1. (“Enjoy the Silence”, Depeche Mode)

2. Please only use the “play” button to
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animated content & movies

3. Glossary
 BCE : “Before Common Era (cf. BC)
 CE : “Common Era” (cf. AD)
 c. : circa (Latin) for “around [some date or year]”
 cf. : “compare”
 e.g. : exempli gratiā (Latin) for “for example”
 etc. : et cetera (Latin) for “and so forth”
 ≈ : “approximate” or “approximately”
  : “Possible” or “possibility”
  : “Necessary” or “necessity”

4. Agenda
 Plato Background
 Early Platonic Dialogues & Elenchus
 Socrates vs. “Socrates” vs. Plato
 ἔλεγχος (elengkhos, Latinized as elenchus)
 ἀπορία (aporia)
 Euthyphro – Divine Command Theory
 Republic I – Ethical Egoism
 Cf. Middle & Late Platonic Dialogues & Dialectic
 Cf. Rep. VII (539a)
 ≈ first ⅓ Republic II – Social Contract Theory
 Remainder Republic II-IV; VII-IX – Virtue Ethics

5. The safest general characterization of the European
philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of
footnotes to Plato
– Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (1929) 39

6. Aristocles
“the son of Ariston and
Perictione or Petone”.
a.k.a. Plato
• 428/7-348/7 BCE
• Native Athenian; Solon
a claimed maternal
ancestor
• At least two brothers –
Adeimantus and
Glaucon – who are
Socrates’ main
interlocutors in the
Republic.
• Most famous student of
Socrates

7. Aristocles
“the son of Ariston and
Perictione or Petone”.
a.k.a. Plato
• Sister Petone’s
son, Speusippus, inheri
ts leadership of Plato’s
Academy
• Over another, more
famous student of
Plato’s, Aristotle
• His Academy lasted
until Christian emperor
Justinian closed it in
529 CE – after almost
950 years!

9. Socrates
•c. 469 –399 BCBCE
•Notoriously
unhandsome
•Despite contrasting his
philosophy with mere
sophistry, often
associated with them
•No friend of democracy
•Primarily interested in
matters ethical
•Claimed a daemon
guided his actions
toward the right & good
and away from the
wrong & bad

10. Socrates
•Delphic Oracle
proclaimed that “none
was wiser” than he
•Socrates claimed that this
was only because “I know
that I know nothing”
•The above – and his being
a gadfly to the powerful
in general – lead to his
being put to death by
Athens
•Left no written work of
his own (cf. Phaedrus 274
ff. esp. 275d) •Known primarily through his
students, Xenophon & Plato, and
Aristophanes’ satire The Clouds

11. … vs. “Socrates”
 Relationship between Plato & Socrates is … complex
 Especially between Plato and his literary characterization
of Socrates
 In the “early dialogues”
 “Socrates” is both a moral and philosophical hero –
nay saint – who is rarely, if ever, wrong
 But equally rarely does “Socrates” offers anything like
his own account
 Instead he typically only gives negative critiques of
other’s substantive positions
 And, thus, “Socrates” is seen as the gadfly of Athens!

12. Elenchus (ἔλεγχος)
 Philosophical methodology
 Starts by considering something’s essential nature
 “what is it?”
 In the Euthyphro, “it” is piety; in the Republic, justice
 Usually asked of experts
 Presume SOFA (some one form account)
 Proceeds by showing that the various answers fail
 Especially those of the purported experts)
 And usually fail in some interesting, illustrative way
 I.e., show what “it” is not
 Examples of what not to do, of how not to reason/argue

13. Aporia
 (ἀπορία)
 Elentic inquiry ends in an
uncomfortable, embarrassing philosophical
puzzlement and silence
 Experts shown to be (at least) as ignorant as Socrates
 Nevertheless, some kind of progress – early dialogues
do clear away the philosophical underbrush
 Audience now in a position to do real philosophy!

15. Plato’s Middle “Socrates”
 Begins to move beyond elenchus and mere critique
 Gives positive, substantive philosophical views
 Often, via the character of “Socrates”
 Who’s usually still Plato’s mouthpiece
 But not always!
 Sometime interesting, substantive points arise from
other characters – sometime even at the expense of
Socrates!

16. Middle Dialogues
 So, we must be more sensitive to what is going on
 How are the characters interacting?
 Is irony being employed here?
 Is Plato critiquing himself? His former (early)
views?
 Or even his master’s (i.e. Socrates’) views?
 Bear in mind for Book I of his Republic!
 There, I argue that something very interesting
happens between Plato’s “Thrasymachus” and his
“Socrates”

17. Dialectical Method
 Plato’s Republic moves away from elenchus &
towards dialectic
 And its presentation of positive arguments
 Republic I is elentic, ending in aporia
 But, here, aporia not an ending
 It is the “jumping off point” for the rest of the
Republic
 Cf. Rep. VII (539a)
 Explicitly skeptical of elenchus as intellectually
corruptive to young, untrained mind

18. Republic’s Dialectic
 The aporia of Republic I is transformed in ≈ the first
⅓ Republic II into a version of the Social Contract
Theory
 And put into a “dialectic” with the Virtue Ethics of
the remainder of the Republic II-IV; VII-IX

19. Plato’s Later Works
 Unfortunately, we will not study any of Plato’s late
works here
 Character of Socrates continues to change over time
 Plato’s coming philosophically into his own.
 Socrates is now often a minor character
 Rhetorically no better or worse than any of the other
characters (even if still revered and honored).
 No longer Plato’s mouthpiece

20. Plato’s Later Works
 Re-evaluation of his own earlier works
 Sometimes “Socrates” represents Plato’s old view
 “Have we gone too far in the middle works?”
 The answer is less than clear
 Like many middle dialogues, tend to be
sustained, positive arguments that explore Φ topics
in-depth
 Less back-and-forth, less considering of differing
arguments or positions, cf. Republic and Phaedo
 E.g. Timaeus: Socrates is mainly the titular character’s
audience; the Laws, where Socrates is wholly absent!

22. Plato, Euthyphro
• Pay special attention to 9e-11e
Recommended:
• Rachels 4.1, 4.2, 4.4
(“Enjoy the Silence”, Depeche Mode)