Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'The Laws' and 'Advice to a Young Tradesman'

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11 ideas

25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 1. Grounds of equality
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)
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)
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
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it.
     From: Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE])
     A reaction: The epigraph on a David Chalmers website. A wonderful remark, and it should be on the wall of every beginners' philosophy class. However, while it is in the spirit of Aristotle, it appears to be a misattribution with no ancient provenance.
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / b. Education principles
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)
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)
Aristotle said the educated were superior to the uneducated as the living are to the dead [Aristotle, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated; "As much," he said, "as the living are to the dead."
     From: report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 05.1.11
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / c. Teaching
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.
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)