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Ideas for 'works (all lost)', 'The Republic' and 'Identity and Spatio-Temporal Continuity'

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4 ideas

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / b. Defining ethics
2141 I suggest that we forget about trying to define goodness itself for the time being [Plato]
     Full Idea: I suggest that we forget about trying to define goodness itself for the time being.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 506e)
     A reaction: This was a source of some humour in the ancient world (in the theatre). Goodness is like some distant glow, which can never be approached in order to learn of its source.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / h. Against ethics
3558 Only the Cyrenaics reject the idea of a final moral end [Aristippus elder, by Annas]
     Full Idea: The Cyrenaics are the most radical ancient moral philosophers, since they are the only school explicitly to reject the importance of achieving an overall final end.
     From: report of Aristippus the elder (fragments/reports [c.395 BCE]) by Julia Annas - The Morality of Happiness 11.1
     A reaction: This looks like dropping out, but it could also be Keats's 'negative capability', of simply participating in existence without needing to do anything about it.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / a. Idealistic ethics
1869 The good cannot be expressed in words, but imprints itself upon the soul [Plato, by Celsus]
     Full Idea: Plato points to the truth about the highest good when he says that it cannot be expressed in words, but rather comes from familiarity - like a flash from the blue, imprinting itself upon the soul.
     From: report of Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE]) by Celsus - On the True Doctrine (Against Christians) VII
     A reaction: It is reasonable to be drawn to something inexpressible, such as an appealing piece of music, but not good philosophy to build a system around something so obscure.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / f. Übermensch
4115 Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society [Williams,B on Plato]
     Full Idea: For Plato, the problem of making the ethical into a force was the problem of making society embody rational justification, and that problem could only have an authoritarian solution.
     From: comment on Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE]) by Bernard Williams - Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy Ch. 2
     A reaction: Plato's citizens were largely illiterate. We can be more carrot and less stick.