Of Science and Civic Character: A Study of Plato, Bacon and Hobbes By Graham R. Howell A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Department of Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario Canada © Graham R. 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Canada Abstract This dissertation explores the relationship between science and the pursuit of knowledge on the one hand and civic character and virtue on the other, through a comparison of the Platonic critique of the sophists in Plato's Protagoras to Francis Bacon's and Thomas Hobbes' rejection of ancient science founded on Greek philosophy. The first part of the dissertation is an exegesis of Plato's Protagoras which argues that the Protagoras is extended meditation on the grounds for a public teaching of politics which promotes genuine civic virtue and checks political hubris. Though the discussion in the dialogue ends with a highly unsatisfactory doctrine in the hedonistic calculus, it points to the need for the discussions in a surprising number of dialogues, including the Apology, Gorgias, Phaedrus, Symposium, Republic and Laws among others. I argue accordingly that the Protagoras should be considered among the most central of Plato's political dialogues. The second part of the dissertation examines Sir Francis Bacon's refutation of ancient science, grounded on Greek science and aims to show that his refutation is meant to ground a new active science, while leaving space for traditional architectonic political philosophy. This argument is made by showing that Bacon meets at least part of the Platonic critique of the sophists, but on different grounds than Platonic philosophy. The final part of the dissertation examines the work of Thomas Hobbes to show that Hobbes argues from the basis of the Baconian rejection of Greek philosophy to establish his Leviathan on some of the same grounds from which Protagoras' argued. The dissertation as a whole aims to add to the debates around the meaning of both modern natural science and democratic politics in the post-modern context. It argues that by reading the early moderns as careful readers of the ancients we become aware of the limits of the modern project and therefore become better, more self-conscious moderns. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Carleton University, the Carleton University Political Science Department and the Ontario Gradate Scholarship for their generous support during the writing of this dissertation. I would also like thank my supervisor, Waller R. Newell, for his guidance, insight and friendship. Most of all I would like to thank Nubia for her unwavering support and encouragement. iii Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 PLATO'S PROTAGORAS: PROMETHEAN INTELLECTS AND POLITICAL HUBRIS 4 2.1 INTRODUCTION 4 2.2 THE TRIPLE PREFACE 14 2.3 PROTAGORAS'GREAT SPEECH 35 2.4 SOCRATES' SOCRATIC RESPONSE 76 2.5 CRISIS 334c-338E 95 2.6 SLMONIDES AND PLTTACUS: SOCRATES' SOPHISTIC RESPONSE 105 2.7 SOCRATES'SECOND SOCRATIC RESPONSE 131 2.8 SOCRATES' COMMON ARGUMENT WITH PROTAGORAS, PRODICUS AND HIPPIAS 148 2.9 CONCLUSION 164 3 FRANCIS BACON AND THE RE-FOUNDING OF THE REGIME OF THE SCIENCES 184 3.1 INTRODUCTION 184 3.2 F. BACON AND THE PHILOSOPHIC TRADITION 189 3.3 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AS SOPHISTRY 195 3.4 THE SCIENTIFIC CHARACTER 206 3.5 SCIENCE AS POPULAR POLITY 215 3.6 CONCLUSION: INTERPRETATION AND CULTIVATION 224 4 THOMAS HOBBES' PUBLIC POLITICAL SCIENCE 231 4.1 INTRODUCTION 231 4.2 HOBBES'S HISTORY OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: DE CIVE 232 4.3 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY IN LEVIATHAN 239 4.4 'KING OVER ALL THE SONS OF PRIDE' 244 4.5 CONCLUSION: HOBBES AND PROTAGORAS: MEN OF MOTION 260 5 REVIEW & CONCLUSION 268 BIBLIOGRAPHY 279 iv Table of Appendices APPENDIX 1: DRAMATIC PERSONAE 280 APPENDIX 2: CHARACTERS OF THE PROTAGORAS IN OTHER PLATONIC DIALOGUES 281 v 1 1 Introduction At the most abstract level this dissertation aims to explore the relationship between philosophy and politics, through a study of Plato, Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes. In particular, it aims to understand what the philosophic tradition teaches about what can be done to improve politics with philosophy. It is by no means obvious that this is even possible; in fact, it is possible that philosophy corrupts politics. It is generally accepted that it is not philosophy, but sophistry which corrupts politics. However, it is not easy to separate philosophy from sophistry. On the surface their activities look very similar; this is to say that the many cannot distinguish sophistry from philosophy; they see only professors of knowledge.1 If the many see only professors and they are not all philosophers, by what ground are we assured that professors have a positive influence on 1 See Jacob Klein, Plato's Trilogy: Theaetetus, the Sophist, and the Statesman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), p v. Klein's formulation for the whole movement of the Theaetetus is a movement from a search for a Professor of wisdom which becomes the discovery of the lover of wisdom. 2 politics? Does science reinforce civic character or corrupt it? Some professors, such as Leo Strauss2 and Allan Bloom3 argue that some professors of knowledge, those who genuinely teach a liberal education, do in fact educate their students and make them better citizens. This education is modeled on the view of education outlined in Book Seven of Plato's Republic, which depicts the release and ascent of a man from a cave into the daylight. Sophistic education, which is also depicted in Plato's Republic, amounts to flattery and is corrupting, and is compared to the knowledge that pleases and pains a giant beast. Both accounts are given in the context of Socrates' explanation of why philosophers do not become kings or why kings do not adequately philosophize. The education depicted in the dramatic context of the Republic, which takes place in Cephalus's private home and is the education of Glaucon, Adiemantus and the others, depicts how it is possible for philosophy to improve politics. It improves politics by teaching the youth. This solution was the one which Plato acted on by establishing the academy and is still with us in the form of the university. The other solution, depicted in the Laws, and alluded to in the Protagoras, is that the professors of knowledge only counsel political power in secret, away from the many. Ancient philosophy tends to conclude that a public advocacy of learning is not advisable because of the limitations of the vulgar. Plato's solution, however, is a synthesis of the sophists who openly profess to teach and the Socratic method. A difference between the ancients and the moderns is that the moderns tend to argue for the need for a better understanding of effectual truth. Early English philosophy was 2 Leo Strauss, Liberalism Ancient and Modern (New York: Basic Books, 1968), pp 3-8. 3 The whole of: Allan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988). 3 concerned with the promotion of learning as useful. Natural philosophy to be useful must create works and political philosophy to be useful must create peace. This dissertation aims to explore the relationship between the Platonic critique of sophistry and early English philosophy. The first part of the dissertation takes the form of a commentary on Plato's Protagoras, and the second part, which is an investigation into early English philosophy, takes the form of a study of Francis Bacon's Great Instauration and New Organon and a study of the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, primarily as it is expressed in his Leviathan. 4 2 Plato's Protagoras: Promethean Intellects and Political Hubris 2.1 Introduction The subjects of Protagoras are so varied that it is difficult to see how all the parts come together to form a whole.