(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
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