Combining Philosophers

Ideas for H.Putnam/P.Oppenheim, Stephen Boulter and Plato

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these philosophers

display all the ideas for this combination of philosophers


19 ideas

25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 1. Grounds of equality
Men and women should qualify equally for honours on merit [Plato]
     Full Idea: Men and women who have shown conspicuous merit should qualify for all honours without distinction of sex.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 802a)
Do most people like equality because they are second-rate? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: It's because most people are second-rate that they are happy for things to be distributed equally.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 483c)
Friendship is impossible between master and slave, even if they are made equal [Plato]
     Full Idea: Even if you proclaim that a master and a slave shall have equal status, friendship between them is inherently impossible.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 757a)
25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 4. Economic equality
Does nature imply that it is right for better people to have greater benefits? [Plato]
     Full Idea: Callicles: We only have to look at nature to find evidence that it is right for better to have a greater share than worse.
     From: Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 483d)
25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 1. Basis of Rights
Sound laws achieve the happiness of those who observe them [Plato]
     Full Idea: Sound laws achieve the happiness of those who observe them.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 631b)
25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 1. Basis of justice
Justice is granting the equality which unequals deserve [Plato]
     Full Idea: Justice consists of granting the 'equality' which unequals deserve to get.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 757d)
     A reaction: Beautifully simple, and hard to improve on. It shows the close link between equality and justice, but shows why they are not the same. The main debate about justice concerns the criteria for 'deserving'.
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / a. Aims of education
Intelligence is the result of rational teaching; true opinion can result from irrational persuasion [Plato]
     Full Idea: Intelligence is produced by teaching, involves truth and reason, and cannot be moved; true opinion involves persuasion, is irrational and can be moved.
     From: Plato (Timaeus [c.349 BCE], 51e)
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / b. Education principles
Dialectic is the highest and most important part of the curriculum [Plato]
     Full Idea: Dialectic occupies the highest position and forms, as it were, the copestone of the curriculum.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 534e)
Mathematics has the widest application of any subject on the curriculum [Plato]
     Full Idea: For domestic and public purposes, and all professional skills, no branch of a child's education has as big a range of applications as mathematics.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 747a)
Bad governments prevent discussion, and discourage the study of virtue [Plato]
     Full Idea: Under a bad government discussion, both public and private, is bad, and no courses of study are available to cure faults of character.
     From: Plato (Timaeus [c.349 BCE], 87b)
Children's games should channel their pleasures into adult activity [Plato]
     Full Idea: We should use children's games to channel their pleasures and desires towards activities in which they will have to engage when they are adult.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 643c)
Control of education is the key office of state, and should go to the best citizen [Plato]
     Full Idea: The Minister of Education is by far the most important of all the supreme offices of the state; the best all-round citizen in the state should be appointed.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 765e)
To gain knowledge, turn away from the world of change, and focus on true goodness [Plato]
     Full Idea: To gain knowledge we must turn the mind away from the world of becoming, until it becomes capable of bearing the sight of real being and reality at its most bright, which we are saying is goodness.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 518c)
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / c. Teaching
The best way to educate the young is not to rebuke them, but to set a good example [Plato]
     Full Idea: The best way to educate the younger generation (as well as yourself) is not to rebuke them but patently to practise all your life what you preach to others.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 729c)
Only a great person can understand the essence of things, and an even greater person can teach it [Plato]
     Full Idea: Only a man of very great natural gifts will be able to understand that everything has a class and absolute essence, and an even more wonderful man can teach this.
     From: Plato (Parmenides [c.364 BCE], 135a)
Compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind [Plato]
     Full Idea: Compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 536e)
Didactic education is hard work and achieves little [Plato]
     Full Idea: With a lot of effort the admonitory species of education accomplishes little.
     From: Plato (The Sophist [c.359 BCE], 230a)
Education is channelling a child's feelings into the right course before it understands why [Plato]
     Full Idea: I call 'education' the initial acquisition of virtue by the child, when the feelings of pleasure and affection, pain and hatred, are channelled in the right courses before he can understand the reason why.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 653b)
     A reaction: A precursor of Aristotle's view (Ethics 1104b11). A profound, simple and important insight.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 5. Sexual Morality
While sex is very pleasant, it should be in secret, as it looks contemptible [Plato]
     Full Idea: As for sex, everyone agrees that, while it is extremely pleasant, it should be indulged in (if at all) in secret, because it is a highly contemptible sight.
     From: Plato (Hippias Major [c.392 BCE], 299a)