September 20
Monday, September 20, 2021Plenary
Doing What You Want: Plato's Early Moral Psychology
We will examine another section of the Gorgias, the discussion between Socrates and Polus. Socrates presents a variation on means-ends analysis that distinguishes between “what we want” and “what we see fit to do”. We will try to interpret this distinction, and make explicit the psychological theories of motivation and action that Socrates seems to be suggesting, comparing them with some contemporary approaches, and seeing how Socrates argues, based on this moral psychology, that virtue consists in knowledge of what's good for oneself and that no one does what's bad for themselves willingly.
Goals
Goals
- Understand Socrates’ claims about “what we want” and “what we see fit to do”
- Understand Socrates’ argument that virtue consists in knowledge of the good
- Become more familiar with the concept of moral psychology and its relation to theories of the good life
- Practice critically examining a philosophical theory
- See connections between ancient text and contemporary theories
Before Class
- Plato, Gorgias, Polus section – read and annotate in Perusall
- Reread Trevor Newton, “A Summary of Plato’s Gorgias”
- N/A
- Try to explain the distinction between “doing what you want” and “doing what you see fit”, and the claim that what we want is “the good”. Is this another candidate for a “final end”, like Aristotle’s eudaimonia? How is this different from saying the final end is eudaimonia?
- How does Socrates make a case for the conclusions that virtue is knowledge of the good and that no one does what’s bad for themselves willingly?
After Class
Further Resources
Essay Assignment
Further Resources
- Alasdair MacIntyre, “Plato: The Gorgias” from A Short History of Ethics
- Alasdair MacIntyre, “Plato: The Republic“ from A Short History of Ethics
- Slides for today’s class
Essay Assignment
- Your first essay assignment is due this Saturday, September 25