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Ideas for 'Sweet Dreams', 'On the Happy Life' and 'fragments/reports'

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22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / a. Idealistic ethics
13558 The supreme good is harmony of spirit [Seneca]
     Full Idea: The highest good is harmony of spirit.
     From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §08)
     A reaction: This idea is straight from Plato's Republic.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / j. Ethics by convention
6016 Early sophists thought convention improved nature; later they said nature was diminished by it [Protagoras, by Miller,FD]
     Full Idea: Protagoras and Hippias evidently believed that convention was an improvement on nature, whereas later sophists such as Antiphon, Thrasymachus and Callicles seemed to contend that conventional morality was undermined because it was 'against nature'.
     From: report of Protagoras (fragments/reports [c.441 BCE]) by Fred D. Miller jr - Classical Political Thought
     A reaction: This gets to the heart of a much more interesting aspect of the nomos-physis (convention-nature) debate, rather than just a slanging match between relativists and the rest. The debate still goes on, over issues about the free market and intervention.