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Lesson 1.9: On the Sacred Road
20 Plays3 months ago
Topics discussed:
- A review of the philosophers covered in Unit I
- A summary of the sociopolitical conditions that gave rise to anti-democratic sentiment
- A brief biography of Plato, up to the period in which he opens his school
For more information, visit theluxuryofvirtue.com.
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Transcript
Recap of Ethical Concepts
00:00:02
Speaker
In this short lesson, what I want to do is a bit of a recap, and I also wanted to give you a little bit of historical context for what's coming in the next unit. So, let's jump right into the recap. I'm going to primarily focus on the ethical concepts of the people that we covered.
00:00:23
Speaker
so I won't get too much into the you know their physics and their epistemology and all that. But I think recapping the ethical implications and lessons that these philosophers give us will really prepare us and really situate the next batch of philosophers for us.
Anaximander and Epistemic Humility
00:00:43
Speaker
So we begin with Anaximander.
00:00:46
Speaker
Anaximander is part of the school of Milesian thought, beginning with Thales, then Anaximander, then Anaximenes. And what we learn from Anaximander, well, it mostly has to do with how it is that we should inquire, right? And I gave a couple of labels to these ideas. The first one was epistemic humility, and the second was epistemic ambition.
00:01:15
Speaker
So epistemic humility, as I'm thinking of it, is basically the idea that we shouldn't think that we know everything right now. We shouldn't think of our system of beliefs as being complete or incapable of improving.
00:01:34
Speaker
we need to think and be realistic here and say, well, there's probably a little bit of room for tidying up and fixing and maybe there's some things that are inconsistent and there's always room to grow a little bit with regards to how accurate our beliefs are. So that is what I'm referring to as epistemic humility. Epistemic ambition, well, I describe that as a bit of a mindset, maybe even a little bit of faith. It's this idea that We are capable of growing, right? Not only is there room for growth, but the belief that you can grow. If you inquire in the right way, if you're looking for opportunities to correct your ideas, then you will actually get hopefully to a better epistemic position.
00:02:23
Speaker
you will learn, you will delete those beliefs of yours that aren't exactly accurate, that could be improved on, and then you'll get more accurate beliefs, right? So there's there's a mindset portion to it as well. Now, this will be very interesting and relevant when we cover some of the next batch of thinkers.
Xenophanes on Belief vs. Knowledge
00:02:43
Speaker
Okay, let's move on here to Xenophanes. If I could put a label on Xenophanes, it would be that he was imploring of us that we are epistemically self-aware. If you recall, he counsels us that we should only claim to know Well, we could actually really know now that it turns out that he had this idea that humans are incapable of knowledge. Knowledge is only for the gods and humans are only capable of belief.
00:03:15
Speaker
Well, the practical implication of that for us, know the ethical implication, is that you know we really shouldn't claim to know things that you know require a justification that we either have not yet had or perhaps we can't have at all.
00:03:35
Speaker
right so Let's start with this latter one because that seems to be maybe the easier one to understand. Xenophanes made fun of Pythagoras for making claims such as that you know he could recognize the voice of a dead friend and a dog, the barking of a dog.
00:03:53
Speaker
Well, the only way you can really know that, right? It's you have to know that reincarnation is true. And I suppose you have to know what your friend's voice would sound like if it were a dog's voice. And but both of those things seem like he hasn't had the requisite experience, right? So if Pythagoras wants to claim that he knows reincarnation is true,
00:04:21
Speaker
That would require some sort of God-like perspective on reality, right? Even if he thinks he remembers a past life, well, how does he distinguish that from delusion?
00:04:37
Speaker
And how does he know that, you know, he's just not deluded into thinking he has a ah past life that he's remembering? Or how does he know that it's everyone that gets reincarnated? Maybe it was just him, right? So he seems to be making a claim here about reincarnation that he can't really justify. And that's why Zenophanes kind of jumps on him and says, this is crazy, you can't be saying these things.
00:05:04
Speaker
Okay, so those are justifications for experiences that maybe humans just simply cannot have. Sometimes we make claims about things that we just haven't yet experienced. And here I'm thinking very, very you know practical everyday things. Sometimes things happen to us, sure, and we think to ourselves, oh no, this will ruin my life.
00:05:31
Speaker
Okay, well, besides being a little dramatic, there's also sort of like a prediction being made there. And the truth is, you don't really know that, right? Maybe in some cases, you can tell fairly easily that this is a really bad thing. But sometimes we say this because, you know, we got one bad grade in one class. Or we say this because we didn't get this, you know, promotion that we wanted to get at work.
00:06:00
Speaker
And although it is inconvenient and undesirable, it is unclear that the rest of your life trajectory is going to go straight down the drain. So we shouldn't make claims like this that we really don't know. We don't know what's going to happen in the future. So maybe you don't say, this is this is it. This is basically going to ruin my life. You can think of quite a few other little claims like this that we make day in, day out that we really don't know with 100% certainty, even with partial certainty. For example, you might say, oh, I'm best suited for this job and not this job.
00:06:37
Speaker
Well, you know, you don't really often know that, right? Psychologists have figured out that the interview process, at least, you know, the way it's been for a long time, is basically useless, right? So even experts can't tell when someone will excel at a job. By the way, that's from the book I mentioned before, Noise, by a couple of different scholars. One of them is Daniel Kahneman.
00:07:06
Speaker
In any case, Xenophanes is just telling us, hey, have a little bit of epistemic self-awareness. When you make claims to knowledge, think about what experience needs to be had to justify those claims. And do you really have it? If not, maybe you shouldn't be making that claim.
Heraclitus and Ethical Understanding
00:07:27
Speaker
Okay, let's switch over here to Heraclitus. I happen to have taken some liberties with my interpretation of Heraclitus, and it's because he's very easy to just kind of interpret in many different ways. So during this recap, please take it with a grain of salt, but here's at least a bit that is not in question. Let's start with that.
00:07:49
Speaker
Heraclitus believed that the soul has some kind of ethical value, right? Some kind of moral value. In other words, it can be in a better or in a worse state. And obviously, you want it to be in a better state, so you should take actions that make it better. Part of the reason why you want it to be in a good state, in a nice healthy state, which he believed was dry, if you recall,
00:08:15
Speaker
It's because it helps you understand the better the state of the soul, the more you can understand reality as it really is.
00:08:26
Speaker
Remember, for him, knowledge is godly, right? If you had true understanding of reality, you can see that everything is in flux. Everything is interrelated. Things are only true from one perspective. That's one way to think about what Heraclitus was saying. He was a bit of a relativist.
00:08:49
Speaker
Another term for it, by the way, which I didn't use in that lesson, but it does get bandied about sometimes, is a view called perspectivalism that is typically associated with a 19th century thinker named Friedrich Nietzsche. But the general idea there is that there are no facts, only interpretations.
00:09:12
Speaker
So what Heraclitus was saying is that there's only a fact of the matter if you have some fixed perspective. That's why he said you can't step into the same river twice. Well, in one sense, you can, right? If you're thinking of it as a label, so from that perspective, you can. But from another perspective, you know, the actual pile of water, you can't step into that thing twice because, well,
00:09:39
Speaker
The first time you stepped into it, it was one batch of molecules, and then you stepped out of it. And during all that, the molecules were moving around. So the second time you step into it, it's not the same batch of molecules of water. And so in one sense, you can step into the same river twice, but in another, you can't. So everything must be seen from a particular perspective.
00:10:03
Speaker
In any case, the take-home ethical message for us from Heraclitus is, at least for me, remember, this is the part where you're supposed to take it with a grain of salt, is that you can't really get very good understanding if you don't acknowledge that things have to be looked at from multiple perspectives.
Mind Clarity and Media Consumption
00:10:28
Speaker
Moreover, you can't really have an accurate understanding of reality if you don't take care of your soul. So maybe let's take care of this second point first. The state of your soul matters. Everything that you put into your psyche, into your mind, affects how you see a reality. That goes from substances like alcohol and drugs,
00:10:51
Speaker
to the kind of media that you consume, to the to the way you spend your mental life all day. If you are, for example, this is something I really love to harp on sometimes, but if you spend your time on social media all day, you know, social media algorithms, they're sort of designed to give you what you want all the time. So you're sort of training yourself to be perpetually going from one desire to the next. That's not exactly a good way to think.
00:11:21
Speaker
If you're only going from one pleasing thought to another, that is not conducive to a very critical analysis of reality. So the state of your mind truly matters for your state of understanding.
00:11:36
Speaker
Okay, now let's go back to the first thing. Once we realize that everything is in flux and everything is interrelated, maybe that's an opportunity to realize that if you want true understanding, it must be arrived at through a you know thorough review of multiple perspectives.
00:11:55
Speaker
Let me try to come up with an example here, but how about this? It's probably the case that having very dogmatic political beliefs is not good for really understanding an issue. I mean, that might score you points with your group, right? If you have a very, let's just say you are a liberal and you make all the right liberal talking points,
00:12:22
Speaker
That's wonderful for really showing your tribe that you were a valuable member of that tribe. But is that really understanding? Heraclitus would probably say no. Obviously, he didn't make these kind of comments. We have very little from him. But that seems to be the kind of thing that he's going for.
00:12:42
Speaker
Right? And it's not, obviously, it's not just liberals. It might be the case that, let's just say you are staunchly anti-minority, right? Or you're anti-rich, maybe you're a communist or anarchist or something like that. If you're staunchly anti-anything, that might actually not be a good way to grasp reality as truthfully as possible.
00:13:10
Speaker
Instead, you have to look at the interrelatedness of everything and then maybe take on a couple of perspectives to get a a full comprehensive view on an issue. and And maybe it will never be full, right? But that's that's the general approach that you should take.
Empedocles and Cosmic Ethics
00:13:28
Speaker
Okay, let's jump over to Empedocles. Empedocles has a couple of cool points that are unique to him. He gets credit for being the first person to postulate that some rules, some behavioral rules, moral rules, as you might call them, are universally legislative. What that means is that they apply to everyone at all times.
00:13:54
Speaker
Moreover, Empedocles believes that if you follow these rules, if if you behave well, in other words, well, that should actually lead to positive outcomes. You will actually ascend to a more godly state. So, he grounds his views on morality and ethics.
00:14:15
Speaker
on his views of the cosmos. Remember, he had this idea that there is this force, love, and another anti-force almost, strife, and that the universe goes into these cycles of contraction and expansion. you know Kind of like the Big Bang, Big Crunch, not really, but maybe that's a you know a nice little reminder of what the view is roughly like.
00:14:41
Speaker
And what that allows him to do is provide a rationale for good behavior. By behaving well, you can basically guarantee that you'll come back, also believes in reincarnation, by the way, come back in a better condition, in a better state, at a better time, maybe is another way to put it.
00:15:00
Speaker
One of the things that we learn from Empedocles, or that at least I'm inferring from Empedocles, besides, of course, that there are some rules that always ought to be followed and that behaving well is good for you, is the idea of grounding your ethics in a science. He you know grounded it in his physics. But today, we might ground it in biology or human psychology.
00:15:27
Speaker
For example, if you want to do human psychology, it just turns out that being good, being helpful, being cooperative is good for you. Pro-social actions simply have benefits for the group and psychological benefits for you. So that's why you should behave well. It's actually, it just feels good to behave well.
00:15:48
Speaker
And by the way, behaving poorly, being antisocial, well, that leads to negative repercussions, psychological ones as well as legal ones, and those don't feel as good. So there's a rationale for behaving well.
Protagoras on Epistemic Peers
00:16:05
Speaker
Okay, let's jump now into the Sophists. I was really, really fascinated when I did my deep dive into Sophism. There was more there than I remembered from my earlier studies of ancient Greek philosophy. um Let's begin with Protagoras. He's sort of the main sophist we covered. And what Protagoras is doing is he's counseling us on how it is we should deal with disagreement among epistemic peers, and also telling us that in some domains, maybe we are all epistemic peers.
00:16:42
Speaker
So these are his two points. Let me remind you first what an epistemic peer is. An epistemic peer is someone who knows roughly what you know in a particular domain. So, for example, let's just say that you watch the entirety of the show Game of Thrones, and so did I, and someone were to ask us questions about the Game of Thrones series.
00:17:06
Speaker
Well, you know, we're probably epistemic peers there. We've watched the show, let's just say it was equally recently, so it's relatively fresh in our minds. There we are epistemic peers.
00:17:17
Speaker
But we're not always epistemic peers, right? Maybe you know a lot about cars and I don't. And so in the domain of, you know, mechanics, I am not your epistemic peer. You are clearly epistemically superior to me in that regard. So that's what an epistemic peer is or isn't, I suppose.
00:17:38
Speaker
And so what Protagoras is telling us is that in the first place, if there's disagreement between epistemic peers, well, you know, it's not clear that you should immediately decide, well, one of them must be wrong. He's suggesting something different. He's saying, well, there might be truth in both positions, right? So don't immediately think I have to be right if you disagree with an epistemic peer.
00:18:07
Speaker
you should be more epistemically self-aware and say, well, maybe we're both a little bit right. Now, this is different from what other philosophers would say. You know, the skeptics are going to come in pretty soon. And they will say, well, neither one of you is right. Everyone has false views, right? Knowledge is impossible. Protagoras is saying something different. You know, it's it's probably the case that there's a little bit of truth in both positions. And that's because some domains are just really complex. There's a lot of moving parts. And so maybe there's a lot to the answer.
00:18:43
Speaker
The second point that Protagoras is making is that some domains are so complicated that we're actually all epistemic peers. So maybe an example of this might be politics or economics, right?
00:18:58
Speaker
Sometimes people like to pretend that they have all the answers, but it really is more complicated than that. And so it might be the case that different types of people have different types of insights into what's right and what's wrong with the way that, you know, government is working. And so in these really complex domains,
00:19:22
Speaker
Maybe the right thing to do is to look at all sides of an issue. So maybe an example of this is when you're trying to understand some geopolitical conflict, write some war that's going on, and there's unfortunately too much of that going on. But if you want to really understand it,
00:19:40
Speaker
You know, maybe the liberals will say, this is the reason for this and here's the solution. Maybe the conservatives will say, you know, this is the real reason for it and here's a better solution. Well, maybe look at both sides and kind of really flesh both sides out. And while you're at it, maybe you should also look at, you know, the actual two sides that are fighting. Look at those two sides and then maybe get the perspective of a historian.
00:20:07
Speaker
and then get the perspective of an economist and a sociologist, right? Different fields looking at a problem, different sides of an issue, different political perspectives, all of the above is basically what Protagoras might be suggesting.
00:20:22
Speaker
And again, the point isn't that the truth is in the middle somewhere. Rather, it's a subtle difference, right? There might be some truth in all the views, right? Some issues are just way more complicated than we give them you know credit for.
00:20:41
Speaker
The next sophist to cover is Gorgias. Gorgias, much like Protagoras, he wanted us to not immediately give in to our automatic judgments about other people.
00:20:55
Speaker
In the example that I discussed in the lesson, it had to do with Helen of Troy and how people sort of intuitively assigned blame to her for the war that happened because she went off with a Trojan prince.
Gorgias and External Influences
00:21:09
Speaker
And he says, well, hold on, sometimes things are done to us and more often than not,
00:21:15
Speaker
Our actions, they're sort of rooted in external forces, right? Maybe the gods influenced us in a certain way. And in that case, well, you don't want to you know really give full responsibility to the person for their actions.
00:21:29
Speaker
But what about other external forces? What about the environment we find ourselves in? What about if we just heard a very persuasive speech? What about if we are, you know, just struck by someone's beauty and we are sort of enraptured and, and you know, they've captured our attention and we don't even know our name anymore and so we just kind of do whatever they say.
00:21:53
Speaker
Now, these are all external forces that we might not have the defenses for, right? We haven't built up the appropriate line of repelling these external forces, and so we just go with them.
00:22:07
Speaker
Are we really not responsible in these cases? Do we have full responsibility? Now, Gorgias, being a selfish, doesn't really give you an answer either way, but he goes over the, you know, these are called psychodynamics, what's going on in the mind. And it's very interesting because it at least ought to give us pause about how it is that we automatically judge people.
00:22:31
Speaker
there is a relevant psychological phenomenon that is ah worthy of mention here. It's called the fundamental attribution error. And what that basically is, is that we fail to see how the environment influences the behavior of some people. And instead, we attribute it to some kind of character trait, right? So let me give you an example.
00:22:54
Speaker
I just say you're getting to know someone. This is maybe your first or second interaction with them and they do something very, very rude. Well, given that you don't have a whole lot to go on, you have a sort of natural bias to say, well, you know, that must be what they're like.
00:23:13
Speaker
But notice it could be the case that they were just having a really rough morning or that they had a loss in their family recently, right? Something traumatic to happen to them recently. And they're just a little bit short on patience right now.
00:23:28
Speaker
Or maybe it's the case that they had to skip breakfast, right? Because something happened and they had to leave, right? Their house is being remodeled. They don't have a kitchen, whatever. And so really, the reason for their curtness might have been that, you know, it's just a situation. But instead, we decided, you know what? They must be unkind. They're just a rude person. That's the fundamental attribution error. We think this behavior of theirs, it's not the situation, it's them.
00:23:57
Speaker
And so that's what gorgeous is telling us to not do. Look at the situation, man. Sometimes it just is the case that that's the probable source of the behavior, not who they are fundamentally as a person.
00:24:13
Speaker
Productus is the next surface we will cover, and I'll be fairly brief here. What he wanted was some kind of, you know, linguistic granularity. He wanted us to have a better vocabulary so that we can better describe our own mental states.
00:24:31
Speaker
And of course, those of others, right? If you have a better vocabulary and are more careful with your language, then you will be better able to describe the situation objectively, right? Without exaggeration, you won't blow things out of proportion. And that will get you closer to understanding, right? So instead of saying, Ronald is a bad friend,
00:24:55
Speaker
You could say, well, you know, being more precise, Ronald failed to keep one promise one time to Stacy. Do you see the difference there? In one of them, you just make a blanket general statement, he's a bad friend. And in the other, you are more granular. Well, it was one time and it was a failure to keep a promise and it was just to this person. So, you know, maybe he's not as great of a friend to that person as I thought he was, but that doesn't mean he's a bad friend in general, right? So just be a little more precise and that will help you put things into perspective.
Democritus on Happiness and Luck
00:26:02
Speaker
Now we move on to Democritus. Democritus was the atomist and he based all his ethical views on the philosophy of atomism, right his views on physics. The main takeaways are that we should moderate our desires We shouldn't want to be, you know, necessarily rich and have lots of friends and always get whatever we want and, you know, tack on whatever you want here. Maybe we should strive to be happy with a simple life because so much in this world is not up to us. It's just a matter of luck.
00:26:44
Speaker
So if we could just instead sort of, you know, moderate our desires so that I'm happy if I just get to have dinner with my wife, right? Or husband, right? Be happy if you just get the opportunity to be a good friend today. Be happy if you just get the opportunity to do your job well. You know, just these simple desires, that should be your route to peace of mind. That's what he thought thriving was.
00:27:13
Speaker
So that's one thing that we get from Democritus. We also talked quite a bit about the role of luck, which I've already mentioned. That's very important in understanding Democritus' views. And here's a third point which ties in with his political theory. By acknowledging that luck plays such a massive role in either our success or our failure,
00:27:37
Speaker
That should give us you know empathy and and motivate altruistic actions in us towards other people, those that are in need in particular. And so by doing helpful cooperative actions, good actions for others, that's how we can improve society. And by the way, if we improve society, that will ultimately, indirectly help us.
00:28:01
Speaker
So not only will moderating our desires and acknowledging the role of luck make us happier, but it will allow us to be good to others, which makes society better, which again also makes us happy. So it's a whole system, like ah a virtuous cycle of goodness that Democritus is going for.
Socrates' Dialectic Challenge
00:28:24
Speaker
Okay, let's switch over now to Socrates. Socrates is unique in some ways, but in other ways, he exhibits ethical views that we've actually seen before. For example, one view that we saw in Xenophanes was that we should call out those that are epistemically arrogant, right? They're making claims that there's no way they can actually justify him.
00:28:48
Speaker
Socrates very famously would be out in the marketplace calling people out. But let's talk about something that's more unique to Socrates. I'm going to try to put it here in a nutshell. Recall that Socrates believes that for us just regular humans What we think is good for us is not always what is actually good for us, right? And so the problem there is that we have false beliefs. We always do whatever we think will be best for us, but because of our false beliefs, we end up doing things that are actually bad for us.
00:29:23
Speaker
So the solution, obviously, is to change our beliefs. And to change them, you first have to challenge them. And the way to do that is with philosophy, right? Through this dialectical process, question, and answer, you can come to realize that some of your views just, you know, don't survive critical analysis. And so that is how you challenge these false beliefs. But Dialectical philosophy is very difficult and that requires a lot of self-control, controlling your emotions. And so you also have to develop that capacity, the ability to allow yourself to be governed only by reason and to have your emotions sort of you know corralled. right
00:30:12
Speaker
Through that process, that's how you get rid of your false beliefs, and hopefully, right, the idea is gain wisdom, gain some accurate beliefs. Socrates, of course, is a massive deal in the history of Western thought, and I will have more to say about him in the second half of this lesson in just a bit.
00:30:37
Speaker
Xenophon was Socrates' student, and he is the one that really sort of emphasized self-mastery and self-control. We already got this idea from Socrates. Xenophon wrote extensively on that topic.
00:30:53
Speaker
Moreover, he also wrote extensively on leadership. He basically thought the same kinds of skills that got you to be happy, to thrive, are the ones that made you a good leader, right? So, leadership is important in Xenophon's overall system. But also, the way to get self-mastery is through a role model. So in other words, we all need self-control role models, according to Xenophon.
00:31:25
Speaker
In addition to having a good guide in this, you know, quest for self-control, you also need to test yourself. You need to challenge yourself because self mastery is like a skill. It's like, you know, a muscle, it's like strength. So you have to work out regularly and consistently and intelligently, right? He thought certain activities are conducive to developing this self-control.
00:31:53
Speaker
In particular, he thought hunting was a good one. Now, if you're not into hunting, that's totally okay. um Plenty of things require self-control. One example of this might be exercise. Exercise, for me, you know, is the whole lifestyle, right? It's not only the workout, but also eating right, also sleeping right. And all these things require quite a bit of effort.
00:32:17
Speaker
You need to, you know, get the right foods that match your nutritional needs. You need to set up a sleep schedule, right, with good sleep hygiene. No screens after seven o'clock, right? Make sure that your room is nice and cool and quiet and also there's no light anywhere.
00:32:35
Speaker
that will get you the best amount of sleep. And if you cook all your own food, that will be a way to ensure that you get all of the nutrients that you need. And if you do the right workouts designed just for you, right, this is actually a lot of work and it takes a ton of self-control. So if you want to take Xenophon's advice to heart, maybe a good workout regimen is the way to get that. Or, you know, take up hunting, whatever you want to, whichever one sounds ah better for you.
00:33:07
Speaker
Okay, the last lesson, the last full lesson of Unit 1 was on the Pythagorean Brotherhood and Architas. Now, the main takeaways here are that freedom and happiness are not to be pursued in a vacuum.
00:33:27
Speaker
they are actually contingent upon the community that you live in, your environment. In particular, you want to live in a just and proportionate community. Architists made a big deal about proportionality, and I had that controversial example where maybe we should pay people according to the social worth of their employment type.
00:33:53
Speaker
an architect famously said that, or maybe infamously said that once you show people that this is actually what the value of your employment type is, well, then that's that's, you know, they'll be happy. they'll They'll be happy with whatever you give them, right? The mathematics will reveal to people the true worth of their labor and they'll say, okay, well, then I'll accept what you give me.
00:34:18
Speaker
very controversial claims here, but maybe not necessarily wrong, right? Just difficult to achieve. Maybe that might be one way to look at this. In any case, the take home message for us is that environment matters.
00:34:33
Speaker
So you want to design your environment, your room for optimal sleep, right your bedroom for optimal sleep, your workspace for you know peak focus and getting the most productivity out of your time in there.
00:34:52
Speaker
your kitchen for the most nutritional content, right? Not too many needless snacks, et cetera. You want to basically design your niche for the better because your environment is a key feature that will enable you to thrive.
Socrates' Execution Context
00:35:40
Speaker
Let's move on now to the historical context for understanding the philosophers from Unit 2. What I want to talk about is Socrates' execution, in particular, maybe the reasons for why Socrates was executed, why he was persecuted. So recall that the execution took place in 399 BCE,
00:36:06
Speaker
And officially, the charge was twofold. It was impiety and corrupting the youth. Now, maybe on one way of looking at things, he was a little impious. It is unclear how he was corrupting the youth, however. So most scholars agree that the real reasons were more so political than what the official charges are.
00:36:31
Speaker
and so I want to give you some of that background so you can understand some of the views that we will cover next, including, for example, Plato and Aristotle, who were very much influenced by this what seems like you know an unjust execution of someone who, at least in his own mind, was trying to help out his city.
00:36:52
Speaker
So the first point that we will discuss has to do with what is Socrates' is a perceived association with oligarchs. So recall that he was executed during a period of democracy But prior to this point, there had been other forms of political organization going on in Athens. For example, there was a period of oligarchy. What that means is essentially the economic elite took over for a little bit. Let me give you that context first. So the Peloponnesian War had been raging on for decades. Athenian democracy was tearing apart at the seams.
00:37:35
Speaker
To make things worse, by the way, i I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but the Achaemenid Persian Empire, right the Persians, they late in the war in the 410s joined the war on the Spartan side. So things were looking really bad for Athens. And by the way, besides all this, the oligarchs, right the elite of Athens, they were paying the bill for the war. Their taxes on them were funding the war effort.
00:38:04
Speaker
So, at a certain point, specifically in 411 BCE, e a group of oligarchs just staged a coup d'etat. They just took over, basically. And, well, this was in part ah instigated by a man named Alcibiades. And wouldn't you know it, Alcibiades was a former student of Socrates. In fact,
00:38:31
Speaker
there may have even been some romantic attachments. This is so obvious to the people of the time that in Plato's dialogues, he actually attempts to exonerate Socrates. He says, you know, Socrates only took on Asabaidis as a student because he thought he could make him better, right? Socrates thought he could make Asabaidis be a better person. That's why he did it.
00:39:00
Speaker
He wasn't teaching him how to be an oligarch and to eventually you know overthrow Athenian democracy. That wasn't at all his goal. He was trying to stop that kind of thing. But of course, even though the oligarchic period in Athens was very short-lived, people wouldn't forget that. right People would forget that one of Socrates' former students instigated that whole thing. There was also a period of tyranny in Athens.
00:39:30
Speaker
So the Peloponnesian war ends in 404 BCE. Athens, of course, loses. By the way, Asebiades is assassinated by Persian forces. And so now the Spartans get to impose on Athens basically whatever they want. The Athenians were worried that they were gonna all get put to death, but that is not what the Spartans do. Instead, they impose tyrants to govern the city.
00:39:59
Speaker
These are typically called the 30 tyrants, or sometimes just the 30, and they will rule Athens with an iron fist. At a certain point, by the way, things got really, really ugly. They were fairly low on funds, the 30 were, and so they began to persecute the wealthy, and then appropriating all their money.
00:40:25
Speaker
And that's how they would you know pay for things. right There is also a fairly widespread persecution of anyone who didn't agree with them, right dissidents. Oh, and by the way, the leader of the 30 was Kritias, which was another former student of Socrates.
00:40:45
Speaker
Now, it's actually not surprising that elite men who would eventually go on and, you know, take up political office would be the students of very famous teachers. We see that also with Plato and with Aristotle. I mean, Aristotle was a tutor to Alexander the Great. So we have to kind of put all this into perspective. But at the time, you know, think about the Athenians.
00:41:12
Speaker
once democracy was restored, they kind of had it out for Socrates. He looked to be associated with too many people they just didn't like. I'll give you one more reason that might explain why Socrates was targeted. And it has to do with religion. So let me back up a little bit. And I'm getting this, by the way, from Donald Kagan, who has a book on the Peloponnesian War.
00:41:41
Speaker
And here's what Kagan says, you know as the war dragged on and and things were looking worse for Athenians, some of them reverted to superstition, right? Instead of you know thinking rationally about how it is that they can improve their strategies and win the war, or maybe sue for peace or something, they got more religious. And I'll give you an example of how this is, you know it seems to be fairly unreasonable.
00:42:09
Speaker
So they had very little of money left, but what little money they had, they spent it on finishing, you know, kind of a rebuild, a refurbishing of the temple to Athena. Well, that doesn't really have any war-winning power. You know, it would have been better spending that money on the defenses, but they didn't. You know, so that seems a little bit irrational. That's why Kagan calls it a reversion to superstition.
00:42:39
Speaker
And so as the Athenians were becoming more religious, not less, here comes Socrates. And very famously, he would say that he felt that what he was doing, you know, calling people out in the marketplace, that was a divine calling. He felt that the gods wanted him to do that. He had a divine sign, in other words.
00:43:03
Speaker
Well, this was very likely seen as very unorthodox to most Athenians, who by the way, had recently become even more religious.
00:43:14
Speaker
Oh, and by the way, I just mentioned this, but he would you know publicly embarrass important figures. We talked about that during the lesson on Socrates. Using his olyncus, he would basically show people who claimed to know what they were talking about that they really didn't know what they were talking about. That obviously didn't ingratiate him with the people that would gain political power after the war.
00:43:41
Speaker
And so those are some of the reasons why Socrates was persecuted. And this also explains why in Unit 2, we're going to cover some people that have some really anti-democratic views. And the explanation is that they had seen the excesses of democracy.
00:44:03
Speaker
they could see that sometimes the masses were swayed by, as they perceive it, emotion. And so they thought the solution was to rein in the emotions, to conquer your passions and let reason alone be your guide. That's why it's so important to try to understand this context.
00:44:27
Speaker
Now, in particular, this will help us understand the views of one philosopher named Plato.
Plato's Philosophical Evolution
00:44:36
Speaker
Plato, of course, is the most famous student of Socrates, by the way, he very likely met Socrates through his older brothers, Adamantus and in Glaucon. This is why he gives them a special mention in his masterwork, Republic,
00:44:55
Speaker
In any case, let me give you a few biographical details on Plato to kind of pave the way literally to his thought in the next lesson. He was likely born in 423 BCE.
00:45:10
Speaker
which means he was about 24 years old when Socrates was executed. He was too young to fight officially in the Peloponnesian War, but he probably did engage in some military training and maybe he served in the Corinthian War.
00:45:29
Speaker
The Corinthian War, by the way, was a war that happened about a decade after the Peloponnesian War ended. And this is because a group of allies decided that Sparta was just too powerful, right? They had won the Peloponnesian War. They were the hegemons of the area.
00:45:47
Speaker
But that didn't sit well with a lot of the city-states in Greece. And so they became allies and fought Sparta. And Sparta won again, right? So it was in this war, very likely, that Plato fought. And so there you have two major wars that Athens lost. So what does Plato see during his lifetime? He just sees his beloved city go from wealthy and powerful to destitute. right It was probably very unnerving and even scary to live in Athens as they were losing you know a major war. As I said earlier, Athenians thought that the Spartans were going to put them all to death. By the way, during these two wars, Plato also witnessed the excesses of democracy. right There was this irresponsible lust for empire. That's how the whole thing got started.
00:46:47
Speaker
And they turned on major political figures after maybe just one defeat, the person that I mentioned earlier, Asabaidis. You know, the Athenians were all for him when he was winning, and as soon as he lost his first battle, they turned on him, right? And so Plato sees this as... just the fickleness of the people. And so you can see Plato, although maybe he had them all along, his distaste for democracy is growing as he gets older.
00:47:20
Speaker
This was also a time period when values were changing. Earlier on in his life, prudence is wise, right? You shouldn't be rash. You should only make decisions when you have full information and are confident that you will you know be successful.
00:47:37
Speaker
Now people were calling Prudence cowardice, right? Even if you don't have full information, you gotta go in there, right? You gotta get in the fight. too And Plato sees this as a reversion, right? You might call this a return to Homeric values, but Plato is not very smitten with the poets, as we will soon learn. And so he sees this as bad, right? It's okay to be brave, but we shouldn't confuse rashness with bravery.
00:48:07
Speaker
And that's what Plato is seeing in his lifetime. And so based on what he saw, you know it's probably not surprising at all of that he clung on to the idea that maybe we should only let the aristocracy govern, right? We shouldn't let the people that are so easily swayed by their emotions to make important decisions, only the best, the aristocrats, those are the ones that should make the political decisions.
00:48:35
Speaker
He also, it seems, believed in objective moral values. Bravery is bravery and rashness is not bravery, right? So just because you call rashness bravery doesn't make it so. And by the way, he also, probably because of his experiences, seems to have been fascinated his entire life by utopian thought experiments. What would a perfect city look like?
00:49:05
Speaker
Can we make society optimal? One more biographical detail here that will really help us understand Plato. He was rich. He was part of the 1%. In fact, we know this because at one point he was called on to pay some sort of wealth tax. So basically, the Athenians would have festivals, civic festivals and other events, and they would call upon some very rich individual to, you know, flip the bill. And Plato was one of these people that were called upon.
00:49:42
Speaker
So given all that we know from Plato, it is very likely, like all upperclassmen, that he had political aspirations. His original plan was probably to get into politics, but his hopes for a career in Athenian politics were dashed, right? How could he?
00:50:07
Speaker
There's at least two reasons why there was no hope for him in politics. One, some of his former classmates were part of the 30 tyrants. And two, he had a long time friendship with someone that had been executed by the state for impiety and corrupting the youth, right? That's Socrates. So given these connections to people that The Athenians did not find very savory. Plato probably realized that politics was not in the cards for him. And so what does he do? Well, I'm pulling here from Robin Waterfield's biography of Plato. It's called Plato of Athens.
00:50:59
Speaker
And it seems to be the case that at the end of the Corinthian War, remember that's the war that he probably fought in, he travels to southern Italy and other parts of the Mediterranean on research. In other words, he's going to commit wholeheartedly to the study of philosophy and mathematics, I should add.
00:51:26
Speaker
And after some time abroad, including some time with Architas, the Pythagorean that we mentioned in the last lesson, Plato returns to Athens. He finds a piece of land that's either next to or maybe inside of an olive grove. And this olive grove, by the way, has been consecrated to the goddess Athena.
00:51:54
Speaker
There's actually many religious elements to this area. This piece of land that Plato is looking at is also associated with athletic competitions in honor of those that have recently died. And it's also where the Dionysiac processions take place, right, during certain rituals in honor of Dionysus.
00:52:21
Speaker
the initiates of the cult of Dionysus would walk through here as part of their procession. And so for these many reasons, all these religious associations, the path to this place that Plato was looking to buy, it's called the Sacred Road. So now Plato is back in Athens, he purchases this land,
00:52:49
Speaker
and he decides to open up a school. The Academy.