From Crito to Thrasymachus; Socrates' prison(s) and the Republic


(Note:  presented #0, below the line, last week)

I.  Finish (at least #1) below the line.
II.  Turn to the issue of whose law, whose justice; the is/ought distinction  the descriptive/prescriptive distinction; the importance of critical theories as philosophical challenges and responses.  Give an example of a kind of legal realism applied to philosophy of education.
III.  The task of the philosopher in the Republic (liberation and sovereignty; the question of who's sovereign over whom in the Republic).
IV.  Read a bit (possibly discuss 2 & 3 below)

PHL 101 Notes for 2/12/01; 2/14/01



Crito, Death, Face and the Laws.

1.  Aim of the Laws. Socrates' argument for "obeying" the laws. The problem of civil disobedience; some of the differences between CD, self-justified criminality, and revolution.

0. Socratic paradoxes (virtue is knowledge; no one does evil willingly/knowingly [discuss Acrasia], you can't harm a good person, purpose of punishment). The long view with respect to questions of winning, losing, better, worse, even questions of face [even the 47 Ronin face embarrassment while they prepare to restore their Lord's honor.].

2.  Review why we read this stuff (perhaps these people knew something . . . as discussed in How to Read a Book's discussion of dead teachers.

3.  Different kinds of students, different kinds of readers, some writers' awareness of this. The different levels. (3 kinds of hearers about the Tao, the 4 children in the Hagaddah).
 

Michael Kagan, Le Moyne College
Friday, February 09, 2001



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