Plato's moral theory.
نویسنده
چکیده
Plato's ethics lie at the centre of his philosophy. His approach to 'how best to live' must deal with questions of what there is in the world where we live and how we talk, think or know about it. So to grasp his moral theory we need to understand how it is integrated with the enterprise as a whole. Moreover, since he was a dialectician par excellence we must discover what is his method of doing philosophy with us and how he will enveigle us into philosophical inquiry the answer to these questions may overturn our view of his moral theory. All talk of Plato must take a preliminary tilt at the windmill which of the ideas we encounter in the Platonic dialogues belong to Plato himself, and which must be attributed to his master Socrates? There is no short answer to the academic 'Socratic question'. For now, suffice it to register that there is development from the earlier works, such as the Protagoras (1), to the rich theory of the 'middle period', from the Gorgias (2) to the Symposium (3) and Republic (4). Plato's philosophy is organic, subject to growth and decay; we may look for the flower of his moral theory in the Republic, but must search for its roots in the early period. To know 'how best to live' we must know what is 'best'. In contrast to the subjectivist or the relativist, Plato supposed that evaluative qualities really belong to the object that is valued. Thus we call something 'beautiful' not because we are pleased by it, but because it genuinely has, independent of being appreciated, the quality of beauty (5). Values are natural and objective. From his early days, Plato supposes therefore that what is valuable can be calculated and assessed in a decisive way. Prima facie, I could judge whether x is more pleasant than y just as I do judge that a is bigger than b. All I need (6) is the right measuring skill then, with its help, I can
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Journal of medical ethics
دوره 11 2 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1985