Socrates, Rhetoric, Aristotle, and Descartes
Socrates and Rhetoric: Speech & Writing
Phaedrus is about speech and writing and their impact on the soul, not eros.
Transition from eros to speech & writing emphasis at 257C-258A.
Three kinds of people defined by speeches & writings:
Speechwriters/Orators.
Politicians.
Sophists.
Commonality: knowledge of the principles of rhetoric.
Art of Rhetoric = Knowledge of the principles of rhetoric
Phaedrus believes in knowing audience beliefs without truth.
Socrates believes such speakers/writers are harmful; knowledge guides audience.
Art of rhetoric, for Socrates, involves knowledge of Forms and souls to guide via speech.
Art of rhetoric requires philosophy.
Lysias' speech = artless rhetoric; Socrates' speeches = artful rhetoric.
Socrates' principle of composing speeches (264C).
Importance of analysis and synthesis (265D-265E).
Dialectic = examining beliefs through analysis and synthesis to find truth.
Philosophy is a pre-requisite for rhetoric (266C-266D, 266D-269C).
Knowledge of soul is important to rhetoric, aiming to guide the soul (270C).
Best speaker knows the truth (273E).
Writing:
Theuth: writing makes people wiser and improves memory.
Thamus: writing yields forgetfulness and appearance of wisdom.
Socrates favors 'writing' as inscription on the soul.
Inscription on soul = Insight into Forms or Knowledge of Reality.
Insight into Forms ≠ Dialectic.
Trust those who can artfully tell you what is likely and philosophers.
Friendship as best medium for being “in the know,” for syneidesis not synderesis, to occur.
Rhetorically being “in the know” requires less knowledge of the Forms and of diversity of soul types than knowledge of one’s soul in relation to kindred souls.
Aristotle’s Metaphysics
Aristotle (384BC-322BC): student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great.
Aristotle disagreed with Plato on sciences.
Plato believed in one science (philosophy).
Aristotle believed in many sciences, but philosophy is supreme.
Metaphysics is a collection of essays placed after "Physics."
Metaphysics studies beyond the physical/natural world.
Aristotle: Metaphysics is "theology" and "first philosophy."
Aristotle discusses “highest beings,” “first causes,” & cosmology.
Key theme: wisdom and causation.
"All human beings by nature desire to know."
Not knowledge of truth in Plato's sense; only philosophers desire that.
It is curiosity.
To know = είδέναι or “eidenai.”
Not scientific = έπιστάσθαι or “epistasthai.”
Delight from senses (sight) shows natural desire to know.
Perceptual knowledge: awareness of simple, individual things in the present.
Memory: awareness of plurality of things in the past.
Hearing: awareness of things from others.
Experience produced from memory.
Experiential knowledge: insight from past events; a "rule of thumb."
Art distinguishes necessary conditions from accidental features.
Art yields:
a universal or general rule about similar things
knowledge that is teachable
knowledge of causes.
Art is causal; experience is sequential.
Experiential knowledge is a summation of perceptual knowledge, memory and hearing.
Tension between artful knowledge and experiential knowledge.
Art does not guarantee awareness of particular case.
Experiential knowledge yields successful results.
Knowledge based on art are wiser than those whose knowledge is based on experience.
Desire to know satisfies curiosity and needs.
Art is understood in disclosure of knowledge as knowledge of causes.
People admire other people in relation to their knowledge of cause.
Perception is not wisdom; experience is between perception and art.
Practical art: yields useful result.
Theoretical art: yields nothing of use.
Theoretical art emerges when necessities are satisfied.
Theoretical art emerges as not doing us any good, not serving us any purpose.
Theoretical art is most liked for its own sake.
Wisdom: theoretical art yielding knowledge of causes for its own sake.
Wisdom features:
comprehensive, complex, precise, teachable, intrinsically beneficial, authoritative.
*Poetike = fabrication, making things, poetic science. Human need and the necessities of life prompt or motivate human beings to a calculation about the means for satisfying those needs or overcoming those necessities.
*What motivates or prompts us to wisdom, which Aristotle ultimately calls “philosophy,” since wisdom or philosophy is not a productive or poetic science, not a practical art?
*Answer: wonder.
*A man, who is puzzled or perplexed, wonders and think himself ignorant, therefore philosophizes to escape from ignorance
*Difference between the desire to know and to wonder?
*Desire to know is natural and entails ignorance in the face of not knowing something and unawareness of one’s own ignorance. It is our natural curiosity that seeks plain and simple knowledge about persons or state of affairs of which we do not have knowledge.
*Wonder entails ignorance in the face of perplexity or puzzlement even in the face of knowing something and entails an awareness of one’s own ignorance. Wonder seeks that which is truly opaque in that which is the plainest thing.
*Aristotle calls philosophy or wisdom a “divine science."
*Law of causality: every event has a cause;
*A first cause is not subject to the law of causality.
Four causes:
Formal: that according to which something is; the design of what something is.
Material: the matter out of which something is.
Efficient: that which produces alteration in something that is. This conception of causality is what we take causality to be today.
Final: that toward which something is; the desideratum of or goal to what something is.
Wisdom in Some Faith Traditions
Sophia (Greek): comprehensive wisdom.
Hokhmah (Hebrew): divine wisdom in statutes (chukim ve’mishpatim).
Human wisdom is obeying ordinances.
Biblical wisdom is conforming to God's understanding.
No search for Form of Good in Hebrew Bible.
Talmud: Do not reflect on what is above, beneath, before, after.
Avicenna modifies Aristotle on formal/final cause.
Descartes’ (or Cartesian) Philosophy
René Descartes (1596-1650): Architect of the 17th century intellectual revolution which overturned the doctrines of Aristotle and the Aristotelianism.
*Regarded as laying down the foundations for what we think of today as the ‘modern scientific age’.
*Founder of modern philosophy’ or the ‘founder of modern rationalism.
*Nature or Being or God is the measure/criterion of reason in ancient philosophy.
*In modern philosophy, reason is the measure/criterion of what is said about Nature or Being or God.
*Modern rationalism as a measure or criterion is a new kind of philosophy.
*Modern rationalism as a measure has been subject to vigorous criticisms over the centuries, yet it is very much in vigor with physics or the application of mathematics to nature.
*Intimate relation among philosophy, physics, and mathematics is the goal or aim of Descartes’ thought.
*Meditations on First Philosophy as his central text does not stand on its own two feet and is rather a part of Descartes’ philosophy which, for now, we will call ‘metaphysics.’
*Letter to the doctoral faculty of theology at the Sorbonne states that the goal or aim is to persuade infidels of God’s existence and the soul’s immortality through natural reason, thus perhaps for apologetics.
*Elements of Xian Apologetics:
*existence of God and the soul-body distinction is at issue
*infidel is the addressee of Xian apology
*mode of discourse poses natural reason against revealed truth of Bible
*purpose is to persuade infidel to religion or moral virtue.
*Elements of Descartes’ practical philosophy:
*intimate relation among philosophy, physics, and mathematics is at issue.
*the few are those to be addressed by his practical philosophy; the many are to benefit from it.
*it confronts religion with science and reason, not as seeking 1st causes, but as serving what each of the many takes to be useful.
*Mastery of nature → goal of a practical philosophy with an orientation towards physics and such a goal is useful.
*knowledge is power.
*“…render ourselves, as it were, masters and possessors of nature.”
*Is mastery of nature a liberation from natural necessities? Is mastery of nature a liberation from natural goals?
*DM Elements of Descartes’ practical philosophy:
*intimate relation among philosophy, physics, and mathematics is at issue;
*the few are those to be addressed by his practical philosophy; the many are to benefit from it;
*it confronts religion with science and reason, not as seeking 1st causes, but as serving what each of the many takes to be useful.
*Good sense → equally distributed to all human beings, because each person is satisfied with the amount s/he has.
*natural egoism.
*What he desires to learn is clear and assured knowledge, i.e., certain knowledge or certainty.
*Desire is a function of utility, but the means to that utility is certainty. Descartes seeks certainty in knowledge for the sake of utility, i.e., certainty in knowledge that is useful.
*Criticisms both his own education and the entire learned tradition according to whether they yield certain knowledge that is useful for life.
*Mathematics → yields very certain knowledge, but has had very limited usefulness
*Morals → useless, because uncertain.
*Theology → useful, but not certain, since based on faith and revelation
Rhetoric and oratory → useful in the sense of persuading others, but never with certainty.
Philosophy → neither useful nor certain.
*Perfection is to be attributed to the oneness of the source, so the one master must have one purpose, not a diversity of them.
*doubting.
*Only one item is insusceptible to doubt – mathematics.
By engaging in the process of doubting, the natural egoism of reason (good sense) starts the process of mastering its own nature in order to reach a knowledge with certainty to master nature.
*rule for doubting; rule for analysis; rule for synthesis; rule for comprehensive view.
*Descartes takes the soul as a conscious cognitive thing in which reason is in the service of one’s own good supported by a method of doubt (or skepticism)
*method of doubt (or skepticism.) In Meditation I, Descartes takes the reformation of the mind as rendering one’s reason certain for the sake of utility and as establishing a firm foundation for the sciences.
*If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that, at least once in your life, you doubt, as far as possible, all things-Rene Descartes.
*The things Descartes doubts are not just those things that are totally false but, more incredibly, those things that are partially or slightly questionable or even probable.
*The decision to equate the slightly questionable with the totally false is not justifiable for theoretical knowledge (knowledge for its own sake), but it is justifiable for practical knowledge (useful knowledge.)
*The two things most doubtful, according to Descartes, are knowledge based on the senses and knowledge based on opinion.
*Knowledge based on the senses or perceptual knowledge is the least reliable knowledge according to Descartes, who gives the example of dreaming.
*Perceptual knowledge requires trust in the image or representation conforming to the object seen.
*”opinion of longstanding” (vetus opinio).
*Descartes is entertaining the idea that God is one whose omnipotence overrides his intellect or omniscience.
The consequence is that God’s omnipotence can jeopardize our rationality or the certainty of our knowledge
*shifts position from an omnipotent and possibly evil God to fate or chance as the source of our deception.
*shifts his position again from a “less powerful being” to an “evil genius” as the source of our deception with God stage-managed out.
*evil genius = the power or seduction of our natural trust in the senses for knowledge.
*What is that which can never be doubted?
That which is ever certain?
I exist/“I think, therefore I am” = Cartesian cogito.
*Cogito:
*Each time I engage in a mental act, when this occurs, I am certain it is true.
*Knowledge of the existence of thinking does not depend on knowledge of the existence of body.
*gains access to aware mental activity without any commitment to motion or life.
*”Cartesian dualism” – the mind is better known than the body.
*access to existence of pure thinking (intellect, mind) without making corporeal assumptions about it.
*no reason to doubt that there is an “I”
*I am always certain that I have mental states, but I am never certain that the mental states are of something.
Divides the mental state,
*1) Certain of the mental state as immediately present to I and uncertain regarding that to which the mental state refers.
*It requires that a representation or an image produced by the senses conforms to the object seen.
*Unlike a piece of wax, a dog has an abiding sensible unity, because it is related to its kind or form regardless of its alteration or difference.
Here are the answers to your questions:
Eros in Socrates’ second speech:
Described as madness, a divine possession, and a form of mania (245b).
Driven by the sight of beauty, leading the soul to strive for the realm of Forms (249d-on).
Socrates on the soul in 245c-e:
The soul is immortal and the source of motion.
It is self-moving and eternal.
Socrates' description of the soul's structure (246a):
Uses an analogy: the soul is like a charioteer driving a pair of winged horses.
One horse is noble and good, the other is base and unruly.
The charioteer represents reason, guiding the soul.
Souls imitating the gods (248a-b):
Souls struggle to reach the rim of heaven due to the unruly horse.
Some see the Forms, others fail and lose their wings, falling to earth.
Classification of souls (248d):
Nine sorts of souls, classified by what they've seen during the chariot procession.
The philosopher is in the first sort. (248d)
Recollection (249c):
Explanation: Learning is remembering what the soul once knew in a previous existence when it beheld the Forms.
Tie to eros: The sight of earthly
Preliminaries of rhetoric (266d):
Knowing what people believe.
Gaining skill at persuasion through practice.
True art of rhetoric (268b, 269b-end esp. 269d, 270b, 270e-271b, 273d-e, 277b-c, 277e-278e):
Requires knowledge of the truth.
Knowledge of Forms.
Knowledge of souls to guide via speech.
Philosophy.
Theuth and Thamus (274b):
Theuth: Believes writing makes people wiser and improves memory.
Thamus: Believes writing yields forgetfulness and appearance of wisdom.
Rhetoric:
Normal conversation: The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing.
Socrates (261a, 261e): A way of influencing the soul through words.
Dialectic:
Normal conversation: Arriving at truth by exchanging logical arguments
Socrates (265d-266c): Examining beliefs through analysis and synthesis to find truth.
Contrasting view of Phaedrus (259e-260a):
Knowing the truth isn't necessary; what matters is knowing what the audience believes.
Rhetorician without knowledge of good from bad (260b-d):
Is like someone praising a donkey as if it were a horse because lacking knowledge of what is actually good (a horse), they misapply praise.
Lysias’ speech described as artless (262c):
Lacks a clear structure and logical organization.
Socrates treating his two speeches as one (262c, footnote 142; 265c, footnote 148
Here are the answers to your questions:
Aristotle means that humans have an innate curiosity and desire to understand the world around them.
Experiential knowledge: insight from past events; a "rule of thumb."
Knowledge based on art:
a universal or general rule about similar things
knowledge that is teachable
knowledge of causes.
Examples of people who have knowledge through art, but not experience: A physician who understands medical theory but has not treated patients.
Example of someone who possesses both types of knowledge: A chef who understands both the science of cooking and has years of practical experience.
Plato's view on science: believed in one science (philosophy).
Aristotle's view on science: believed in many sciences, but philosophy is supreme.
Perceptual knowledge: awareness of simple, individual things in the present.
Meditations on First Philosophy:
Descartes tells the Sorbonne that the aim of the text is to persuade infidels of God’s existence and the soul’s immortality through natural reason, thus perhaps for apologetics.
In the First Meditation, Descartes desires to doubt everything, as far as possible (p. 54, p. 59).
Descartes worries that perceptual knowledge can be mistaken. He thinks perception can be mistaken in ways such as dreams. Descartes turns to mathematics as certain knowledge instead. If an omnipotent God were deceiving him or there was some other source of deception, and this God or source was stage managed out that it can be trusted , even mathematics and logic would lack certainty.
Discourse on Method:
The event that caused Descartes to pause publication was his awareness that someone had been condemned by some judges for embracing an opinion in physics that Descartes thought he understood better than anyone else. (p. 34)
Descartes describes practical philosophy as that by which, knowing the force and actions of fire, water, air, the stars, the heavens, and all other bodies that surround us, as distinctly as we know the various trades of our craftsmen, we can employ them in all those uses to which they are properly applicable, and render ourselves, as it were, masters and possessors of nature. (p. 35) He considers it more useful than speculative philosophy, as it leads to mastery of nature. This ties into his discussion of reasoning on p. 6, where he discusses his desire to find a method that would lead to clear and distinct knowledge that could be applied to practical problems.
Descartes is hoping to find clear and assured knowledge, i.e., certain knowledge or certainty. (p. 3-5) He does not feel that he found it in his own formal education.
On p. 1-2, Descartes says that good sense is equally distributed to all human beings, because each person is satisfied with the amount s/he has. On p. 6, he suggests that the power of judging well and of distinguishing the true from the false (which is properly what is called good sense or reason) is by nature equal in all men.
The conflict mentioned at the beginning of part two is the wars in Europe. (p. 6)
Descartes compares our actual upbringing, where we are guided by appetite and example, with an ideal situation where we would have the “pure and solid” judgements that he would have possessed, if he had been brought up from infancy in some secluded nation, and had never quitted it until able to determine what were the best means of acquiring knowledge (p. 8)
The four rules to Descartes' method, as described on p. 11, are:
Never accept anything as true that I did not plainly know to be such
Divide each of the difficulties I examined into as many parts as possible
Conduct my thoughts in such order that commenced with objects the simplest and easiest to know
In every case to make enumerations so complete,
Meditations on First Philosophy:
Descartes tells the Sorbonne that the aim of the text is to persuade infidels of God’s existence and the soul’s immortality through natural reason, thus perhaps for apologetics.
In the First Meditation, Descartes desires to doubt everything, as far as possible (p. 54, p. 59).
Descartes worries that perceptual knowledge can be mistaken. He thinks perception can be mistaken in ways such as dreams. Descartes turns to mathematics as certain knowledge instead. If an omnipotent God were deceiving him or there was some other source of deception, and this God or source was stage managed out that it can be trusted , even mathematics and logic would lack certainty.
Discourse on Method:
The event that caused Descartes to pause publication was his awareness that someone had been condemned by some judges for embracing an opinion in physics that Descartes thought he understood better than anyone else. (p. 34)
Descartes describes practical philosophy as that by which, knowing the force and actions of fire, water, air, the stars, the heavens, and all other bodies that surround us, as distinctly as we know the various trades of our craftsmen, we can employ them in all those uses to which they are properly applicable, and render ourselves, as it were, masters and possessors of nature. (p. 35) He considers it more useful than speculative philosophy, as it leads to mastery of nature. This ties into his discussion of reasoning on p. 6, where he discusses his desire to find a method that would lead to clear and distinct knowledge that could be applied to practical problems.
Descartes is hoping to find clear and assured knowledge, i.e., certain knowledge or certainty. (p. 3-5) He does not feel that he found it in his own formal education.
On p. 1-2, Descartes says that good sense is equally distributed to all human beings, because each person is satisfied with the amount s/he has. On p. 6, he suggests that the power of judging well and of distinguishing the true from the false (which is properly what is called good sense or reason) is by nature equal in all men.
The conflict mentioned at the beginning of part two is the wars in Europe. (p. 6)
Descartes compares our actual upbringing, where we are guided by appetite and example, with an ideal situation where we would have the “pure and solid” judgements that he would have possessed, if he had been brought up from infancy in some secluded nation, and had never quitted it until able to determine what were the best means of acquiring knowledge (p. 8)
The four rules to Descartes' method, as described on p. 11, are:
Never accept anything as true that I did not plainly know to be such
Divide each of the difficulties I examined into as many parts as possible
Conduct my thoughts in such order that commenced with objects the simplest and easiest to know
In every case to make enumerations so complete,