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Plato
(428-348 BC)
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Athenian philosopher
“Student” of Socrates
Aristotle’s teacher
Founded the Academy (Closed 525 AD;
Justinian)
• Composed many (preserved) dialogues on
morality, metaphysics and epistemology
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Plato on Rationality & Emotion
• The Apology
– Ostensibly, the story of Socrates’ trial
– Also represents Socrates’ conception of human
nature as essentially rational
• Background to the trial
– Athenian democracy
– Socrates the gadfly
• Mocked in Aristophanes’ The Clouds
• Socrates’ “inner voice”
• Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi
– “No one is wiser than Socrates”
– Certainly not prominent Athenians
» Neither politicians nor writers
» Writers as “clairvoyants”!
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The Charges Against Socrates
• From early rumor (Aristophanes):
– makes the false appear true
– Socrates proclaims to know hidden and
profound (mystical) truths
• Current formal charge (Meletus,
Anytus, Lycon)
– impiety
• practices new (unsanctioned) religion
• does not recognize the State’s gods
– corruption of youth
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• Result of trial
– Socrates’ sentenced to execution
• expectation of exile
– Plato’s rejection of democracy in the
Republic
• Socrates’ defense
– Against the rumor (Aristophanes)
• Socrates denies any special wisdom expect
that he knows his own ignorance
• Admits he’s embarrassed the pompous
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Socrates’ Defense
– Against impiety
• Socrates recognizes some gods (e.g. Apollo)
even if other philosophers (Anaxagoras)
don’t
– Socrates recognizes the Oracle of Delphi
(Apollo’s representative) who says that no
one is wiser than Socrates
• Accusation of practice of new religion
implies Socrates recognizes some gods,
which contradicts accusation of atheism
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Socrates’ Defense
– Against corruption of youth
• This is the critical accusation
• Socratic Paradox as defense
– all normal humans are rational
– rational creatures are designed to seek
only value, only what is good, only what is
right
– rational creatures can’t be bad
– rational creatures are robots of reason &
not driven by emotion
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Socratic Paradox
• To corrupt the youth is to make them evil
• Evil youths would harm Socrates
• No rational person would intentionally harm
him/herself
• Since Socrates is rational, he either
– did not corrupt the youth or
– did so only unintentionally
• If he did not corrupt, he should not be punished
• If he unintentionally corrupted the youths, he
should be educated but not punished
• Hence, in either case, Socrates should not be
punished
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Conclusion of Socratic Paradox
• A rational person will always and
necessarily:
– Do what he/she judges to be best
– Never knowingly do what is wrong
• Any behavior that appears wrong or
immoral must result from
– Ignorance of the immorality
– Psychological impairment, malfunction or
insanity
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Generalized Socratic Paradox
• Rational persons act deliberately
• Deliberation = the use of reason to select what is
judged to be the best alternative action
• So, rational persons always do what seems best
• Hence, they never intentionally do what they think
is wrong
• Therefore, rational agents should never be
punished for wrongdoing. At worst, they should be
taught what is right or best. For once they know
this, they will inevitably do what is right or best
• Failure to do what is believed best = mental illness
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Are We Really Rational?
• Our inclination towards fallacy
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gambler’s fallacy
selecting a car
Ordering effects on preferences
Impact Bias in predicting happiness
failures in deployment of knowledge
• Where are my glasses?
• Calculation errors on math test
• Tip of the tongue phenomenon
– rational wrong doing
• Augustine: weakness of will
• Hume: reason as slave of desire
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Consequence of the Socratic
Paradox
• The unexamined life is not worth
living
• The examined life is the life of a
rational person who undertakes to
know what is generally good and
valuable in life
• Only such a person may come to know
what is best to do or how to live so as
to optimize what is valuable in life.
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The Unexamined Life
• The unexamined life is one in which a
person does not attempt to know what is
generally good and valuable in life
• Such a person cannot rely on deliberation
to guide life
• Rationality is wasted in such a person. Such
a person cannot hope to have a good or
rewarding life
• So, the unexamined life, is not worth living
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What’s Paradoxical?
• “Paradox” means beyond belief. A
paradox contains both something that
is hard to believe and something that
is highly credible.
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What’s Paradoxical in the
Socratic Paradox?
• Is deliberation driven by value rather
than desire?
• Is evil action the result of ignorance
or insanity?
• Are people really saints?
• Is education the only appropriate
response to (unintentional) evil?
• Are rational agents slaves to
deliberation or are we free to do
what is wrong?
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Reason & Autonomy
• Assume that as a rational person you
– Inevitably seek what is most valuable in order to be happy
– Rational deliberation optimizes your chance of securing what
is most valuable and thereby being happy
• Successful deliberation depends upon knowledge
• Hence, your happiness depends on your actions being
controlled by whomever is most knowledgeable, even if
that is someone other than yourself
• Hence you should surrender personal autonomy to
whomever is more knowledgeable than you and
committed to deliberating on your behalf to achieve
what is most valuable for you
• But wait! Is it better to be autonomous or ruled
always and completely by whomever is wiser?
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The Crito
• Should Socrates flee prison in order
to escape his unjust condemnation?
• Crito’s four reasons for escaping
– The majority will think ill of Socrates
and his friends if he does not escape
– Since the court erred, it should not be
obeyed
– The welfare of the children of Socrates
requires his escape
– Death is an evil to be avoided
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Socrates’ Reply to Crito
• Majority opinion is relevant only if
true
• Rejection of Relativism
– Relativism = truth determined by beliefs
or attitudes; we create truth
– Absolutism = truth is determined
conditions of the world, not belief or
attitude; we discover truth
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Reasons Against Relativism
• Consistency
– if you are not a relativist in science or
mathematics, why be a relativist in
morals?
• The possibility of rational discussion
regarding a topic (morals) precludes
relativism
– If rational disagreement with the moral
majority is possible, relativism is false
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Reasons Against Relativism
• If morality is a matter of happiness &
happiness is an objective/absolute
condition, then morality is
objective/absolute & relativism is
false
– Is happiness an objective condition?
– What is happiness?
– Can we be mistaken about our own
happiness?
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Reasons Against Relativism
• If relativism were true, then what
the Nazis did would have been right
(for them)
• However, what the Nazi’s did was not
right for them or for anyone
• So, relativism is false
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Back to Socrates’ Replies to
Crito
• Socrates’ children are better off by
his death than exile. (Absolutism)
• We do not know whether death
actually is a evil. Hence, we can’t
appeal to the evil of death as a reason
to escape
• What of the injustice of the death
sentence? Is civil disobedience just?
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Civil Disobedience & Justice
• Why does Socrates oppose civil
disobedience?
• His implicit contract with Athens
– Promise to obey all laws, regardless of how they
are enforced
– Is this a binding promise?
• Stability of Athens as a condition of
Socrates happiness throughout life
– Life’s overall quality & the final act
• To have lived well, Socrates must accept
execution now
• Compare the artist’s last brush stroke or the
parent’s dying act
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