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Transcript
The analogy of the line • Each segment of the line (see p. 222) represents A type of cognition (or cognitive state of mind), and The type of object that corresponds to that type of cognition o The two upper segments represent two types of knowledge – knowledge proper and mathematical thinking o The two lower segments represent two types of opinion – belief and conjecture (imagining) • Lesson 1: Knowledge stands to mere opinion as belief stands to conjecture – i.e., opinion is about things that are images of what knowledge is about • Lesson 2: Mathematical thinking is not perfect knowledge o Though its objects are not visible things, it must rely on visible images of those objects o It is “compelled to employ assumptions, and, because it cannot rise above these, does not travel upwards to a first principle” (p. 225) • Lesson 3 – True or perfect knowledge is achieved via dialectic – Socratic discussion– because that kind of discussion challenges assumptions and can provide a basis for them (pp. 225-26) Lect 9-1 The allegory of the cave • The allegory is not a proof of Plato’s view, but only an illustration of it • The key ideas it illustrates are o If we only pay attention to visible things, we will never realize that they are images, shadows or reflections of something more perfect o It requires liberation or great effort to “turn the soul around” so that it begins to pay attention to the Forms and “see” them clearly o When you do learn to apprehend the Forms clearly, you will realize that visible things are images or shadows of something else o If you try to inform other people of this, they will think you are mad – and perhaps put you to death! • If Plato’s view is true, then education does not consist in “put[ting] knowledge into a soul that does not possess it” (Cornford, p. 233) o To see the truth, “the entire soul must be turned away from this changing world, until its eye can contemplate reality” o The art of teaching will not attempt to “put the power of sight into the soul’s eye,” but will rather “ensure that instead of looking in the wrong direction, [the soul] is turned the way it ought to be” – this is what Socratic teaching is all about Lect 9-2 Marx and Plato • Shared concerns: making peoples lives better by reforming contemporary social life o Diagnosing the reasons most men and women do not have rewarding lives o Prescribing reform on the basis of that diagnosis • Divergence between their diagnoses and prescriptions o Plato Diagnosis of the cause of human unhappiness: ignorance Prescription for a cure • Knowledge • Rigid class structure o Marx Diagnosis of the cause of human unhappiness: exploitation Prescription for a cure • Revolution: end the private ownership of the means of production • A classless society Lect 10-1 What Marxism (communism) is and is not • Communism and democracy are not alternatives o Communism is an economic system, democracy a political system o The aim of Marxism is a classless society which is radically democratic – in which there is no government • Marxism and the so-called communist countries o The “dictatorship of the proletariat” o Lenin on the Soviet Union: state capitalism o Trotsky: was the revolution betrayed? • Communism and private property o Marxism is not opposed to the private ownership of personal property o What Marx objects to is the private ownership of the means of production Lect 10-2 Why Marxism opposes the private ownership of the means of production • If any group of individuals controls the technology, raw materials, and instruments of production, they can dictate the terms on which everybody else works • Since human beings live and express themselves in their work, any group that dictates the terms on which others can work dictates to everyone else how they live • The result is a lack of autonomy – and a resulting lack of freedom and human dignity– for those who do not control the means of production. Lect 10-3