Intellectual History, Weekly Assignment 3
Start date: 9/19/2006

Tuesday, 9/19
Discuss Republic in class.

Wednesday, 9/20
□ Read Republic, pp. 97-126 (Book IV).
Book IV discusses the human soul, its parts, and its virtues. It does so by first inspecting the ideal city, as so far constructed.

You’ll have observed that your assignments often include “word notes” and “thought questions”. Here’s how you should use them.

o The word notes are intended to help you understand unusual or obscure references to concepts or persons, in the text at hand. I suggest that you quickly skim over the word notes before you read the text, just so you can get an idea of what explanations are available. As you read the text, you may return to the word notes if you think they might help you over a difficult part.

o The thought questions are puzzles for you to consider after you have done the reading. They are intended to challenge you, to test if you have understood the reading. Some thought questions will be too hard, while others should cause you to go back and re-read some passage for better understanding. Please be ready to discuss at least some of the thought questions in class. You can also improve your participation grade by choosing to engage an interesting thought question in the on-line classroom. If you decide to do so, please open up a fresh topic for this, as if it were a writing assignment. You may also come up with your own “thought questions”.

Word Notes on Republic, Book IV: “Innovation” = the introduction of new ideas. “lye,” “alkali,” “soda,” = various early detergent-like substances. “calculation” = Gk. “logismos” or “reckoning,” part of the word-group for “speech” = Gk. “logos” or “reason.”

 “wise, courageous, moderate, just” = the four cardinal virtues, accepted as a given by Socrates and his friends, and by many ever since. Note also the corresponding vices listed on page 124. “wisdom” = Gk. “sophia” is the excellence of the “logos” or rational soul. “courage” = Gk. “andreia” or “manliness” is the excellence of the “spirited part.” “moderation” = Gk. “sophrosyne” or “temperance” is self-control. “justice” = Gk. “dikaiosyne” or “righteousness”.
 Socrates’ division of the soul into desiring, reasoning, and spirited parts is similar to the medieval distinction (ask your teacher about it!) of vegetable, animal, and rational souls.



□ Read the article “Whether there are four cardinal virtues?” from Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica (I-II.61.2).
You can find this article at http://newadvent.org/summa/206102.htm . (This is our first but not last encounter with St. Thomas.)

Sketch a diagram of the relations between the four virtues and the parts of the soul, in Thomas’ account. Be ready to point out differences of opinion between Aquinas and Socrates as to the nature of the four cardinal virtues.


□ Writing Assignment: “Virtual Proverbs.” Briefly restate in your own words the meaning of at least five of the statements from Republic Book IV below. Be sure to interpret each statement in context, of course.


Men who are not guardians of the laws and the city, but seem to be, utterly destroy an entire city. (p. 98)

Will a potter who’s gotten rich still be willing to attend to his art? (p. 99)

Friends have all things in common. (p. 101)

Beware of change to a strange form of music. (p. 102)

It isn’t worth-while to dictate to gentlemen. (p. 103)

Courage is a kind of preserving. (p. 107)

Moderation is like a kind of harmony. (p. 110)

The having and doing of one’s own and what belongs to oneself [is] justice. (p. 112)
The same thing won’t be willing at the same time to do or suffer opposites. (p. 115)

When desires force someone contrary to calculation, he reproaches himself. (p. 119)

To produce justice [is] to establish the parts of the soul in a relation of mastering, and being mastered by, one another that is according to nature. (p. 124)

Thought Questions on Republic, Book IV: What is it about “innovation” that Socrates fears (p. 99)? What sorts of law-making does Socrates detest? Why does he think it unnecessary? Think of several modern-day examples of such unnecessary laws. What sorts of law are necessary in his view?

Do you agree with the definitions by Socrates given for each cardinal virtue? In his account, how does each virtue relate to each of the soul’s three parts? Why doesn’t the desiring part have its own virtue?


Thursday, 9/14
Discuss in class the nature of the human soul and its virtues as portrayed in Republic book IV, and by Thomas Aquinas.

Friday & Monday, 9/15 – 9/18
□ Read Republic, pp. 127-161 (Book V).
Book V carries the argument to some horrid conclusions, including communism and the abolition of the family.

Word Notes on Republic, Book V: “argument” = Gk. “logoi” (reasoned words, again). “common”, “community” = Gk. “koinon”, “koinonia”, the same word St. Paul will use to describe unity in the Church. “eristic” = adversarial conversation for the sake of winning, from Gk. “eris” (strife). Compare “dialectic” = cooperative conversation for the sake of truth.

“herd”, “pen”, “breed”, “dogs”, ... By using these farm words Socrates is setting up a certain world-view about human beings. What is this view? Do you think he is serious?

The terms “knowledge” and “opinion” (along with their verb forms) are the Gk. “gnosis” and “doxa”. A similar verbal distinction may be observed during the Christian ages between the heretic “Gnostics” and the catholic “orthodox”. (And the “catholic” position is defined as the one which is accepted by the many, among the faithful. Socrates would have disapproved, but Augustine once observed that the lowliest Christian cleaning-women knows more of God than the greatest pagan philosopher.)



Thought Questions on Republic, Book V: What, fundamentally, is this branch of the argument about? Why do Socrates’ friends insist that he deal with it? Why is he afraid to pursue it? Why does he come to so many repellent conclusions? Could it be an accident that he touches on nearly every major issue of the modern “culture wars”? If not, why not?

And here’s an especially important one: How many of Socrates’ points would he change if he accepted the doctrine of the fall of man?

 Word games or sound bites belong to eristic, not dialectic. (See p. 132.) What sort of error do they lead to? How does Socrates describe this error? What illustration does he use? Would his point be as clear without the use of illustration? What if, like a poet, he used only an illustration or image to make his point? 

Note on page 136-137 where Socrates describes the “fiat power” necessary to any policy debate. Why does he disapprove of it?



□ Read the Acts chapter 19, focusing on Paul’s stay in Ephesus and his conflict with the local tourism trade.
The gigantic temple to Artemis (Roman name “Diana”) was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It featured a statue of the goddess, apparently carved from a large meteorite, as the town clerk notes during the riot. (Again, we’ll go back and read the whole of Acts later.)

□ Read Everlasting Man, pp. 101-115 (Ch. I.5, “Man and Mythologies”)

Thought Questions on Chesterton, ch. 5: Chesterton argues that mythology is a form of art rather than a kind of religion or philosophy. In the Republic (Book II) Socrates observes that the “music” of “tales” (myths) is a potent tool for the moral education of children. If all this is true, it follows that Christian revelation does not make all tale-making obsolete, as long as the tales do not attempt to contradict or extend revealed truth. What “decorative” tales can you think of that our culture tells to itself for the sake of entertainment and beauty? (Think, for example, about how we celebrate holidays.) What “educational” tales do we use to train children? (Think of children’s literature.) What sorts of tales did Jesus tell? How do they differ from the sorts of myths Socrates knew? Do people today ever use tales as an alternative to Christian revelation?



□ Read Everlasting Man, pp. 116-136 (Ch. I.6, “The Demons and Philosophers”)


Thought Questions on Chesterton, ch. 6: According to Chesterton, diabolical religions tend to include “a mystical hatred of the idea of childhood.” What are some modern examples of inhumanity to the young? Do these evil acts show other features of the pattern, such as pride of power, shamelessness, or human sacrifice? In the section on the philosophers, Chesterton makes a portrait (on p. 129) of Marcus Aurelius, an actual Roman philosopher-king we will soon meet. Chesterton says (p. 135) “the temptation of the philosophers is simplicity.” Have you noticed any possible over-simplifications in our readings from Plato? We will come back to this question when we consider Augustine’s evaluation of Plato and his thought.

Word Notes on Everlasting Man: Words: A “totem” is an animal or other object which is the symbol or mascot of a clan. (Not unlike the “Miami Dolphins.”) A “fetish” is a small object to which excessive devotion or trust is given. (Think of a tomagachi cyber-pet, or the keys to your new Maserati.) “Nominalism” and “realism” (p. 125) are technical terms for opposing philosophical positions. The realist holds that ideas are real, independently of the language used to express them. “Fabian” (p. 125) is a nineteenth century word for a progressive socialist, who differs from the revolutionary socialist by his preference for gradual social change. If you are a Narnia fan, you should know that C.S. Lewis satirizes Fabianism and faddism in the family of Eustace Scrubb (Voyage of the Dawn Treader). A “prig” (p. 129) is pointedly and self-sufficiently virtuous.



Word Notes on names in Everlasting Man: Remember the civic demonstrations of pride in “Diana of the Ephesians” (p. 107) from the book of Acts. Samuel Johnson (p. 107 etc.) single-handedly compiled the first major English dictionary. He was influential, conservative, and eccentric. Proteus (p. 112) is a Greek god who could alter his form at will, hence the adjective “protean.” Swinburne (p.120) was a nineteenth century neo-pagan poet, famed for lines like “thou has conquered, O pale Galilean.” Jeremy Bentham was an influential social philosopher famous for his utilitarian happiness calculus of “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” In accordance with his final wishes, his body was dissected for the edification of his friends, and bequeathed to a London university, where it is mummified on permanent display (http://evolution.massey.ac.nz/lect21/docs/bentham.htm).



□ Writing Assignment: “Communist Proverbs”
Read and ponder each of the following quotations, as last week. Carefully rephrase six of them in your own words. You have a lot of choices here. Please try not to duplicate effort. Post your responses, as always, and feel free to comment on each others’ postings.

Glaucon: The proper measure of listening to such arguments is a whole life. (p. 128)

To present arguments at a time when one is in doubt and seeking ... is a thing both frightening and slippery. (p. 129)
He is empty who believes anything is ridiculous other than the bad. (p. 131)

Each must mind his own business according to nature. (p. 131)

Our guardians and their women must practice the same things. (p. 133)
One class is quite dominated in virtually everything. (p. 134)

Many women are better than many men in many things. (p. 134)
The beneficial is fair and the harmful ugly. (p. 136)
Rulers will ... use a throng of lies and deceptions for the benefit of the ruled. (p. 138)

They will take the offspring of the good and bring them into the pen. (p. 139)

None will recognize her own. (p. 139)

He’s imposing ... an unauthorized child on the city. (p. 140)

There’s to be no rearing for such a child. (p. 140)

[There is no] greater evil for a city than what splits it and makes it many instead of one. (p. 141)

That city is best governed which is most like a single human being. (p. 141)

With everyone he happens to meet, he’ll hold that he’s meeting a brother. (p. 143)

On this basis they will then be free from faction. (p. 144)
They will have their differences like men who, after all, will be reconciled. (p. 151)

Unless the philosophers rule as kings or those now called kings and chiefs genuinely and adequately philosophize ... there is no rest from ills for the cities, nor I think for human kind. (p. 153)

Those who are able to approach the fair itself and see it by itself [are] rare. (p. 156)

What is entirely, is entirely knowable, and what in no way is, is entirely unknowable. (p. 157)

They opine all these things but know nothing of what they opine. (p. 161)