Optimific

Something really interesting from lecture today.

The definition of Optimific is productive of the best outcome which would mean that Optimal might have the same idea. Not really. The definition of Optimal is most favorable or desirable. Optimific refers to the best outcome but does not have to be refer to best consequences. Interesting.

One Over Many

Greek had a long standing “one over many problem” as they attempt to find a way to utilize 1 word for many different objects that is very different. Plato then came up with this very interesting idea on the Theory of Forms. Philosophers alone were said to have knowledge of Forms. If they study and understand Form, they have attained true knowledge. As without true knowledge everything is only belief and its only what the world appears to be. Forms are said to be universal ideas; unchanging, perfect and eternal. This did reflect Parmenides idea of IT. However, in Forms it doesn’t have to have all qualities.

Lets consider the Universal concept of a chair. Particular objects are said to owe existence to Forms. This reflect the world of Heraclitus, the World of appearances. The universal concept of chair doesn’t change even the chair undergoing process of change. We might have a different idea of the chair in our mind now but its still called a chair. Particular objects are then said to be mere imitations of the Form object. I think this is really amazing as how Plato managed to come up with this concept at that particular point of time given the limited resources and environment that he was in.

“None shall past through this door not knowing geometry” is supposed to be at the entrance of Plato's Academy which i thought was really interesting as Mathematics was considered so important to Plato at that time. Another example would be Triangularity. We can can understand triangle individually as we can measure every single triangle but we only know those that we have seen. However, we know something about Form triangle which helped us understand every triangle like interior angles adding up to 180 degree. All the triangles will then have them otherwise they do not participate in form triangle. This meant that Forms provide necessary condition in objects and helped solve the "one over many problems" in some ways.

Lottery Sex

In the Republic, Sex based on Lottery (PLANNED LOTTERY) will be enforced. This is due to the fact that the Republic was supposed to be a perfect society so they had to bred the best. However this leads to the same few people will end up always breeding while some will never get the chance to breed. Children from sex out of the usual lottery will be left to die for best of society. These children from the lottery sex will then be left in the care of the state. All parents would come together to celebrate events in their “child’s” life like birth months, successes, graduation, etc. 

State raised children help to dismantling of a "mine – yours mentality" and this would strengthen communal bond of the Republic. This leads to people caring more about each other. However, personally i feel that this society will never be possible. Since sex was planned as according to the Republic random couplings does not lead to the best offspring, children belongs basically to only a small group of "best bred" as not everyone will have the chance to have their own babies due to the lottery. Therefore, maybe if only 1 of the thousands of kids are mine, i would care less as i will never even know if my kid is in there. I feel that this "perfect" society will never be plausible and definitely will not exist as i feel that reducing the mine your mentality might not bring the best out of the citizens. 

Metal Myth

Plato feels that there’s genetic elitism in the Republic and therefore implies that some are born more intelligent than others. The Guardians are the group that will defend the Republic is the face of danger. The Guardians undergoes tests of Character and Loyalty. They must have a character strong enough to do what is right rather than delude that something is right. This leads us to what we had learned earlier that; Knowledge is not something gain but something born with.

Propaganda is heavily emphasized in the Republic. Everyone in the Republic is taught that they are born with a certain metal that is in the soul. Guardians has a golden soul while Artisans have bronze soul. They were taught not to associate with each other from young so that they will not tarnish their soul. After some time they are accustomed to not associating with each other. Would this really make a PERFECT society?

Propaganda is often intentionally used to misinterpretation facts to achieve some kind of goal. This lie help achieve some kind of character for the Guardians but will this make the Republic a perfect society when the Guardians and Artisans do all associate with each other? This will lead to segregation and the communal bond in the society will be weakened after all the effort to strength it by reducing the mine your mentality.

Apology

Socrates was a master of rhetoric and he goes to marketplace and talks to everyone. He talks to everyone and makes them feel stupid and therefore everyone was really irritated by him and finds him totally annoying. People wanted to teach him a lesson and decided to press charges against him.

A friend had gone to the Oracle of Apollo, the God of truth and knowledge, at Delphi in search of the wisest man and got his answer: Socrates. His friend returned and told Socrates about it. 

Socrates: That’s bullshit. I am stupid. I don’t know anything. He then scoots off to find wiser men around.

Socrates was charged by Meletus for 3 charges.
Corrupting Youths
Not believing in the God of State
Practicing a false religion

Socrates poor defense
Meletus dealt frivolously with serious matters
Meletus irresponsibly brought him to court
Meletus professed concern about things he doesn’t care about

Socrates: I am a bad influence on the youth? Who is good?
Meletus: Everyone else except you.

Socates: Lets take a horse and trainer analogy. So everyone is a good horse trainer? 

He manages to show that Meletus professed concern about things he doesn’t care about. However, when innuendo is used here, it could go completely undetected by some jury members who was not familiar with the hidden meaning, and would find nothing odd about the sentence. However, some of the jury members would have gotten it that he was trying to say they were stupid and the jury has time to talk to each other after that. Not a very good idea is it?

Socrates believed that even if he was corrupting the youth, he wasn’t doing it willingly and therefore Meletus should have just pulled him aside and told him not to do it again. He thus feels that Meletus irresponsibly brought him to court.

He felt Meletus dealt frivolously with serious matters as how can someone that does not believe in the God of State, an atheist, practice a false religion? Contradictory isn’t it? Socrates then rests his defense being totally not apologetic and being his usual annoying self.

Jury returns with guilty verdict. The accusers and Socrates gets to decide the punishment and the Jury will vote on it again.

The accusers suggest a death sentence as they want it to be too harsh so Socrates can get off easy with the punishment that he suggests. No one wanted Socrates to die and they barely wanted to teach him a lesson. However Socrates suggested his punishment, “How do you punish a person that rescue the Greek Society? Reward me then.” He felt that he was helping the youth and being a role model of an examined life. As Athens was degraded by Sophist that believed that truth was relative. He also felt that he was not going to stop philosophizing as God commanded him to do so and no laws against it will make it strong enough for him to stop.

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

A friend of Socrates walked up to him and told him that it was a bad idea and told him to suggest a fine and that they will pay the fine for him. Socrates told the jury, “my friend has suggested a fine and that he was going to pay it for me.” Jury returns with death sentence. Socrates was then placed in prison as there was a ship on religious pilgrimage and no one is supposed to be executed then. People had arranged for Socrates escape and the prison, a hole in a cliff, had no strict guards or locks that prevented him from doing so. He chose the death penalty and drank the hemlock.

Euthyphro’s Dilemma

Socrates and Euthyphro are having a conversation about piety. Euthyphro believes that he knows the meaning of piety. He accused his father of murder and is bring his father to court. Sounds pious? Anyway his father has caught a slave stealing and had tied the slave up and left him in a ditch while he goes to press charges on his slave. When he returned, the slave had died in the ditch. Euthyphro believed that it was wrong and decided that he has to press charges against his father. 5 definitions of piety that Euthyphro brought us through that lead us nowhere.

Definition 1 - Piety is prosecuting unjust people.

Definition by example = bad as it will be uninformative due to the simple fact that pious acts doesn’t always just involve unjust people.

Definition 2 - What’s pleasing to God.

However, this leads to internal inconsistence. There’s different Gods and they what 1 God agree might be disagreed by another God. Contradictory isn’t it?

Definition 3 - What all Gods Love

Wait. Pious acts are loved because they are pious or are they pious because that are loved.

Euthyphro believed that God loves the acts therefore they are pious. The search for the definition continues. All pious acts are just/moral acts but not all just acts are pious acts. Therefore, pious acts are a subset of just acts.

Definition 4 - Pious acts care for the Gods

Socrates: Trainer and horse kind of care? Doesn’t this makes God beneath us?

Socrates: Master and slave care? Where we care for our master?

Socrates: This leads to what do we help Gods do?

This eventually leads to a lot of other problems like

Socrates: What are functions of Gods? What does Gods do? Purpose of Gods?

Euthyphro eventually gives up this trend of thought and gave a new definition instead.

Definition 5 - Praying to the Gods and sacrificing things are pious acts

Another definition by example. Great.

Socrates: What are we giving to the Gods?

Euthyphro: Honor and Praise

Socrates: Why does God wants these things? Is it because they love it?

Looks like we are back to acts are loved because they are pious or are they pious because that are loved.

I got to go. See you later. What a state of confusion…

Much ado about nothing

Parmenides believed that nothing changes and that he was also one of the first of those who used deductive argument in his philosophical work.

That it is and it is not possible for it not to be.

That it is not and it is necessary for it not to be.

He came up with a really cool concept of nothingness: that nothingness does not exist because if nothingness exists, it is something. So something like a pen cannot cease to exist as well. If the pen ceases to exist, the pen has become nothing and nothingness has come to existence which is not possible as nothingness cannot exist. His idea revolves around the fundamental argument that nothing cannot exist.

He also believed in no change, no difference and no motion based on his argument of the inexistence of nothingness. If I were to change, from being dumb to smart, I would have lost the quality of dumbness which results again in nothing coming to existence and this can’t happen! If we were to have differences, you being smarter than I am, you would bear a quality smarter which I don’t and nothingness again has come to existence as I lack the quality of being smarter. Oh wait, doesn’t that make you and me the same? Which we all know is quite fallacious, if you think about it. Motion is then also not possible, because in order to move there must be nothing there to obstruct me, but there’s no such thing as nothing. What am I talking about? We can therefore only think of things that exist.

When I talk about Mario, do you know who’s Mario? You do, don’t you? But Mario doesn’t exist, does he? I never knew he existed. Then what are you thinking about? I thought I just said that we can only think of things that exist. Parmenides believed that that was IT and everything was just IT. That’s IT for now.