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Summary Philosophical Reflection - Year 1
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Summary Philosophical Reflection: period 1 + 2, 2021
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What is the topic of this course?Communication = sharing information via spoken language, written language or another
medium.
Inform, discuss, convince, argue, entertain, form, initiate
Lecture 1. Phaedrus
“They think they know but they don’t know; I don’t know, but I know.” – Socrates
“We start in a form of not knowing, but we end up knowing” – Aristotle
Philosophy got going thanks to the work of Plato; Socrates never wrote, he only spoke with
people on the market place. Socrates was accused of corrupting young people. All his ideas
was experiences by the politicians as corrupting the youth. After his death, people begin to
think about how to keep the memory of Socrates alive, who he was as a person.
When Plato writes, he has an interesting writing style, dialogues. By staging a conversation,
he is already picking one type of communication as preferred. It’s kind of a way to honor
Socrates, he was always engaged in dialogues. In many of Plato’s dialogues, you see that
Socrates is one of the characters that participates. The dialogues of Plato are a way of
keeping memories of Socrates alive. What is interesting, Socrates is depicted as a sophist in
one of his works.
Why was it an insult that Socrates was portrayed as a sophist?
Sophists (sophia = wisdom) = basically teachers, payed to teach, they teached rhetorics.
Sophists worry Socrates, because they say that they can teach in any subject.
However, Socrates thinks no single person can be mastered in any subject. Some are expert
in mathematics, some in biology, some in technology. There is no one who is an expert in
every subject.
Philosophy = desire/longing for wisdom.
Rhetorics = the art of convincing someone. (Aristotle)
You cannot be able to know everything about every subject. Rhetorics should be able to
convince people on a subject in which you’re not knowledgeable. Rhetorics means basically
deceiving your audience.
Be aware of what the audience knows, the mood of the audience, what do they want to
know. If it does not fit your character, the audience will not believe the information.
If you’re debating, your goal is to defend a certain position. You should be able to give good
arguments defending any arbitrary opinion.
Only goal of debating = win the debate
Plato Rhetorics Defending an opinion that might not be your own!
Plato: ‘Isn’t it strange that we defend a position that is not the truth? You should only bring
into play the opinion/statements of which you are convinced.’
Dialogue = listening + responding to others
Examine opinions
, Shifting opinions
Poetry – Homer and the Greek myths
There is a difference between 1) Sophists, 2) Rhetoricians and 3) Poets in the way they
communicate.
Debate ≠ philosophical dialogue (Plato (Socrates))
Rhetorics is about persuading your audience. What is problematic for Plato is that you’re
defending an opinion in a debate, which is maybe not yours. Isn’t is strange that if we’re
interested in the truth that we should offend an opinion that is not your own?
Plato says that we should bring into play our own real opinions. A dialogue is not just a list of
arguments, a dialogue is responding to the other. In your response you try to assess what
the other is saying. You’re shifting opinions. Plato says speaking with each other and using
the art of rhetorics, is only allowed if it’s motivated by our quest to find the truth. Language
is the medium, with which we can try to discover the truth.
Language can be used to deceive. Language does not only mean the truth. Language carries
us away, start arguing.
The danger of untruthfulness in language is much greater in speech than in dialogue.
As soon as a misunderstanding might arise in a dialogue, you can intervene. Dialogue serves
truth better in speech.
Poetry = concerns all kind of literary productions, a myth, a novel, not just poems.
The myths present us with kind of accounts of how the world came to be. These myths have
a certain claim: they tell us about how the world/reality originated. When you speak about
philosophy, philosophy starts by saying goodbye to poetry. We no longer accept the mythical
explanation of the world. There is no reason to be found, they are imaginary.
Homer Poetry; imaginary approaches to reality
If the poets do know something, we have to take them seriously. Plato hinders that by saying
that poets don’t know anything. They have no technical knowledge, no know-how.
Why does Plato not choose this form (speech) for his own philosophy?
There is this small problem: language can be used to deceive us. Language is not only the
medium to attain truth. In our attempt to attain truth, we can be deceived by the truth.
Language sometimes carries us away, in the wrong way. Plato says that that dangers is much
greater in a speech than in a dialogue. As soon as you hear something in a dialogue, you can
immediately ask and prevent misunderstanding. It’s more difficult to deceive each other. A
dialogue serves truth better than a speech. In poetry, it’s even worse, because according to
Socrates, when the poet speaks, he is out of his mind.
‘When the poet speaks, he is out of his mind.’
God (the muses) speaks through the poet.
Enthusiasm = the God is somehow active in you and speaking.
,Logos = word (1) + argument (2)
Our capacity to speak has something to do with the capacity to think.
Logos and the definition of the human being: the animal that possesses/has logos (animal
rationale). Human being is translated in Greek as ‘living being that has logos’.
Without language, you cannot be able to think clearly. At a certain moment, you have to
start writing. While writing, things clear up for us. Speaking and writing clears up. We cannot
separate the mental activity of thinking from the mental activity of writing.
Allegory of the Cave Socrates The difference between being and appearing
Socrates: ‘Won’t someone who is to speak well and nobly have to have in mind the truth
about the subject he is going to discuss?’
Phaedrus: ‘What I have actually heard about this, Socrates, my friend, is that it is not
necessary for the intending orator to learn what is really just, but only what will seem just to
the crowd who will act as judges. Nor again what is really good or noble, but only what will
seem so. For that is what persuasion from, not truth.’
“the likely” Which appears to be true
Opinion of the sophists, not of Socrates!
Socrates cares about the truth, then follows rhetorics.
If you want to be a proper lier, it is better to know the truth.
The sophists’ perspective on rhetorics is cynical.
Here, Plato tries to portray the sophists as false philosophers.
, Lecture 2. Ion
Humans are, by nature, not able to understand the truth.
Allegory of the Cave
There is a certain pressure needed to convince people to recognize the truth, does not go
naturally.
The first thing we see has nothing to do with reality, only superficial reality (= the shadows).
We do not see the true being, only the appearance.
Is it better to be a good person or to appear good? What’s the benefit of being a good
person? Why bother?
Socrates Reinforces being good!
Republic (= a very important dialog in which Plato tries to show an ideal society)
- The care of the soul (Greek = psyche)
- Self-responsibility You should be good, not just appear good.
According to Plato, we have a soul. We could ask the question, and insist, if Plato can give an
argument for his beliefs. Plato cannot really give an argument. The dialog ends with a story;
About a certain man who died at the battlefield, but he comes back to life after a couple of
days. He tells what happened in the period when he was dead. He entered heaven, the place
for souls. The souls there are all judged.
Plato tries to convince us to be truly good.
He does not claim that the story is true, he also does not claim to have found a religion. He
also doesn’t claim that everything he says is true. Amongst all the things we possess, the
most important thing is our soul.
The importance of the care of the soul is at stake in his discussion with the poets as well as
with the sophists.
Ion – Poetry
Phaedrus – Sophists/rhetorics
Plato tends to condemn poetry. Poets should all be banished from the city states (polis).
Very strange, because Plato himself writes in poetry, uses poetic means. The Allegory is
poetry. Distinction between Plato’s stories and the stories he hears from other poets.
Other poets present their stories as being true; Plato does not.
What is the role of the poets in the city states?
Complaint: ‘all poets, starting from Homer, … are not engaged in the truth.’
Homer is the most important poet, it is a part of being a Greek to read Homer.
A human being has capacity:
- Reason
- Emotions Act on impulse
- Bodily desires
Hierarchy, although human souls need all three of them.
In the economy of our soul, reason should be in charge and should rule over emotions and
desires. (= Household of the souls)
Philosophy addresses reason, not emotions or bodily desires.
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