English Test Oedipus, Poetics, Hellenistic Greece, and The Republic

What is Artistotle trying to do?

define the proper form of tragedy

• he is providing the necessary elements to make a successful tragedy

Tragic Hero definition

a character whose fortune goes from good to bad, not as a result of a wrongdoing, but as the result of some error or fraility (fatal flaw: hubris = excessive pride)

A tragic hero cannot be…

1. A virtuous (good) man who falls into adversity

• this is not tragic - just shocking

2. A bad person who becomes prosperous

• this has no tragic qualities + offends our moral sense

3. An utter villain who is destroyed

• has no tragic qualities - we root for this

What must happen for a more dramatic fall?

the tragic hero must initially be someone of some importance

What emotions are caused by the fall of a tragic hero?

Pity = the punishment is often more harsh than the crime - the punishment exceeds the crime

Fear = any person in the audience could be the next victim - we are all capable of being tragic heroes

Thought = … =

Thought = themes (author’s messages) = Universal truth

What must a work of literature contain for it to be truly effective?

universal truths or universal themes

• school literature is often chosen bc it presents universal truth

What do universal themes apply to?

everyone, everywhere, at every time

What must a theme be stated as?

a sentence (ex. Love conquers all)

Thematic element or thematic subject

a single word that helps to define a theme (ex. death, disease, love, pain)

Example of a theme and not a theme

Theme: love conquers all

Not a theme: love

Why does Aristotle use “poet” and “playwright” interchangably?

playwrites (in the ancient tradition) write in meter (verse)

What is the difference between poets/playwrites and historians?

Poets/playwrites write about what could happen. They are visionaries, psychologists, or philosophers. (they write about what it’s like to be human/human experience)

Historians write about what did happen. They are like journalists or reporters. They get the facts and regurgitate them

What does Aristotle say is the most important part of the play?

Plot. He says that only actions can produce tragedy and, since the plot is made of actions, the plot is the most important

What must be included in order to have a tragic plot?

• Reversal of the Situation

• Recognition

• Scene of Suffering

Reversal of the Situation

an action veers around to its opposite (opposite of what is expected/intended)

• saying congrats to a pregnant person, but it turns out she’s just chubby

Recognition

a change from ignorance to knowledge, usually in the protagonist, but can happen to secondary characters

• hero figures it out

Scene of Suffering

a destructive/painful action such as violent death, wounds, maiming, etc.

• always done OFF STAGE in ancient Greek productions

Unity of Plot

the story must present a single important action (the tragic hero’s downfall) in such a way that no single piece could be removed without ruining the entire story.

Likewise, no irrelevant episodes to the singular issue should be included

When are plots the best?

when tragic events follow cause and effect and do not come upon the audience as a surprise.

The story itself, without the performance, should be enough to evoke pity + fear

What should the audience experience at the end of a tragedy?

catharsis = release of emotions

• audience members should leave the theater feeling exhaused

• (that feeling on december 26)

Spartan Dominance

• Lysander = Spartan general

• Sparta is the dominant power after Peloponessian War

• implements governments of decarchies (ten men) in

numerous city-states (no more 30 tyrants)

• Lysander wants to enslave everyone (big no no bc Greeks enslave other Greeks but Sparta dgaf)

• Thebes + Corinth want Athens to be destroyed

Chaos Throughout Greece

Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Persia all try to kill each other. Macedonians take over Greece

• Hellenes are like “ugh god you poser barbarians you aren’t even Greek - we think ur old fashioned bc you like heredity monarchy, polygamy (multiple wives), and palace culture”

Athenian Life

• Athens restores their democracy. Citizens fight back against the oligarchy.

• No one pays into the Delian League → Athens is poor

• Athenians love New Comdey/situational comedy/basically sitcoms written by Menander and nude women sculptures

• political orators are respected

Philip of Macedon

• held “hostage” in Thebes (bro got treated as a prince + educated")

• becomes King of Macedon

• Thebes asks Philip for military aid. “ok bet AND I’ll help to get rid of Spartan army

Demosthenes

• #1 Philip hater. “philip is a person of no account. he is barbaric and is as dangerous as the King of Persia

• EVERY speech over 11yrs attacks Philip

• (don’t you forget reprise reprise)

Freedom’s Last Chance

• Philip breaks his alliance with Thebes

• Thebes allies itself with Athens

• Philip defeats the Theban-Athenian alliance, making him master of Greece.

• Philip creates the League of Corinth = everyone is forced to join. It states that the Greek city states are not to go to war w/ each other

• sets up loyal monarchs in city-states; invades Persian

  Empire

Alexander the Great

• one of Philip’s bodyguards assassinates Philip at his daughter’s wedding

• his son Alexander takes his kingdom; executes challengers (Persia)

• Alexander possesses a Classical Greek Education; Aristotle was his tutor

• pushes further East to India

• establishes a billion new cities named after himself, his horse, and his dog

• all the newly conquered ppl go into Alexander’s army - the ppl don’t care they are being conquered

• destroys Thebes and the Persia’s capital: Persepolis

• rich

• dies at 32 - has a billion accomplishments

• considered the most famous Greek ever (even tho he wasn’t even Greek)

• model for later Romans

• The Roman Way → you take something and claim it

Alexander’s Influence

• improved ppls lives w/ new methods of farming (gave struggling ppl an easier way to live)

• ppl become more Hellenic - Greek culture (athletic games, theatre) spread far and wide - libraries, museums

• more ppl are “civilized”

Alexandria, Egypt

• Alexander dies → Egypt is ruled by Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals

• becomes a center for Greek culture (not Athens anymore rip)

• produces many inventive scientists and mathematicians

• Library of Alexandira - has thousands of scrolls (basically books) which is important bc in this time period, info/education is scarce. Romans were told to not burn it down. They did

Who is the main speaker of Plato’s Republic?

Socrates

The main task of the Republic is to…

determine the Form of Justice through the dialectic (socratic method)

Justice definition according to Socrates

justice = every individual plays his or her part in a functioning society

Why does Socrates claim that since a just society consists of people who posess reason, spirit, and desire/appetite, then each individual soul must also possess those same qualities?

If some quality (ex. justice) is present in a larger unit (state or society), then the same quality must be present in the smaller units (people or souls) that make up the larger unit

Appetite =

Appetite = basic desire

according to socrates, the human soul is a single entity, like a human body. to prove that a single entity has multiple parts, we must be able to show that ___

parts of the entity can engage in opposite actions at the same time

How can we prove that the spirit and appetite parts of our souls are distinct?

when we get angry at ourselves for desiring certain things or giving into temptation (which causes a conflict between spirit and appetite)

Drink analogy

If a person is thirsty (desiring drink), yet unwilling to drink (maybe no access to anything safe to drink), then the human soul must have at least 2 separate parts

• in this case, reason overwhelms appetite

the spirit part of the soul is ___

the passionate element, the part that makes people angry or indignant (righteously angry)

How can we prove that the spirit and appetite parts of our souls are distinct?

addiction

• in this case, spirit overwhelms appetite

Is it possible to be passionate (spirit) about something irrational?

yes.

1. Anger at TV shows

2. Sports teams

3. You can’t marry diane foxington

• in this case, spirit overwhelms reason

socrates believes that the soul must have _____ parts and that each part can ____

3 parts (reason, spirit, appetite), each part can be opposed to the other parts

What does "holding women and children in common" mean?

They will be shared by all of the men in the society

• No private marriage

• Children are raised by EVERYONE in the community

Potential benefits of abolishing private marriage and having the community raise the children

1. Loyalty is now to the community or state instead of individual family members

2. Everyone acts in the community’s best interest, as opposed to their own best interests

3. Children should be safer bc everyone has to look after them

4. Children can benefit from exposure to a lot of different adult perspectives

5. Greater gender equality

6. No more adultry/divorce/relationship stress

7. Widening of the gene pool → allows for more mutations

• philosophers would get smarter, warriors would get braver, commoners would get calmer

Potential disadvantages of abolishing private marriage and having the community raise the children

1. Incest, which would introduce negative genetic mutations

2. Exposure to all adults means some will be bad

3. Women will feel like objects

4. Lots of petty jealousies/emotional tension

5. Kids look up to no one specifically

6. Emotions are removed from relationships (having kids out of obligation; not love)

7. Eugenics

Painter analogy

people in this world should strive to get as close to the ideal as possible, just like how painters can create ideally beautiful non-existant people but that shouldn't mean their efforts are useless

• even though we will never reach the ideal in this world, people should try to get as close as possible

What does holding women + children in common and lack of private property and all members of a society live together make this look like?

communism

Women should be trained ____

exactly like men

• in this society, women can earn the same positions as men, since there is no relevant difference between the sexes

• if men strip for exercise, so will the women

Key elements of Plato’s society

1. Men and women will receive the same training and earn the same postitions

2. Communal living. All things (including ppl) will be shared amongst the entire population

3. Clear division of labor, with the philosophers in charge, the warriors providing protection, and the commoners taking care of menial labor

4. Ruled by philosopher-kings

What city-state does Plato’s Republic most resemble?

idealized version of Sparta

Philosopher-king definition

an individual in whom wisdom and power meet.

• to make one: either give a wise individual power or find a king who can become educated (both of these are rare)

Will everything in the Republic be reached?

Everything in the Republic is to be strived for, but it will rarely be reached

Who tutors who?

Socrates teaches Plato teaches Aristotle teaches Alexander

What are issues w/ Socrates being a yapper (meaning he never wrote anything down)

• is it Socrates or Plato speaking? all of his ideas come to us through Plato

• is it Socrates the literary character or Socrates the man speaking? (School Nat is different from Home Nat)

Important Socratic ideas (5)

1). Knowledge is the greatest virtue.

2). #1 Sophist hater bc Sophists argued anything. Socrates believed ppl should only argue for truth

3). To reach truth: use the Socratic method/dialectic/philosophic Q&A

4). The end of the debate must justify the purpose of the debate. If the end sucks, the debate is worthless. Socrates can be accused of twisting arguments to prove his point

5). Created moral philosophy

What’s so special about Socrates?

his philosophy focuses on man’s place in the universe/man’s relationship w/ the universe as opposed to explaining how the universe works

Platonic Reality

the World of the Forms

• Plato focuses on things not of this world, including abstract concepts like math

What is even the World of the Forms

Every physical thing (or quality, like happiness or justice) that exists in this world is just a poor copy of the perfect version that exists in the World of the Forms

What is a Form?

• pure idea; no physical existence

• each form encapsulates all qualities that make that thing what it is

• once a Form makes contact with physical matter, it is corrupted and all we get is a lesser, imperfect version of that Form in this world

Is Plato’s Reality dualistic?

Plato’s Reality is dualistic

1). Higher (genuine) reality - World of the Forms - all things in this world are permanent + unchanging

2). Lower (lesser) reality - World of the Sense - made up of physical things that change

Who can understand the World of the Forms?

knowledgeable philosophers w/ 15yrs of experiance

What is an issue w/ Plato’s philsophy?

the more we try to apply his philosophies to imperfect human lives, the less they make sense

What religious group does Plato influence?

Christianity

• Higher Christian reality - Heaven - perfect in every way

• Lower Reality - Earth - corrupted by its contact w/ the physical

When do Plato and Aristotle agree?

1). Contemplation is important

• Plato says contemplation is necessary to understand reality. Aristotle says contemplation is necessary to figure out how to act

• Pro-aristocratic mindset

• Forms exist (but in drastically different ways)

What is Artistotl’s philosophy focused on?

observation + categorization

Does Aristotle suck at science?

Kinda. He knows humans and apes are similar. He doesn’t know that muscles exist.

• He didn’t know stuff bc of his lack of tools

• He is a starting point, but also a dead end.

According to Artistotle, when is physical matter real?

Physical matter is only real when combined with its own idea

• thing = matter + idea

Difference between Plato and Aristotle when it comes to the Forms

Plato would say matter and idea (Form) are separate and while matter may look like a Form, it is only an imperfect version

Artistotle says the perfect Forms are nonsense. Wanna know reality? look around. Forms are the “shapes/boundaries” given to physical things.

According to Aristotle, what are individual people made up of?

body + soul

Artistotl’s heirarchy

simple matter is at the bottom, more complex matter is at the top

Entelechy definition

all things seek their own perfection. lower forms change into higher forms

ex. acorn → oak tree or caterpillar → butterfly

Aristotle’s views on reality

All of reality is potential. Everything strives to be perfect

How do humans reach entelechy?

happiness, fulfillment, or summum bonnum (greatest good) by doing the correct amount of anything (too much schoolwork is bad, but doing nothing all the time is also bad)

Criticisms of Aristotle

1). By modern standards, his science is wrong

2). Aristotle’s God is pure perfection. He is incapable of changing into anything and devoid of matter, making him pure form

3). A person is body + soul, yet Aristotle says that the soul (form) survives without the body (matter) after death

Who did Aristotle influence?

western Europeans. they figured things out through the dialectic and syllogism

Aristotle on premises

Major premise. Minor premise. Conclusion

ex. All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Socrates is mortal

• This only works if the major premise is correct. It does not work to test a hypothesis

What type of philosophers is Plato a cululmination of? What about Aristotle?

• Plato is the culmination of the Pythagorean/Eleatic line of thinking. All that is real is permanent + unchanging. Plato makes less sense the closer he gets to Earthly lives

• Aristotle is the culmination of Ionian/Atomic line of thinking. All that is real is physical + changing. Aristotle makes less sense the closer he gets to metaphysical/heavenly