Essay Prep for Philo

Give a summary statement of the doctrine of ethical rationalism and explain how Plato qualifies as an ethical rationalist.


Ethical rationalism: morality as a body of knowledge

Rationalism on moral judgment:
-Moral judgments are factual claims about a reality independent of us
-They are knowable by human reason


Plato on moral judgment
- Morality is based on the form of the good
- What is good for us depends on the form of the good, which gives everything its special nature and value
- Correct moral judgments are based on knowledge of the realm of forms.

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In the Republic at 580d-583a and 583b-588a, Socrates gives two related arguments for his view that the moral life, understood as a life of psychic harmony (where each part of the soul performs its function as dictated by the rational part), is the happiest life. Summarize the case Socrates makes in these two arguments.


2nd answer (580-583)
-Each part of the soul has its distinct kind of pleasure
-Each type of person thinks his characteristic pleasure is the greatest
-Only the the philosophical person has the experience and the judgment to compare
-Hence, the person in psychic harmony is the happiest

Objection
The philosophical person may have had experience of other desires, but not of other lives as a whole. Why then is his viewpoint not biased?


Reply
-Must use reason to make an unbiased judgment
-Appetitive and spirited personalities subordinate reason to felt intensity of desire
-Only in philosophical personalities is reason making a genuine comparative judgment


Problem
This reply suggests that experiences can seem pleasurable but not really be so. Does this idea make sense? Plato thinks so, and this is why he provides a third reply.

3rd answer (583-588)
-Pleasures of appetitive and spirited personalities enter the soul through the body
-These have a sensory aspect that needs to be corrected by reason.
-Uncorrected, these pleasures are only pale images of true pleasures.
-These personalities are thus like the cave prisoners

Example
-The same state of the body can feel good or bad depending on what precedes it.
-But the very same state cannot both be pleasure and pain
-There must be an appearance-reality distinction for pleasures
-Reason is needed to tell the difference

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