7, 10
1. What is the proper pleasure according to Aristotle?
2. What is the life of contemplation? What is so good about this?
3. Why is the good life not the life of pleasure? Why is the good life inconceivable without pleasure? How do these two fit together in Aristotle's ethics?

Texas Toker's Wife

I don't have a copy of the Republic handy, so you are on your own with the cave analogy. I seem to remember he described a group of people confined to a cave and whose only sensation of things were of those things' shadows on the wall as they were moved around outside the cave. So, the cave represented the philosophers, and those shadows were akin to the Platonic "forms" that were the perfect essence of any given thing.

1. What does Aristotle mean by "eudaimonia," translated as "happiness"?

Aristotle argues that happiness is the greatest of the ideal virtues (akin to Plato's ideal forms) which every human pursues for its own sake and for no other goal.

2. Explain Aristotle's function argument and his understanding of virtue.

Aristotle reasons that just as each part of the body has its own function (an eye can see, a hand can touch, etc) so must the whole, the man, have an essential function. That essential function of man would be to live a life, and the essential function of a good man would be to live a good life. A good life would be a life of happiness, having already defined happiness as the most ideal of the virtues, the single one which man pursues in and of itself for itself. Aristotle's understanding of virtues can best be described as an excellence in function.

3. What is "teleology"? In what sense is Aristotle a teleologist?

Teleology is the idea that everything is designed for or toward some purpose. In the sense that Aristotle reasons that every part of man has a function, and every man as a whole has a function, and that the ultimate purpose in living is to achieve the highest virtue, happiness.

You know, it has just occurred to me that these questions sure look an awful lot like homework. If you haven't read Nichomachean Ethics, I really, really, really urge you to do so. Fire up and chill out with that book for a while. It's definitely something everyone should read at least once.

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--facta, non verba

FFS lrn2punctuate! soicanreadwhatthehellyouaretryingtosaywithoutmakin gmyeyesbleedkkthx

Rellsun

its actually a review for an exam (not required homework to hand in) i already read the books in the review sheet for previous homework and some of the stuff i still don't fully understand. and yes thats what the republic is about. oh and thanks for answering a few questions.

Texas Toker's Wife

I'll toss up a few more answers as I (re)read through the book. I haven't cracked the NE open in a few more than a few years.

I hope these help with the test - they're not complete answers by any means, but maybe they get you going.

Texas Toker's Wife

1. What is "the doctrine of the mean"?

Aristotle asserts that moral virtue can be defined as a choice and lying on a mean, not a mathematical average, but where any given virtue lies somewhere between two extremes.

2. How can we acquire virtues of character, according to Aristotle?

We acquire virtues of character by practicing them. "Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit. "

3. Does Aristotle call a person painfully following his or her conscience virtuous? Why or why not?

A person painfully following his or her conscience, I think, would not be considered virtuous under Aristotle's reasoning. The person would not have pain if his conscience were leading him or her in the proper direction.

He says, "For of the extremes one is more erroneous, one less so; therefore, since to hit the mean is hard in the extreme, we must as a second best, as people say, take the least of the evils; and this will be done best in the way we describe. But we must consider the things towards which we ourselves also are easily carried away; for some of us tend to one thing, some to another; and this will be recognizable from the pleasure and the pain we feel. We must drag ourselves away to the contrary extreme; for we shall get into the intermediate state by drawing well away from error, as people do in straightening sticks that are bent. ..... So much, then, is plain, that the intermediate state is in all things to be praised, but that we must incline sometimes towards the excess, sometimes towards the deficiency; for so shall we most easily hit the mean and what is right."

So, our goal is to hit the mean, and that process is gauged by how much pleasure or pain response we feel as a result of our actions. If we are persisting in following painful actions, we are not hitting the mean.

Texas Toker's Wife

Lecture 4, NE Book 3
1. In what sense is an activity rational?

"At any rate choice involves a rational principle and thought."

An activity is rational when it is an action born as the result of a reasoned choice. The voluntary or involuntary actions which result from compulsion or ignorance are not reasoned or rational activities.

(I might be off the mark on this one actually - just a warning.)

2. Why should our goal in life not be simply to stay healthy and grow?

You cannot choose to be healthy nor to grow. You can wish to be healthy and choose actions that increase the likelihood of being healthy. So, your goal should not simply be to stay healthy, your goal should be to continually make good choices that lead to better and prolonged health. I think this ties in with Aristotle's theory on temperence.

3. What is deliberation? How is it different from mulling over various possibilities?

"We deliberate about things that are in our power and can be done." Deliberation is considering a desired outcome, and then thinking through the ways in which that outcome could be attained, and selecting the best way, or, as Aristotle would put it, thinking not about ends but means.

Texas Toker's Wife

Lecture 5, NE Book 4
1. What is a "practical syllogism"?

The idea of practical syllogism describes how you think in order to make a morally good decision.

I'm going to suggest you refer to your lecture notes at this point - your prof. is going to have personal interpretation on this one that may or may not jive completely with a layman's interpretation of the text (I know that's a cop out but this is a bitch to explain :P )

2. What are Aristotle's two conditions for voluntary action?

I don't see how this question relates to book 4 ... In book 3, where Aristotle talks about choices, you would say the Voluntary Action is an action which required a choice (that is it was not an involuntary action forced upon you) and deliberation (that is it was not an act of ignorance)


3. Can a person knowingly do wrong? Explain with an example.

Again - this is book 3 stuff ...

Given that there is such a thing as voluntary action in which a person deliberates on the various ways to do something and makes an educated choice to select the best action, then a person can knowingly do wrong by selected an inferior choice of action for a particular action. As an example, from book 4 in regards to a truthful man, Aristotle says, " For the man who loves truth, and is truthful where nothing is at stake, will still more be truthful where something is at stake; he will avoid falsehood as something base, seeing that he avoided it even for its own sake; and such a man is worthy of praise. He inclines rather to understate the truth; for this seems in better taste because exaggerations are wearisome."

Now, let's imagine a man has just been asked by his wife whether he still has his wedding ring or not. Let's say he has misplace the ring. He deliberates and identifies his possible courses of action: saying yes I lost the ring, saying no I didn't lose the ring. If he chooses to say no, then he has just knowingly done wrong.

Rellsun

thank you very much this will definitely lead me in the right direction as i re-read the book.

Texas Toker's Wife

Lecture 6, NE Book 8-9
1. What are the three types of friendship, according to Aristotle?
2. Explain Aristotle's account of true love.
3. Do friends inevitably "use" one another? Or are there genuine acts of friendship in which self-interest is not a motive? Explain Aristotle's position based on self-love between the two extreme views.

All of the friendship questions should be pretty easily discernable in the text - so I'll leave those for you to see on your own.

Lecture 7, NE Book 7, 10
1. What is the proper pleasure according to Aristotle?
2. What is the life of contemplation? What is so good about this?
3. Why is the good life not the life of pleasure? Why is the good life inconceivable without pleasure? How do these two fit together in Aristotle's ethics?

A virtue is found somewhere in the mean between pleasure and pain (going back to book 1) and happiness occurs in a man when that man has found the best path, has made the right choices in other words, to place him on that virtuous mean. Thus the good life is one in which the man has practiced virtue faithfully and has achieved happiness. Seeking only pleasure would be hedonistic (not a good thing in Aristotle's view) but pleasure is necessary to gauge happiness.

Texas Toker

you just had to get her started being all philosophical didn't you.

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You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas. -Davy Crockett
I hate Obama and Pelosi as much as you hate Bush.