Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Marga Reimer, Plato and Alexander Baumgarten

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5 ideas

20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 1. Intention to Act / b. Types of intention
135 All activity aims at the good [Plato]
     Full Idea: All activity aims at the good.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 499e)
     A reaction: He includes non-conscious activity, so this is the 'teleological' view of nature, which seems a bit optimistic to the modern mind.
20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / a. Will to Act
23316 For Plato and Aristotle there is no will; there is only rational desire for what is seen as good [Plato, by Frede,M]
     Full Idea: Neither Plato nor Aristotle has a notion of the will. …Willing is a form of desire which is specific to reason. If reason perceives something as good, it wills or desires it.
     From: report of Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 577e) by Michael Frede - A Free Will 1
     A reaction: [Frede cites 577e, Aris. 413c8, 1113a15-, 1136b6] How do they explain the apparent decisions of non-rational animals? No modern neuroscientist thinks there is a physical object called a person's 'will'.
20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 2. Acting on Beliefs / a. Acting on beliefs
16 We avoid evil either through a natural aversion, or because we have acquired knowledge [Plato]
     Full Idea: Unless a man is born with a heaven-sent aversion to wrong-doing, or acquires the knowledge to refrain from it, he will never do right of his own free will.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 366c)
     A reaction: This is the territory explored so carefully by Aristotle (after he had read Republic!). It is hard to see what the knowledge could be, other than awareness of consequences.
20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / b. Intellectualism
203 Courage is knowing what should or shouldn't be feared [Plato]
     Full Idea: Knowledge of what is and is not to be feared is courage.
     From: Plato (Protagoras [c.380 BCE], 360d)
1655 If goodness needs true opinion but not knowledge, you can skip the 'examined life' [Vlastos on Plato]
     Full Idea: If true opinion without knowledge does suffice to guide action aright, the great mass of men and women may be spared the pain and hazards of the "examined" life.
     From: comment on Plato (The Apology [c.383 BCE], 38a) by Gregory Vlastos - Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher p.125