Gregory Vlastos

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Gregory Vlastos Gregory Vlastos: A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Title: Gregory Vlastos Papers Dates: circa 1930s-1991 Extent: 100 document boxes (42.00 linear feet) Abstract: The papers of philosopher Gregory Vlastos, a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy who spent most of his career studying the thought of Plato and Socrates, document his studies, his writings, and his career as an educator at several American universities. Call Number: Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Language: English, with Ancient Greek, French, German, Italian, Latin, Modern Greek, and Spanish Access: Open for research Administrative Information Acquisition: Gifts, 1993-2010 (G9070, G9134, G9163, G9225, G9252, G9628, G9979, G9982, G10214, G10288, G11877, 10-03-014-G) Processed by: Hope Rider, 2006; updated by Joan Sibley, 2016 Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Scope and Contents The papers of philosopher Gregory Vlastos (1907-1991), a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy who spent most of his career studying the thought of Plato and Socrates, document his studies, his writings, and his career as an educator at several American universities, especially Cornell, Princeton, and The University of California at Berkeley. The papers are arranged in six series: I. Correspondence and Offprint Files, II. Study, Lecture, and Teaching Files, III. Works, IV. Works by Others, V. Miscellaneous, and VI. Offprints Removed from Manuscripts. The Correspondence and Offprint Files (35 boxes) in Series I. represent Vlastos' extensive correspondence with other philosophers, classicists, former students, academics, and others. The files are arranged alphabetically by correspondent name, and generally include not only letters received, but copies of Vlastos' responses. Many of the letters contain significant debates on philosophical and scholarly issues, including commentary on classical texts. Among the correspondents are Julia Annas, Richard B. Brandt, Hector-Neri Castañeda, Harold Cherniss, Alan Code, Donald Davidson, Gail J. Fine, Dorothea Frede, Kurt von Fritz, Gilbert H. Harman, Carl G. Hempel, Terence H. Irwin, Jonathan Lear, Anthony A. Long, Jürgen Mittelstrass, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, Amélie Rorty, Richard Rorty, John R. Searle, W. J. Verdenius, and many others. Offprints received with incoming letters were kept with the relevant file if they were annotated by Vlastos or otherwise provided useful context. All other offprints were separated to Series VI., Offprints Removed from Manuscripts. Series II. Study, Lecture, and Teaching Files (20 boxes) contains Vlastos' files for classes, presentations, and his extensive working files of study notes. The files are arranged alphabetically, chiefly by subject. Topics include his primary interests in the pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, ethics, social philosophy, and politics, as well as his explorations into other subjects such as Homer, Sophocles, Thucydides, Aristotle, Plotinus, Kant, and Marx. Many of the study files show Vlastos' working method: notes taken from careful reading of texts and secondary sources assembled together with draft writings sent to colleagues for comments, exchanges of correspondence with colleagues, and his subsequent revisions to the drafts. Most of the lecture and teaching files date from Cornell and Princeton, but there are also notes and related materials created for his summer seminars for college teachers at Berkeley. Manuscripts of articles and books written or edited by Vlastos make up Series III. Works (17 boxes); they are arranged alphabetically by title. This series is dominated by materials for the highly acclaimed Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher (1991) and its posthumously published sequel, Socratic Studies (edited by Myles Burnyeat, 1994). The manuscripts are sometimes accompanied by notes and research (sometimes overlapping with materials in Series II.) as well as correspondence and reviews. Series IV. Works by Others (4 boxes), contains manuscripts of works by colleagues or students sent to Vlastos for his review. These files are arranged alphabetically by creator of the work. Frequently included with these are comments by Vlastos, either in the form of annotations on the manuscripts themselves, or written on separate sheets. 2 Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Manuscript Collection MS-4361 A small group of miscellaneous files, arranged alphabetically by title, makes up Series V. Miscellaneous (1 box). Among these are an address files, a commonplace book, royalty statements and related correspondence. Series VI. Offprints Removed from Manuscripts (23 boxes), holds the offprints without annotations or meaningful context that were removed from correspondence sent to Vlastos. The offprints are arranged alphabetically by author, and subsequently by title when multiple titles are present for a single author. Note: An Index of Names and Subjects is provided at the end of this finding aid to facilitate detailed access to the contents of the Vlastos Papers. Surveying the Index first is recommended to a gain quicker understanding of the subject content especially. For further information, see: Mourelatos, Alexander P. D. "The Gregory Vlastos Archive at the Harry Ransom Center of The University of Texas at Austin," Philosophical Inquiry, Vol. 40, No. 1-2 (Winter-Spring 2016): 113-125. Separated Material Of the approximately 300 books from Vlastos' library that accompanied the archive, those with significant annotations by Vlastos (229) were added to the Ransom Center Library; these are cataloged in the online University of Texas Library Catalog. The remainder were placed either in the general collection of the UT Library or the Albert P. Brogan Reading Room of the UT Philosophy Department. The Ransom Center also holds a small amount of electronic records received in the form of back-up diskettes and a zip drive with files copied from Vlastos' computer hard drive. 3 Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Series I. Correspondence and Offprint Files Abraham, William E. Container 1.1 Abrams, Michael H. Container 1.2-3 Ackerman, Bruce A. Container 1.4 Ackrill, John L. Container 1.5 Adkins, Arthur W. H. Container 1.6 Ahl, Frederick M. Container 1.7 Alatzoglou-Themlis, G. Container 1.8 Allen, R. E. Container 1.9 Alpern, Kenneth D. Container 1.10 American Civil Liberties Union Container 1.11 Anagnostopoulous, Georgios Container 1.12 Anderson, Albert Container 1.13 Anderson, Warren D. Container 1.14 Andrewes, A. Container 1.15 Annas, Julia Container 1.16-2.2 Anton, John Container 2.3 Arac, Jonathon Container 2.4 Arendt, Hannah Container 2.5 Aronson, Ronald Container 2.6 Arrow, Kenneth J. Container 2.7 Aubrey, Edwin E. Container 2.8 Austin, Scott Whiting Container 2.9 Bacon, Helen H. Container 2.10 4 Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Baier, Annette Container 2.11 Bailey, D. R. Shackleton Container 2.12 Baldes, Richard W. Container 2.13 Balme, David M. Container 2.14 Bambrough, Renford Container 2.15 Barabas, Marina Container 2.16 Barford, Robert Container 2.17 Barker, Andrew Container 2.18 Barker, John A. Container 2.19 Barnes, Jonathan Container 2.20 Barry, Brian Container 2.21 Bartley, W. W., III Container 2.22 Baxter Container 2.23 Bayley, Charles C. Container 2.24 Becker, Oskar von Container 2.25 Bedau, Hugo Adam Container 2.26 Beitz, Charles R. Container 2.27 Belfiore, Elizabeth Container 3.1 Bell, Karen Container 3.2 Bellah, Robert Container 3.3 Benacerraf, Paul Container 3.4 Benardete, Seth Container 3.5 Benson, Hugh Container 3.6 Berger, Harry, Jr. Container 3.7 Bergmann, Frithjof H. Container 3.8 5 Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Bergson, Leif Container 3.9 Bestor, Thomas W. Container 3.10 Beversluis, John Container 3.11 Billig, L. Container 3.12 Black, Max Container 3.13 Blair, Elena Container 3.14 Blank, David L. Container 3.15 Bluck, R. S. Container 3.16 Blum, Harold F. Container 3.17 Blundell, Mary Whitlock Container 3.18 Bobonich, Christopher Container 3.19 Boisen, Anton T. Container 3.20 Bolton, Robert Container 3.21 Bonitz, H. Container 3.22 Boolos, George Stephen Container 3.23 Booth, N. B. Container 3.24 Borecky, Borivoj Container 3.25 Boulding, Kenneth E. Container 4.1 Bowen, Alan Container 4.2 Brandt, Richard B. Container 4.3-5 Brentlinger, John A. Container 4.6 Brisson, Luc Container 4.7 Brody, Nathan Container 4.8 Brown, J. Douglas Container 4.9 6 Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Brown, Malcolm Container 4.10 Brown, Norman Container 4.11 Brown, Stuart M., Jr. Container 4.12 Brunschwig, Jacques Container 4.13 Büchner, Wilhelm Container 4.14 Burch, George Bosworth Container 4.15 Burnyeat, Myles F. Container 4.16 Burtt, Edwin A. Container 4.17 Cacoullos, Ann R. Container 5.1 Calhoun, David Container 5.2 Calligas, Paul; see also Kalligas, Paul Container 5.3 Calogero, Guido Container 5.4 Canto, Monique Container 5.5 Carvalho, John Container 5.6 Castañeda, Hector-Neri Container 5.7-8 Cavarnos, Constantine Container 5.9 Chalmers, Gordon Keith Container 5.10 Chaplin, Maud H. Container 5.11 Chappell, V. C. Container 5.12 Charles, David Container 5.13 Cherniss, Harold Container 5.14-15 Clark, John A. Container 5.16 Classen, C. Joachim Container 5.17 Clay, Diskin Container 5.18 Cleary, John J. Container 6.1 7 Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Cocking, John Container 6.2 Code, Alan Container 6.3-4 Cohen, David Container 6.5 Cohen, S. Marc Container 6.6 Colson, Darrel D. Container 6.7 Conacher, D. J. Container 6.8 Connor, W. R. Container 6.9 Conway, Daniel W. Container 6.10 Cooper, J. M. Container 6.11 Copi, Irving M. Container 7.1 Crews, Frederick Container 7.2 Croissant, Jeanne Container 7.3 Crombie, Ian Container 7.4 Croughan, Caitlin Container 7.5 Dale, Annette Container 7.6 Dancy, R. M. Container 7.7 Danto, Arthur C.
Recommended publications
  • Gregory Vlastos, Socrates
    72 Gregory Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and ~oral Philosopher (Cam­ bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), ISBN 0 521 307333 hardback £35/$57-50; ISB~ 0 521 31450X paperback £11-95/S16-95. Socrates: Ironist and Noral Philosopher (SINP) is a book that all students of Socrates and of Greek philosophy will have to read, and will benefit from reading. It isn't the complete portrait of Socrates that many of us hoped it would be (for example, it contains no full discussion of the elenchus) and it is not all new much of it is already familiar from journal articles. It reads, indeed, more like a collection of articles than a unified book, but it is none the less engaging and provocative for that, the product of hard thinking by a major scholar and a life-long Socratist It is also very well written. I shall focus on only a few central themes. 1. Socrates and Plato Vlastos (pp. 46-7) divides the Platonic dialogues into four classes: (1) ELENCTIC; Apology, Charmides, Crico, Euthyphro, Gorgias, Hippias Ninor, Ion, Laches, Protagoras, Republic I (2) TRANSITIONAL: Eu thydemus, Hippias l1ajor, Lysis, l1enexenus, l1eno (3) MIDDLE: Cratylus, Phaedo, Symposium, Republic II-X, Phaedrus, Parmenides, Theaetetus (4) LATE: Timaeus, Crit ias, Sophist, Politicus, Philebus, Laws 73 He believes that the protagonist of the elenctic dialogues ("SocratesE") is the historical Socrates. while the protagonist of the middle and later dialogues ("SocratesM") is little more than a mouthpiece for Plato. Many scholars would go along with this thesis. but they might well balk at the members of (2).
    [Show full text]
  • SGR VERY Final Version
    PLATO’S EXPLANATORY PREDICATION A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Saul Gordon Rosenthal January 2011 © 2011 Saul Gordon Rosenthal All rights reserved PLATO’S EXPLANATORY PREDICATION Saul Gordon Rosenthal, Ph. D. Cornell University 2011 One of the most classic puzzles in Plato’s metaphysics is how to interpret his apparently self-predicational language. Plato seems committed, at least in his middle dialogues, to the view that for all forms, the form of F “is F”. For instance, he seems to say that the form of largeness itself “is large”, and to generalize this claim to all forms. Commentators have struggled to find an interpretation of such claims that is consistent with Plato’s text and that attributes to Plato a view with some plausibility. One aim of this dissertation is to show that we have good reason to doubt all of the most influential interpretations offered by commentators. The views discussed include Narrow Self-Predication, the Tautologous Identity view, two Non- Tautologous Identity views, the Pauline Predication view, Broad Self-Predication, and a view distinguishing different kinds of predication. It is doubtful whether any of these interpretations correctly captures Plato’s self-predicational commitments. Another aim of the dissertation is to argue that the textual evidence most often thought to commit Plato to the Self-Predication Assumption (SP), that for all forms, the form of F is itself an F thing, is insufficient to establish such a commitment. One chapter focuses on Plato’s repeated discussion of the resemblance between form and participant.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy and the Foreigner in Plato's Dialogues
    Philosophy and the Foreigner in Plato’s Dialogues By Rebecca LeMoine A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Political Science) at the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 2014 Date of final oral examination: 06/20/2014 The dissertation is approved by the following members of the Final Oral Committee: Richard Avramenko, Associate Professor, Political Science Alex Dressler, Assistant Professor, Classics Daniel Kapust, Associate Professor, Political Science Helen Kinsella, Associate Professor, Political Science John Zumbrunnen, Professor, Political Science i ABSTRACT The place of foreigners in Plato’s thought remains understudied despite the prevalence of foreign characters, myths, and practices throughout his dialogues. Attending to this gap in the scholarly literature, this dissertation challenges conventional depictions of Plato as hostile to diversity by showing that Plato makes a compelling case for why we should engage with foreigners: the epistemological benefits of cross-cultural engagement. Through exegetical readings of the Republic, Laws, Phaedrus, and Menexenus, I argue that Plato finds cross-cultural dialogue epistemologically beneficial owing to its ability to provoke us to philosophize together, an activity at once conducive to the quest for wisdom and generative of friendship. Put simply, conversations with foreigners perform the same role as the Socratic gadfly of stinging us into consciousness. This finding has major implications for the field of political theory and, specifically, for the role of the new subfield commonly referred to as comparative political theory. By demonstrating the centrality of cross-cultural dialogue to Plato’s conception of political theory, this dissertation suggests that comparative political theory is not a deviation from the tradition of Western political theory, but a restoration of it.
    [Show full text]
  • Sophist Revisited Trends in Classics Q Supplementary Volumes
    Plato’s Sophist Revisited Trends in Classics Q Supplementary Volumes Edited by Franco Montanari and Antonios Rengakos Scientific Committee Alberto Bernabe´ · Margarethe Billerbeck · Claude Calame Philip R. Hardie · Stephen J. Harrison · Stephen Hinds Richard Hunter · Christina Kraus · Giuseppe Mastromarco Gregory Nagy · Theodore D. Papanghelis · Giusto Picone Kurt Raaflaub · Bernhard Zimmermann Volume 19 De Gruyter Plato’s Sophist Revisited Edited by Beatriz Bossi Thomas M. Robinson De Gruyter ISBN 978-3-11-028695-3 e-ISBN 978-3-11-028713-4 ISSN 1868-4785 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. Ą 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Logo: Christopher Schneider, Laufen Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ϱ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Preface This book consists of a selection of papers presented at the International Spring Seminar on Plato’s Sophist (26–31 May 2009, Centro de Ciencias de Benasque ‘Pedro Pascual’, Spain) with the financial support of MI- CINN, CSIC, Universidad de Zaragoza and Gobierno de Aragón. The Conference was organized by the editors, under the auspices of the Director of the Centre, Prof. José Ignacio Latorre, who provided invaluable assistance at every stage of the Conference, up to its close with a lecture on Quantum Physics for Philosophers. The aim of the conference was the promotion of Plato studies in Spain in the framework of discussions with a number of international scholars of distinction in the field, whilst at the same time looking afresh at one of Plato’s most philosophically profound dialogues.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Arrangement of the Platonic Dialogues
    Ryan C. Fowler 25th Hour On the Arrangement of the Platonic Dialogues I. Thrasyllus a. Diogenes Laertius (D.L.), Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 3.56: “But, just as long ago in tragedy the chorus was the only actor, and afterwards, in order to give the chorus breathing space, Thespis devised a single actor, Aeschylus a second, Sophocles a third, and thus tragedy was completed, so too with philosophy: in early times it discoursed on one subject only, namely physics, then Socrates added the second subject, ethics, and Plato the third, dialectics, and so brought philosophy to perfection. Thrasyllus says that he [Plato] published his dialogues in tetralogies, like those of the tragic poets. Thus they contended with four plays at the Dionysia, the Lenaea, the Panathenaea and the festival of Chytri. Of the four plays the last was a satiric drama; and the four together were called a tetralogy.” b. Characters or types of dialogues (D.L. 3.49): 1. instructive (ὑφηγητικός) A. theoretical (θεωρηµατικόν) a. physical (φυσικόν) b. logical (λογικόν) B. practical (πρακτικόν) a. ethical (ἠθικόν) b. political (πολιτικόν) 2. investigative (ζητητικός) A. training the mind (γυµναστικός) a. obstetrical (µαιευτικός) b. tentative (πειραστικός) B. victory in controversy (ἀγωνιστικός) a. critical (ἐνδεικτικός) b. subversive (ἀνατρεπτικός) c. Thrasyllan categories of the dialogues (D.L. 3.50-1): Physics: Timaeus Logic: Statesman, Cratylus, Parmenides, and Sophist Ethics: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, Menexenus, Clitophon, the Letters, Philebus, Hipparchus, Rivals Politics: Republic, the Laws, Minos, Epinomis, Atlantis Obstetrics: Alcibiades 1 and 2, Theages, Lysis, Laches Tentative: Euthyphro, Meno, Io, Charmides and Theaetetus Critical: Protagoras Subversive: Euthydemus, Gorgias, and Hippias 1 and 2 :1 d.
    [Show full text]
  • The Greek World
    THE GREEK WORLD THE GREEK WORLD Edited by Anton Powell London and New York First published 1995 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Disclaimer: For copyright reasons, some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 First published in paperback 1997 Selection and editorial matter © 1995 Anton Powell, individual chapters © 1995 the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Greek World I. Powell, Anton 938 Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data The Greek world/edited by Anton Powell. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Greece—Civilization—To 146 B.C. 2. Mediterranean Region— Civilization. 3. Greece—Social conditions—To 146 B.C. I. Powell, Anton. DF78.G74 1995 938–dc20 94–41576 ISBN 0-203-04216-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-16276-5 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-06031-1 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-17042-7 (pbk) CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Notes on Contributors viii List of Abbreviations xii Introduction 1 Anton Powell PART I: THE GREEK MAJORITY 1 Linear
    [Show full text]
  • Revised New Summary of Philebus
    New Summary of Philebus REVISED 1. (11) Philebus maintains that pleasure, enjoyment, rejoicing, and their kind, are the best things for all animals, while Socrates maintains, for those able to partake of them, wisdom, mind, memory, and their kind, are the best. Each side must agree that it is a condition and disposition of soul that produces happiness. Stipulation: if some other life superior to both is found, then the victor will be he whose champion is closer to this hypothetical best life. a. (12c) Problem: are pleasure and likewise knowledge, both like and unlike themselves, because they each have various aspects and shapes? And are some of these shapes bad and some good? b. (14c) We must investigate this question with the aid of the principle that the one is many and the many are one. This is obvious and common property when applied to things that come to be and perish, but when applied to things like man, ox, beauty, and good, there are perplexities. i. (15b) The perplexities (there is unclarity about exactly what these three questions are): 1. Do such unities exist? 2. How do they, while remaining themselves, enter the domain of becoming? 3. How are they both one and many? ii. (15d) The identification of the one with the many arises everwhere from the nature of discourse itself—it entrances the young. iii. (16c) A gift of the gods: all things contain limit and the unlimited. We must not pass from the one to the infinite too quickly or slowly, but instead note all the intermediate numbers.
    [Show full text]
  • Servile Spartans: the Problems of Liberal Education in Aristotle's
    Servile Spartans: The problems of liberal education in Aristotle’s Politics Presented at What is Liberal Education For? St. John’s College (Santa Fe), October 18, 2014 Thornton Lockwood Quinnipiac University ABSTRACT: In the last two books of the Politics, Aristotle articulates a vision of education for his best regime in contrast to what he takes to be the goal and practices of the educational system of Sparta’s famous agôgê. Although Aristotle never refers to his program as liberal education, clearly he takes its goal to be the production of free citizens (hoi eleutheroi), which includes both males and females in his best regime. By contrast, in several places Aristotle characterizes the results of the Spartan system as “crude” (phortikos), “slavish” (andrapodôdes), and “servile” (banauson). I argue that Aristotle’s criticism of Spartan education both elucidates his general understanding of Sparta but also serves as a foil which can elucidate his own notion of liberal education. Further, I argue that Aristotle’s characterization of Spartan education as “slavish” and “servile” calls into question the claim that his notion of what is banausic is simply an expression of class prejudice. I conclude the paper by identifying some inconsistencies between liberal education in the Politics and elsewhere in Aristotle’s corpus. KEYWORDS: Aristotle, Politics, Sparta, liberal education, freedom Although there are places in Aristotle’s writings where he is appreciative of Spartan social and political institutions, his account of their famed educational system—the agôgê which Xenophon and Plutarch lavish with praise—is not one of them.1 Within the space of a half-dozen chapters in the last two books of the Politics, Aristotle describes the aims and results of the Spartan education system as “crude” (phortikos), “slavish” (andrapodôdes), and “servile” 1 See Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus (Lyc.), 14.1-3, 16-24 and Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians (Lak.
    [Show full text]
  • ARISTOTLE and the IMPORTANCE of VIRTUE in the CONTEXT of the POLITICS and the NICOMACHEAN ETHICS and ITS RELATION to TODAY Kyle Brandon Anthony Bucknell University
    Bucknell University Bucknell Digital Commons Honors Theses Student Theses 2010 ARISTOTLE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POLITICS AND THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS AND ITS RELATION TO TODAY Kyle Brandon Anthony Bucknell University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Anthony, Kyle Brandon, "ARISTOTLE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POLITICS AND THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS AND ITS RELATION TO TODAY" (2010). Honors Theses. 21. https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses/21 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses at Bucknell Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Bucknell Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1 What does it mean to live a good life? 7 The virtuous life 8 Ethical virtue 13 Bravery as an ethical virtue 20 Justice 22 Chapter 2 The Politics and the ideal polis 28 Development of a polis 29 Features of an ideal polis 32 What does it mean to be a citizen of a polis? 40 Aristotle’s views on education 42 Social groups in a polis who are not recognized as citizens 45 Non-ideal political systems 51 Chapter 3 Connections between the Politics and the Ethics 57 Chapter 4 Difficulties in applying Aristotle’s theories to a modern setting 68 Conclusion Where do we go from here? 87 Bibliography 89 iv Acknowledgements First off, I have to thank God, as He helped me endure this project and gave me the courage to press on when I became frustrated, angry, and ready to quit.
    [Show full text]
  • Plato's Hypothetical Inquiry in the Meno Naoya Iwata
    Plato’s Hypothetical Inquiry in the Meno Naoya Iwata At Meno 86e2–4 Socrates proposes to Meno that they should consider the question whether virtue is teachable on a hypothesis. Partly because its concrete procedure is illustrated by a baffling geometrical example, there has still been wide disagreement among scholars as to how he actually carries out this hypothetical inquiry into virtue. The basic structure of the argument at 87b2–89a5 appears very simple: Socrates converts the original question whether virtue is teachable to the question whether it is knowledge, and then examines the latter on the basis of his agreement with Meno that virtue is good. Apart however from that agreement being, as it is explicitly called, a ‘hypothesis’, opinion is divided on what other hypothesis Socrates posited. Some think of it as the conditional ‘if virtue is knowledge, it is teachable’ or as ‘knowledge is teachable’ (Bedu-Addo 1984, 7–9; Wolfsdorf 2008, 44–6 and 58–60),1 and others as the bi-conditional ‘if virtue is knowledge, it is teachable, but if not, not’ or as ‘knowledge alone is teachable’ (Grgić 1999, 34–6; Weiss 2001, 131; Zyskind and Sternfeld 1976, 132). 2 But most scholars, in contrast, identify it with the simple proposition ‘virtue is knowledge’ (Bedu-Addo 1984, 7–9; Benson 2003, 107–25; Bluck 1961, 17–19 and 85–91; Bostock 1986, 165–6; Canto-Sperber 1991, 98–102; Cherniss 1947, 140; Hackforth 1955, 140–1; Kahn 1996, 310; Robinson 1953, 116–18; Rose 1970, 3–7; Sayre 1969, 29 n. 40; Scott 2006, 137–40 and 221–4; Sharples 1985, 167).3 It is also suggested that Socrates’ new philosophical tool does not involve any process of positing a hypothesis but only aims to establish the equivalence between teachability and knowledge (Ebrey 2013, 76 and 83–4).
    [Show full text]
  • The Science of Philosophy: Discourse and Deception in Plato's Sophist
    The Science of Philosophy - Discourse and Deception in Plato’s Sophist - For Epoché [Penultimate ver.] The Science of Philosophy: Discourse and Deception in Plato’s Sophist Olof Pettersson Abstract: At 252e1 to 253c9 in Plato’s Sophist, the Eleatic Visitor explains why philosophy is a science. Like the art of grammar, philosophical knowledge corresponds to a generic structure of discrete kinds and is acquired by systematic analysis of how these kinds intermingle. In the literature, the Visitor’s science is either understood as an expression of a mature and authentic platonic metaphysics, or as a sophisticated illusion staged to illustrate the seductive lure of sophistic deception. By showing how the Visitor’s account of the science of philosophy is just as comprehensive, phantasmatic and self-concealing as the art of sophistry identified at the dialogue’s outset, this paper argues in favor of the latter view. Introduction At 252e1 to 253c9 in Plato’s Sophist, the Eleatic Visitor1 explains what he means by philosophy. Like the art of grammar, philosophy is about parts: All things can be analyzed. But not all parts fit together. Just like the letters of the alphabet, some can be combined and some cannot. According to the Visitor, it is knowledge about this that constitutes philosophy (253d1-e2) – a science he classifies as the greatest of them all (253c4-9). In the literature there are two main takes on this. Either the Visitors’ philosophical science is taken to be an expression of an authentic and mature platonic metaphysics; or it is said to be a sophisticated illusion staged to illustrate the seductive lure of sophistic deception.
    [Show full text]
  • Plato's Critique of Injustice in the Gorgias and the Republic
    Plato's critique of injustice in the Gorgias and the Republic Author: Jonathan Frederick Culp Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/972 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2008 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Political Science PLATO’S CRITIQUE OF INJUSTICE IN THE GORGIAS AND THE REPUBLIC a dissertation by JONATHAN FREDERICK CULP submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2008 © Copyright by JONATHAN FREDERICK CULP 2008 Plato’s Critique of Injustice in the Gorgias and the Republic Jonathan Frederick Culp Advisor: Professor Christopher Bruell No rational decision can be made concerning how to live without confronting the problem of justice—both what it is and whether it is good to be just. In this essay I examine Plato’s articulation of these problems in the Gorgias and the Republic. Through detailed analyses of Socrates’ exchanges with several interlocutors, I establish, first, that despite some real and apparent differences, all the interlocutors share the same fundamental conception of justice, which could be called justice as fairness or reciprocal equality (to ison). The core of justice lies in refraining from pleonexia (seeking to benefit oneself at the expense of another). Second, according to this view, the practice of justice is not intrinsically profitable; it is valuable only as a means to the acquisition or enjoyment of other, material goods. This conception thus implies that committing successful injustice is often more profitable than being just.
    [Show full text]