1 Presented at Central University of Finance and Economics 中央财经大学 Beijing by 卜若柏 Robert Blohm Chinese Economics and Management Academy 中国经济与管理研究院

1

Presented at

Central University of Finance and Economics中央财经大学

Beijingby

卜若柏Robert Blohm

Chinese Economics and Management Academy中国经济与管理研究院

http://www.blohm.cnc.net

March 28 & April 6 & 13, 20082008年 3月 28日和 4月 6和 13日

Socrates, Plato & Aristotle

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Socrates (苏格拉底 ) Taught, but not for money like the Sophists. Like the Sophists’, his pupils were from

aristocratic party. Taught and sought knowledge by the method of dialectic (question & answer, first

practiced by Zeno 芝诺 ) in dialogues • written up by his student, Plato (柏拉图 )• that reveal pretenders to wisdom• that draw the answer from inside the student who already possesses it. Doctrine of Reminiscence

from a previous existence

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Socrates (cont.d) Taught and sought knowledge by the method of dialectic (question & answer, first practiced by Zeno) in dialogues (cont.d) • that bounded most future philosophy by the limitations of this method:

to apply this to geometry in the Phaedo (斐多篇 ) and the Meno (美诺篇 ) he has to ask leading questions cannot substitute for discovery of

• new facts, except for the possibility of a conclusion not seen before; or for • observation in science.

• but that tends to promote logical consistency through unfettered discussion: readily applied to logical rather than factual subjects, for example pointing out contradiction, confusion, or lack of analysis.

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Socrates (cont.d) Taught and sought knowledge by the method of dialectic (question &

answer, first practiced by Zeno ) in dialogues (cont.d) • The Apology (申辩篇 ) documents his trial for making the worse appear better,

searching under the earth and above the heaven, and not worshipping the gods of the state, and where he was condemned to death by a majority.

Belief in immortality, documented in the Phaedo

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Socrates (cont.d) Anticipates Stoics (斯多葛 ) and Cynics (犬儒学派 )

• Stoics held that virtue is the supreme good

• Cynics despised worldly goods

• Susceptible to cataleptic trances of deep thought, could endure severe physical hardship, and claimed he was guided by an oracle, as documented in the Symposium (筵话篇 )

Concerned with ethics, not “physical speculations”.

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Socrates (cont.d) Close connection between virtue and knowledge:

• maintains he knows nothing, but is wise for knowing this and thinks knowledge is obtainable • unlike Christian ethics where a pure heart is primary.

In early dialogues looks for definitions of:• temperance or moderation in the Charmides (沙米底斯篇 ) • friendship in the Lysis (李西斯篇 ) • courage in the Laches (拉什斯篇 )

His greatest concern: how to get competent men into positions of power?• under Spartan oligarchy after defeat of Athens.• Under Athenian democracy generals were elected or chosen by lot.

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Sparta (斯巴达 )

Influenced Plato, Rousseau (卢梭 ), Nietzsche (尼采 ), and National Socialism (国家社会主义 )

Sacrificed everything to success in war, to creation of a race of invincible warriors.

Admired for centuries of stability by Greeks from the other city states that all had revolutions.

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Sparta (cont.d) Plutarch’s ( 普鲁塔克的 ) myth of Sparta

• fired power-loving idealism to become philosopher-kings idealized in Plato’s Republic (国家篇 )

• versus Aristotle’s criticism of Sparta’s private decadence due to excessive severity of laws.

• influenced 18th century English & French liberals, the founding of the US, German romanticism and early 20th century Germany.

Objected to confederation of the Hellenic world.• Embodied Greek incapacity for political cohesion. • Other nations, like Macedonia (马其顿 ), were inspired to be the political vehicles of Hellenism to conquered

nations.

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Sparta (cont.d) Land cultivated by serfs to make owners available for military service. Each adult male Spartan owned one lot of land which he could not sell.

• Neither destitute nor rich.• Bequests led to unequal distribution of property• Wives lived in intemperance and luxury, valued wealth too highly, and owned almost half the land.

Declared war on the slaves once a year to weed out insubordinate slaves Only iron coinage, to banish superfluous and unprofitable sciences.

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Sparta (cont.d)

Children born to serve the country • Only vigorous children were selected by elders to be reared. The rest were

drowned.• From 7 years old all education of boys in one big boarding school

Divided into companies led by one of them chosen for sense & courage Learned indifference to pain and submission to discipline Taught to steal and were punished for getting caught

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Sparta (cont.d) Children born to serve the country (cont.d)

• Maintained the birth rate to maintain military power Until 30 years old all men lived in one house and were not full-fledged citizens free to live with their wives, to make clandestine marriage instill an early

burning love Physical training of bare boys and girls together in a place to draw and allure young men to marry while men who would not marry walked bare outside. Fathers of 3 exempt from military service The state would find another younger mate for a childless wife.

• No jealousy• Children were not private to any men but common to the common weal, like livestock to a farmer.

• Citizens always in company together, never alone. Not allowed to travel. Foreigners not admitted.

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Sparta (cont.d) Government

• Two kings, one of which commanded the army in time of war, with little other power.• Council of 30 aristocratic elders, 28 over 60 years old (plus the 2 kings who could be

under 60) chosen for life by all the citizens• Assembly of all citizens who approved or rejected laws but could not initiate any.• 5 ephors (监察官 ) who oversaw the king, and chosen by lot from among the citizenry.

Poor and vulnerable to bribery.

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Plato (柏拉图 ) Student of Socrates Authoritarian Utopia (the Republic 国家篇 ) Theory of ideas (universals): Books V-VII of the Republic Immortality Cosmogony (in the Timaeus 蒂迈欧篇 , translated by Cicero 西塞罗 ) Knowledge and Perception (in the Theatetus 泰阿泰德篇 )

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Plato (cont.d) Authoritarian Utopia (the Republic 国家篇 ) .

• Attributed Athens’ defeat, and Socrates’ death, to democracy• Predisposed to Sparta by:

Pythagoras’ (毕达哥拉斯的 ) Orphism (奥尔弗斯派 ) combining • immortality & other-worldliness, which Plato embodies in rule by the initiate, the good statesman who

knows the Good through intellectual and moral discipline

with

• mathematics, necessary for Plato to impart true wisdom to an aristocratic oligarchy since leisure is essential to wisdom

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Plato (cont.d) Authoritarian Utopia (the Republic) cont.d

• Predisposed to Sparta by: (cont.d) Parmenides (巴门尼德)

• Eternal & timeless reality. Whence Plato concludes Goodness is timeless. The best state has static perfection.

• & Illusoriness of change. Whence Plato concludes the best state has minimum of change

Heraclitus (赫拉克利特)• Nothing permanent in the sensible world

• No knowledge through the senses, only through the intellect

Socrates• Teleological (vs mechanistic) explanations driven by

• Ethical preoccupation with The Good. So Plato concludes The best state copies the heavenly model The best rulers best understand the eternal Good

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• Supposes that wisdom is knowledge of the good and whoever has it does what is right. Objections: Instead statesmen arrive at the best compromise of divergent interests. The interest of mankind as a whole does not determine political action. No subset of citizens is likely to be wiser than the whole body.

• To define “justice”, Plato inquires of the just State rather than the just individual because the bigger is easier to see. Sophistic category mistake: a group is not an individual and so cannot behave like an individual.

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Plato (cont.d) Authoritarian Utopia (the Republic) cont.d• 3 classes of citizens: common people, soldiers, and guardians

Only guardians have political power Originally chosen by the legislator but later hereditary, with occasional promotions from and demotions to the inferior classes.

• Education: culture [“music” (from the “muses”)] and gymnastics• Rigid censorship: mothers & nurses to tell young children only authorized stories.

The young are to see no ugliness or vice Homer’s (荷马的 ) writings not allowed because

• Gods behave badly and evil cannot come from the gods

• Readers made to fear death, whereas young people should be made willing to die in battle

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• Plays must must contain only faultless heros of good birth, because the good man should be unwilling to imitate a bad man. So all dramatists should be banned. Nietzsche (尼采 ) denounced Greek tragedy for the anti-hero.

• Permissible rhythms must be simple , to express a courageous and harmonious life.• Guardians should share modest common houses and common, simple food and live in companies in a camp• Complete equality of women with men

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• Marriages arranged eugenically at certain festivals where partners appear to be chosen by lot, but the best sires will have the most children. To minimize private possessive emotions

• children to be taken from parents at birth

• children to call everyone “father”, “mother”, “sister” or “brother” respectively

• Lying is a prerogative of government to inculcate myths. The single most important lie is that God created men of the three kinds. Example: Japanese belief that emperor descended from the sun god and Japan was created before the rest of the world

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• Justice is everyone doing his assigned job without interfering with that of the other classes. Originates in Greek concept of fate or necessity, where every god, person or thing has an appointed place.

• Hubris or vigor causes overstepping of just bounds and, thence, strife, as according to Heraclitus, Empedocles (恩培多克勒 ) and Parmenides.

• Source of the belief in natural and human law

Concerned not with equality but with property rights. Example: paying debts Injustice is men in lower classes wiser than guardians, or people in a class different from their parents’.

Accordingly, promotion and degradation of citizens should be conducted to remedy this.

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• Objections: In matters of government it’s hard to know

• who has the most skill, or

• whether a politician will use his skill in the public interest

Circularity: the purposes of the government are essential in determining what is a man’s job (whose preassignment is supposed to determine the role of governent).

While all rulers are to be philosophers, there are to be no innovations No production of art or science; just skill in war and enough to eat.

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• Ideals (vs ordinary objects of desire) are impersonal but conflict between them is decided by our own personal desires. Ethical disagreements are decided by emotional appeals, propaganda power, or force, or by factual observation if virtually all who have investigated a statement agree in upholding it. Kant 康德

(categorical imperative) and Jerremy Bentham 及其 (greatest good for the greatest number) thought they had found commonly agreed rules for private conduct or a theory of politics. This is consensus gentium.

Consensus gentium works badly in science, where innovations win support by argument, not by whether the majority already agrees.

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Plato (cont.d)

Authoritarian Utopia (the Republic) cont.d• Common practice of cities (like Athens) to employ a

sage (like Solon 梭伦 ) to draw up its laws

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Plato (cont.d) Theory of ideas (universals): Books V-VII of the Republic

• Driven by the difference between reality and appearance• Physical instances of things are apparent. The ideal universal thing is real.• Combines the logic of Parmenides (巴门尼德 ) with the other-worldliness of Pythagoras (毕达哥拉斯 ) and the Orphics.

• Wisdom is “vision of truth” or knowledge, versus opinion Knowledge is infallible because it is “of” something that thereby exists (Parmenides). You see the absolute,

eternal and immutable, a supersensible world. For example beauty itself is the object of knowledge. It is real.

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Plato (cont.d) Theory of ideas (universals): Books V-VII of the Republic (cont.d)

• Wisdom is “vision of truth” or knowledge, versus opinion (cont.d) Opinion is of both what is and what is not (Heraclitus 赫拉克利特 ). All objects in

the sensible world partake of opposite, contradictory characters, and thus are intermediate between being and not being. For example, beautiful things are the object of opinion. Particular things are not real.

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• Philosophy is not just (acquiring) wisdom, but love of wisdom Spinoza’s (斯宾诺莎的 ) “intellectual love of God” Russell (罗素著 ): love of the moment of “divine intoxication” in creative work when, after long labor,

• truth or beauty appears in a sudden glory.

• sudden perception of the whole

• subjective certainty, which at other times may be misleading: William James’ (詹姆士的 ) account of person who claimed to see the secret of the universe when under laughing gas, and wrote it down as “the smell of petroleum pervades throughout”

• doubt may come later

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• Parable of the cave 2 kinds of intellect

• reason object is pure ideas method is dialectic

• understanding hypothetical reasoning used in mathematics unlike reason, cannot find the ideal constructs in a supersensible world Plato tries to answer an objection that geometry is mere understanding and not reason: since the ideal triangle has 3 ideal straight lines,

geometry is capable of not ultimate truth but only study of appearance.

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• Parable of the cave Knowledge versus appearance. Knowing is likened to sight which requires light.

World of ideas is the object illuminated by the sun (truth) In the twilight of becoming and perishing, the soul has opinion only.

Stages: Prisoners in cave see shadows of selves and of things behind them on a wall and projected by day-light source behind them. An escapee discovers the real things and realizes he had been deceived by shadows. He senses a duty to inform the others of the truth. But it will be hard for him to persuade them because he will now see the shadows less clearly than they.

God himself, if he wishes to amend his creation, must do likewise Source of Christian incarnation of God and redemption of man.

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Plato (cont.d) Theory of ideas (universals): Books V-VII of the Republic (cont.d)• Primacy of the Good

The Good has a higher place than science & truth that are like the Good. The Good far exceeds “essence” in power. The Good is at “the limit” of intellect, reached through dialectic.

• Dialectic (statement and counter-statement) leads to the end of the intellectual world (inevitability of contradiction): Kierkegaard’s (著克尔凯郭尔的) “irrational element”, influencing Niels Bohr’s (尼尔斯 ·玻尔的 ) quantum “leap” in quantum mechanics (erratic jump of electrons between orbits)

• Dialectic can dispense with the hypotheses of mathematics [mathematics as dependent on a mental “picture” (intuitionism) or mathematics as simply a set or rules (formalism)]

• The Good is experienced through a fusion of mysticism & intellect

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• Reality is perfectly good (optimism)• Plato was first to emphasize the problem of universals:

The world needs to contain more than particular things. Without ideas there is nothing on which the mind can rest. There need to be general words and relation words, not just names (Aristotelian nominalism, “extension”) to convey

meaning. Plato makes a syntax/category mistake:

• He considers the universal is a pattern-individual of which actual individuals are copies

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Plato (cont.d) Theory of ideas (universals): Books V-VII of the Republic (cont.d)• Plato was first to emphasize the problem of universals (cont.d):

Plato makes a syntax/category mistake (cont.d): • In the Parmenides (巴门尼德 ) he self-criticizes his mistake: there are ideas of qualities (denoted by adjectives) of which things share,

but he doubts there can be an idea of man (a thing, denoted by a noun). Parmenides asks if an individual partakes of (a) the whole idea or (b) just a part --if (a) then the individual is in many places at once --if (b) then the idea is divisible and the small individual is smaller than absolute smallness. says that, if an individual and an idea (quality) it shares are similar, then another idea must comprise that similarity and so every

idea, instead of being one, becomes an infinite series of ideas (Aristotle’s argument of the “third man”). Therefore an idea cannot resemble the particulars that share them.

says that ideas must be unknown to us because our knowledge is not absolute, and that God cannot know us and thus cannot rule us because his knowledge is absolute.

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Plato (cont.d) Theory of ideas (universals): Books V-VII of the

Republic (cont.d)• Plato was first to emphasize the problem of

universals (cont.d): Plato makes a syntax/category mistake (cont.d):

Names (“proper” nouns) a, b, c, ...

Qualities (adjectives & “common” nouns) Q1,Q2,Q3, … , where Q1: {a, f, p}

Q2: {a, g, t,v}

Q3: {e, z} . . .

Q1a : “a has quality Q1”

Q1a : a Q1

Q1a <--> x)Q1x

x)Q1x : “some x has quality Q1”

e

a

z

f

p

gt

v

Q3

Q1 Q2

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Plato (cont.d) Theory of ideas (universals): Books V-VII of the Republic (cont.d)• Plato was first to emphasize the problem of universals (cont.d):

Plato makes a syntax/category mistake (cont.d): • He mistakes relative terms for absolutes and derives false contradictions.• Any attempt to divide the world into individuals of which one is more real than another is doomed to failure

Timelessness of Platonic ideas means they were not created because they had to be objects of thought of the creator

• This leads to gnosticism because only the contingent space-time world of illusion and evil could have been created and God would not do that. impossible to explain why God was not content with the world of ideas

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Plato (cont.d)

Theory of ideas (universals): Books V-VII of the Republic (cont.d)• Plato was first to emphasize the problem of universals (cont.d):

Timelessness of Platonic ideas means they were not created (cont.d)• But Plato says that God created only what is good.

The multiplicity of the sensible world has another source The multiple ideas are “adjectival” (qualities) of the ultimate God or the Good, or are its

essence.

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• Educational preparation of the mind of a guardian for the vision of eternal things. Guardian should be just & gentle and fond of learning and have a harmonious mind concentrate on the 4 Pythagorean studies from 22 to 30 years old: arithmetic, geometry,

astronomy and harmony concentrate less on actual things and more on the characteristics of the ideal thing.

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• Educational preparation of the mind of guardian for the vision of eternal things. Guardian must (cont.d) concentrate less on actual things and more on the characteristics of the ideal thing (cont.d)

• This proved a fruitful preparation for empirical astronomy by prompting search for a hypothesis reducing apparent disorderliness of planetary motion to order, beauty and simplicity: found in Aristarchus of Samos’ (撒摩的亚里士达克的 )

hypothesis of circular motion of the planets, including earth, around the sun --rejected by Aristotle, who attributes it also to Pythagoreans --revived by Copernicus (哥白尼所 ) only 2000 years later. modified only after Copernicus by --Kepler (开普勒 ) into elliptical motions with the sun at the foci --Newton (牛顿 ) into inexact ellipses

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• Educational preparation of the mind of guardian for the vision of eternal things. Guardian must (cont.d) concentrate less on actual things and more on the characteristics of the ideal thing (cont.d)

• But ultimately illusory: A wrong hypothesis may enable a better way to conceive things but eventually become an obstacle to further progress The aesthetic, as well as ethical, bias of Plato, especially Aristotle, --did much to kill Greek science --set out to prove the universe agreeable to ethical standards. Not disinterested search for knowledge

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Plato (cont.d) Immortality

• Last hours of Socrates in the Phaedo (斐多篇 ) before death sentence for corrupting youth. Source of the theology of St. Paul (圣保罗 ) and the Fathers (教父们 ) of the Church.

• In the Crito (克利陀篇 ) Athenian authorities would have been happy if Socrates had escaped but Socrates says it is wrong to illegally avoid wrong punishment resulting from due process of law. Like God’s allowance of death of Christ. Respect for Athens’ laws like a son to a father. Victim not of laws but of men Cannot break covenants and agreements, the basis of laws in the world Justice is more important than life and children

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Plato (cont.d) Immortality (cont.d)

• Suicide Normally suicide is unlawful.

• By Orphic doctrine, man is a prisoner of the body and has no right to open the door.• Herdsman justifiably angry if cattle takes its own life.

God is summoning Socrates: the sentence of suicide is not unlawful suicide. • Death is separation of soul from inferior body.

Orphic doctrine: man is child of the earth and the starry heaven Ascetic morality because the body is inferior: body as a source of lust and a source of distortions of reality:

• Body is the source of troubles, of war from love of money (like Marx 马克思 ). • Only partly adopted by Christianity because

Inferior body means evil deed by Creator who thereby could not be good Christianity could not condemn marriage, although it considered celibacy nobler.

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• Death is separation of soul & body. (cont.d) Ascetic morality because the body is inferior: body as a source of lust and a source of distortions of reality: (cont.d)

• Should not abstain from ordinary pleasures, only not be a slave to them

• The philosopher doesn’t make an effort to abstain from the pleasures of sense, but instead would be more interested in thinking of other things. He is indifferent to worldly success, and so devoid of fear that he remains calm, urbane and humorous to the last moment, and devoted not just to finding the truth but to what the truth should be. Absent-mindedness:

• Philosophers forgetting their meals. Physicist Hamilton (汉密尔顿 ) lost track of a steak found a week later under his papers.• Philosopher should marry and rear children in the same absent-minded way.

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• The philosopher doesn’t make an effort to abstain from the pleasures of sense, but instead ... devoted not just to finding the truth but to what the truth should be. (cont.d) Philosophers tend to sever the communion of the soul with the body (cont.d)

• Plato seems to support moralists who believe that pleasures are only bodily• But the worst and best pleasures are mental: envy, cruelty, love of power.

Milton’s (弥尔顿的 ) physically tormented Satan derives mental pleasure from destruction Cruelties of ecclesiastics driven by love of power Hitler (希特勒 ) little attracted to sense pleasures Liberation from tyranny of the body leads to greatness as much in sin as in virtue. Russell is asserting why, as if to avoid this,

the Orphic wine cult associates mental pleasure with bodily ecstasy, “purity”.

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Plato (cont.d) Immortality (cont.d)• The body is a hindrance to knowledge: true existence is revealed in thought

knowledge is • of hypothetical constructs (logic and mathematics) • and mystical insight. Intellectual “vision” of absolute justice, absolute beauty, absolute good

knowledge is not categorical assertions about the actual world. Rejection of empirical knowledge: history, geography Plato assumes as self evident that it is the good which is real, not an abstraction from the physical “real” world. The

good drives the physical world, not vice versa. Thought is best when the mind is gathered into itself, takes leave of the body. The soul is like a drunkard when she

touches change until returning into herself and reflecting.

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Plato (cont.d) Immortality (cont.d)• The body is a hindrance to knowledge: true existence is revealed in thought (cont.d)

Complete knowledge possible only after death because the soul cannot have pure knowledge. • Attempt of separation by “out of body” experiences in Eastern religions, e.g. yoga, but to escape from the mind: state of “no mind” in

Zen (禅 ) Buddhism.• Death of Socrates or Christ (redemption) can denote transmission to mankind of wisdom through experiencing the death of Socrates or

Christ (for example what treatment of Christ or Socrates says about human nature--the outcast genius, the condemned prophet, shooting the messenger)

• Philosopher needs to live from wealth created by others Exempt from labor because that lowers the mind to material pursuits. Aristotle’s disdain for the artisan who uses

hands, compared to the philosopher/aristocrat who does not: root of European philosophical discomfort with technology.

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• Philosopher needs to live from wealth created by others (cont.d) No philosophers in a poor State. Imperialism of Athens in the age of Pericles (白里克里斯 ) made it possible for

Athenians to study philosophy. The less mystic the knowledge, the more intellectual goods depend on economic conditions. Theoretical science

depends on pencil & paper, versus experimental science’s dependence on apparatus.

• Arguments for the soul’s survival after death: All things are generated from their opposites (Anaximander’s 阿那克西曼德的 cosmic justice): souls come back.

Animal rights: death as reason for life of farmed animals.

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• Arguments for the soul’s survival after death: (cont.d) (A priori, not empirical) knowledge is recollection (Descartes 笛卡尔 , Kant); so, the soul must have existed before

birth . • Capacity to perceive essences and ideas like exact equality are not derivable from experience. But it is hard to eliminate all reference

to experience in any statement of exact equality between two objects because the statement is subject to empirical disproof.

• The Meno (美诺篇 ). There is no teaching, only recollection. Socratic teaching method.

Parmenidean argument. Only what is complex can dissolve, but the soul is simple like ideas, and simple things cannot change nor be seen.

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• Only the true philosopher’s soul goes to heaven. Others’, who loved the body, haunt graves or return in an animal’s body. In the Timaeus (蒂迈欧篇 )

• Cowardly, unrighteous men return in the next life as women. In Latin “virtue” is derived from “vir”: man.

• Innocent light-minded men who think astronomy can be learned by observation without mathematics become birds

• Those without philosophy become wild land animals

• The stupidest become fish.

For Socrates bad souls go to hell and the intermediate to purgatory.

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Plato (cont.d)

Cosmogony (in the Timaeus 蒂迈欧篇 , translated by Cicero 西塞罗 )• Philosophically insignificant but historically significant because it influenced

Roman thought & neoplatonism more than anything else in Plato did.• The subject of the dialogue is a Pythagorean instead of Socrates, and

Pythagorean doctrines are accepted including that number is the explanation of the world.

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Plato (cont.d) Cosmogony (in the Timaeus 蒂迈欧篇 , translated by Cicero 西塞罗 ) cont.d

• Intelligence & reason apprehend what is unchanging; what is changing is apprehended by opinion• Out of disorder God brought order: reordered pre-existing material unlike the Judeo-Christian God

who created the world out of nothing. He put intelligence in the soul and the soul in the body. He made the world as a whole as a living creature with a soul and intelligence. Category mistake: a class of

things cannot operate like a member of the class.• There is only one world, not many, because it is a created copy of the eternal original

apprehended by God. Category mistake: particularization of the universal.

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• The world is a globe because like is fairer than unlike and only a globe is alike everywhere. It rotates because circular motion is the most perfect and, so, it needs no appendages.

• The 4 elements, air, fire, water and earth is each represented by a number and in continued proportion: fire is to air as air is to water and as water is to earth. Proportion causes the world to have the spirit of friendship, harmony A harmonious world is indissoluble except by God

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• God first made the soul, then the body. The soul is a third intermediate kind* of essence consisting of both the indivisible-unchangeable and the divisible-changeable. *category mistake in normal speech: “essence of an intermediate kind” is more correct.

• God wanted his copy/image of the eternal world to be more perfect. Since eternity is impossible to copy and rests on unity, he made the image eternal by making it move according to number (which is eternal), and that movement is Time. Big bang hypothesis of the history of the universe God made the animals so they could learn arithmetic: periodicity in motion (succession of days and nights)

prompted counting.

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• Two kinds of causes: mind and necessity intelligent (first) causes or principles. Deliberate, free. Anthropomorphic. Mind. Purposeful. derivative caused/compelled causes. Chance effects without order or design. Necessity. Not subject to

(anthropomorphic) laws, not subject to God’s power. This avoided problem of evil that occupied Christian theology.

• The 4 elements are not first causes/principles, and therefore not essences/substances. They are states of substances. Intelligible essences cannot be names because knowledge of essences cannot be of mere names (individuals).

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• The 4 elements are not first causes/principles, and therefore not essences/substances. (cont.d) Accordingly, space is intermediate between essence and the world of transient things.

• Space is eternal and provides a home for all created things.

• Space is apprehended without the help of sense but by a kind of spurious reason and, so, is not real either. As if in a dream, we say of all existence that it must of necessity occupy a space in some place. Like Kant’s space-time organizing principle of perception.

• Intermediate character of space is suggested by geometry which appears to be a matter of pure reason, like arithmetic, but has to do with space which is an aspect of the sensible world.

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Cosmogony (in the Timaeus 蒂迈欧篇 , translated by Cicero 西塞罗 ) cont.d• The true elements of the material world are two

kinds of right triangle: half a square and half an equilateral triangle. These are the two most beautiful forms that God therefore used in constructing matter.

Half a square Half an equilateral triangle

Plato (cont.d)

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Plato (cont.d) Cosmogony (in the Timaeus 蒂迈欧篇 , translated by Cicero 西塞罗 ) cont.d• 4 of the 5 regular solids are constructed from the two triangles.

Atoms of each of the 4 elements are one of the 4 solids.

Theory of regular solids was a recent discovery by Euclid(欧几里德 ). Pentagram always prominent in magic: Pythagoreans called it “health” and

used it to recognize members of the brotherhood.

Fire atom Earth atom Air atom Water atomMost approximates a sphere, so represents

the universeSource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid

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Plato (cont.d) Cosmogony (in the Timaeus 蒂迈欧篇 ,

translated by Cicero 西塞罗 ) cont.d• Proof of the 5 regular solids: A dual cube-octahedron

* The tetrahedron is self-dual (i.e. its dual is another tetrahedron). * The cube and the octahedron form a dual pair. * The dodecahedron and the icosahedron form a dual pair.

Since the total number F of faces, and total number V of vertices, each equals two times the number E of edges since any edge E joins two vertices V and joins two adjacent faces F , each face F joins p edges, and each vertex V joins q edges, we must have:

from the fact that the Euler characteristic of the sphere is 2:

Substituting for V & F in this equation one obtains

Dividing by 2E and rearranging gives

Since E is strictly positive we must have

Using the fact that p and q must both be at least 3, one can easily see that there are only five possibilities for {p, q}:

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Plato (cont.d) Cosmogony (in the Timaeus 蒂迈欧篇 ,

translated by Cicero 西塞罗 ) cont.d• Kepler's (开普勒的 ) Platonic solid model of the

solar system from Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid

The five solids were set inside one another and separated by a series of inscribed and circumscribed spheres. The six spheres each corresponded to one of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). The solids were ordered with the innermost being the octahedron, followed by the icosahedron, dodecahedron, tetrahedron, and finally the cube. In this way the structure of the solar system and the distance relationships between the planets was dictated by the Platonic solids..

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Plato (cont.d)

Knowledge and Perception (in the Theatetus 泰阿泰德篇 )• Knowledge is not perception (derived from the senses). Seeing is not believing.

The only knowledge is of concepts. Originated in Parmenides “Knowledge is perception” is a category mistake.

• It should be “knowledge is judgements of perception”.

• Percepts filled out with words become a judgement capable of being true or false.

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Plato (cont.d) Knowledge and Perception (in the Theatetus 泰阿泰德篇 ) cont.d

• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you know, that knowledge and perception are mutually exclusive. If perception is of something that is, then perception is infallible and “Man is the measure of all things” (Protagoras 普罗塔哥拉 ).

Objections:• Why not extend knowledge to animal perception?

• Reality of dreams and hallucinations?

• Then one man knows no more than another. Sophism. “As wise as the gods” is the same as “no wiser than a fool”. Contradictory claims are equally true.

• One man’s judgement can be “better” than another’s: pragmatism. A doctor knows my future better than I do.

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• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you know, that knowledge and perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) If perception is of something that is, then perception is infallible and “Man is the measure of all things” (Protagoras 普罗塔哥拉 ).

Objections: (cont.d) • May apply to percepts, but not to inferences, subject to an impersonal standard of correctness.

In empirical matters, an impersonal standard does not test the full inference: --in particular percepts are required to test the truth of the conclusion or of the premise. --the impersonal standard determines the correctness of the derivation of the conclusion from the premise.

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• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you know, that knowledge and perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) If perception is of something that is, then perception is infallible and “Man is the measure

of all things” (Protagoras 普罗塔哥拉 ). Objections: (cont.d) • May apply to percepts, but not to inferences, subject to an impersonal standard of correctness.

In empirical matters, an impersonal standard does not test the full inference: (cont.d)

A --> B

logical reasoning: valid or not. B true or not by observation of A.

factual statement: true or not. By observation of B.

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• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you know, that knowledge and perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) If perception is of something that is, then perception is infallible and “Man is the measure of all

things” (Protagoras 普罗塔哥拉 ). Objections: (cont.d) • May apply to percepts, but not to inferences, subject to an impersonal standard of correctness. (cont.d)

In empirical matters, an impersonal standard does not test the full inference: (cont.d) Distinguishing between product and process, between a function and the value of a function, between a

mapping f( ) and the range y of the mapping: y = f(x) is a mapping from the set of points/numbers x into a set of points/numbers y:

domain mapping range

yfx

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• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you know, that knowledge and perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) If perception is of something that is, then perception is infallible and “Man is the measure of all things”

(Protagoras 普罗塔哥拉 ). Objections: (cont.d) • May apply to percepts, but not to inferences, subject to an impersonal standard of correctness. (cont.d)

In empirical matters, an impersonal standard does not test the full inference: (cont.d) Distinguishing between product and process, between a function and the value of a function, between a mapping f( )

and the range y of the mapping: y = f(x) is a mapping from the set of points/numbers x into a set of points/numbers y: (cont.d)

yfx

functionnumerical value of the function

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Plato (cont.d) Knowledge and Perception (in the Theatetus 泰阿泰德篇 ) cont.d• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you know, that knowledge and

perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) The subject and object of perception are always changing (Heraclitus 赫拉克利特 ), but not the objects of

knowledge. • Therefore, knowledge as perception can be knowledge only of what becomes. Two kinds of change: by locomotion and in quality.

Objection: locomotion alone is not Heraclitan because the same thing changes position: no change in substance. Except in quantum physics: Heisenberg’s (海森堡的 ) uncertainty principlepq > h / 4, where is the variability, p is

momentum, q is position, and h is Planck’s constant, a very small number. The sharper is (or the smaller the is of) the momentum (the change in position), the vaguer is (or the bigger the is of) the position (a particle becomes a blur or wave, with density diminishing outward from the center like a normal probability distribution). The sharper the position (particle), the vaguer is the movement (momentum).

p q

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Plato (cont.d) Knowledge and Perception (in the Theatetus 泰阿泰德篇 ) cont.d• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you know, that knowledge and perception

are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) The subject and object of perception are always changing (Heraclitus), but not the objects of knowledge. (cont.d)

• Therefore, knowledge as perception can be knowledge only of what becomes. Two kinds of change: by locomotion and in quality. (cont.d) So change when it occurs is change both by locomotion and in quality. Changes occur faster than our statements about it. So, perception is both knowledge and not-knowledge about the same thing. Objection: --This superposes primitive logical dichotomy in place of continuous quantitatively expressible change --Meaning of words needs to change only more slowly than the described changes In quantum mechanics and in social science, the observer affects the observed.

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Plato (cont.d)

Knowledge and Perception (in the Theatetus 泰阿泰德篇 ) cont.d• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you

know, that knowledge and perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) The subject and object of perception are always changing (Heraclitus), but not the

objects of knowledge. (cont.d) • Objection: at least the meanings of words must be fixed; otherwise no discourse or knowledge.

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perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) Some knowledge is unconnected with any sense organ, such as knowledge of (non)existence, (un)likeness,

(dis)similarity, (non)singularity, (dis)honorable, and (not)good. Knowledge consists of reflection. But these judgements are capable of being true or false; so, (non)existence, etc., subsist and are not something merely mental.

• But Plato makes a category mistake regarding existence. “Existence” means that a particular description is true: (x)Ax . (If A applies to many objects the description is incomplete; if to only one object it is complete.) “” is a logical operator that applies to descriptions (propositions), not to names “a” of particular things. Existence is not a predicate “E” applying to names such as “a”, as in “Ea”.

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perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) Some knowledge is unconnected with any sense organ, such as knowledge of (non)existence, …; so,

(non)existence, etc., subsist and are not something merely mental.• Pure mathematics is not derived from perception (contrary to intuitionism). Pure mathematical statements are tautologies

determined by rules governing use of symbols (formalism): v, . They refer to no particular portion of space-time.• Enumeration is only partly derived from perception, by being applied to objects of perception.

But numbers themselves are reducible to logic: “There are ten things x that are Ax” is (x)(Ax <--> x{a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,I,j} <--> x=a v x=b v…v x=j)

Accordingly numbers are logical “fictions”, referring to a form of a proposition, not to any corresponding constituent of the meaning of the proposition.

A

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Plato (cont.d)

Knowledge and Perception (in the Theatetus 泰阿泰德篇 ) cont.d• Socrates sets out to prove that you cannot perceive the thing that you

know, that knowledge and perception are mutually exclusive. (cont.d) Plato says that each of sound and color is one. This is again a syntactic error, a

category mistake.“One” applies not to things but to unit classes. It is a property of concepts, like Ax. (x)(Ax <--> x{a} <--> x=a).

A

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Aristotle (亚里士多德 ) Background

• From Thrace (Stagyra; he was called “the Stagyrite” and “the Philosopher” in the Middle Ages). Father was physician to King of Macedonia.

• Student of Plato, with whom spent 20 years at Athens Academy until Plato died.• Later tutored Alexander (亚历山大而 ) for 3 years.

Hegel (黑格尔 ) believed Alexander’s career showed the practical usefulness of philosophy. But for Alexander the whole tradition of Hellenic civilization might have perished Little influence on Aristotle who favored small city states in an age of empire.

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Aristotle (cont.d) Background (cont.d)• After Alexander’s death Athenians rebelled against Alexander’s supporters, and Aristotle was indicted for impiety but

fled to avoid punishment. • First to write like a professor.• Distinguished between techne, or useful knowledge, and episteme, or philosophical understanding of the causes of

things• Doctrine of the golden mean. • No passion. A strong dose of common sense. Strong in detailed criticism: weak in large construction for lack of clarity • End of creative period in Greek thought• 2000 years later his authority was as unquestioned as the Catholic Church’s• Became a serious obstacle to progress in science since 1600: every advance undermined an Aristotelian doctrine

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Aristotle (cont.d)

Metaphysics Ethics Politics Logic Physics

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Aristotle (cont.d)

Metaphysics (Plato diluted by common sense)• Doctrine of universals

Plato was mathematical. Aristotle was biological: evolutionary, teleological, organic. Criticism of Plato’s theory of ideas

• Argument of the “third man”: since there is an ideal pattern-man, there must be a third man to whom a man and the ideal man are both similar. Infinite regress.

• When several individuals share a predicate, it is because of relation to something not of the same kind as themselves but more ideal (a different level, such as a category).

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Aristotle (cont.d) Metaphysics (Plato diluted by common sense)

• Doctrine of universals (cont.d) There are proper names (applying to individuals, and signifying a substance particular to an

individual) and there are adjectives (signifying a universal or class, common to individuals).• Problem of universals is to determine the meaning of adjectives and common nouns.

Universals exist not by themselves but in particular things. Adjectives depend for meaning on proper names, but not vice versa. In fact a quality cannot exist unless some subject exists but not a particular subject, and vice versa.

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• Essence, Form, and Substance Imprecise notion of “essence”: it is not a “universal”. Essence is an entity’s identity, be it the entity an individual or a class. Form versus matter. It is in virtue of form, delimitation, that a thing is differentiated from the rest of matter, and the specific matter of the thing is the

thing’s substance. • Form gives unity (identity?) to a portion of matter.

• Form is essence, “primary” substance (differentiated matter?).

• Form is substantial while universals are not.

• Matter without form is potentiality. Matter with more form is more actual.

• In other words?: Essence = Form in a piece of matter Substance = Matter in some form Identity = Specific matter & form

?

?

?

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• Essence, Form, and Substance (cont.d) Form versus matter. It is in virtue of form, delimitation, that a thing is differentiated from the rest of matter, and the specific matter of the thing is

the thing’s substance. (cont.d) • As there comes to be more form and less matter, things become gradually more knowable.

Universe is developing to something continually better. God is form without matter. --So, the world is progressively becoming more like God --The progression of the world toward God is unending because a substratum of matter always remains Optimistic & teleological.

• God is pure form and pure actuality: in him there is no change.

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• Essence, Form, and Substance (cont.d) The soul is the form of the body, the body’s unity of purpose or systemicity that makes it an organism. Vitalism. Life essence. Forms are substances (categories?) existing independently of matter (the components of categories?).

• So forms, more real than matter, are like Platonic universals.

• A form can be embodied in many particular things.

3 kinds of substance• sensible and perishable. Plants & animals

• sensible and not perishable. Heavenly bodies whose only change is motion.

• neither sensible nor perishable. Rational soul and God.

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Aristotle (cont.d) Metaphysics (Plato diluted by common sense)• God as first cause.

Must be unmoved to originate motion. Object of thought and of desire causes motion without being in motion.

• God produces motion by being loved

• Every other cause of motion is itself in motion.

Life is the actuality of thought and belongs to God. Eternal, unmovable substance separate from sensible things.

• God exists eternally as pure thought and complete self-fulfillment. Static perfection. Greek preference for contemplation rather than action

• The sensible world is imperfect with aspiration

• Living things are moved to action by admiration and love of God, the final cause

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• God as first cause. (cont.d) Unlike Christian God, he does not think about anything except what is perfect, “thinking on thinking”. Like Spinoza’s (斯宾诺莎的 ) God, he cannot

love men. 4 kinds of cause:

• material: the matter comprising the thing being produced

• formal: the essence (form?) of the thing being produced

• efficient: the productive activity

• final: the end the producer has in view. Purpose for change (by the unmoved mover: evolution towards likeness with God).

• Immortality The soul (form), bound up with the body (matter), perishes with the body. Like wax (body) and the shape (soul) given to it by a stamp. No Pythagorean transmigration of souls.

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• Immortality (cont.d) Soul

• is essence or “primary” substance which is actuality of a material body --that otherwise has potentiality and --that is the body’s substance or specific matter confers substantiality on a living being

• is the identity of a body

• makes the body an organic whole having purposes as a unit, an organism versus an organ whose purpose lies outside itself, and which doesn’t share characteristics of the organism.

• moves the body and perceives sensible objects. Life principle.

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Aristotle (cont.d) Metaphysics (Plato diluted by common sense)• Immortality (cont.d)

Soul (cont.d) • has two elements:

irrational: --vegetative in all living things and appetitive in animals. --This is the individual soul. Matters of taste. Men differ rational (=mind): contemplation, which is divine presence in the thinker. --We make ourselves immortal by thinking not of human things but of the higher things. Increase the divine in our nature. Abraham Lincoln’s (亚伯拉罕·林肯的) “the better angels of our nature”. --This is the impersonal soul. Matters of correct thinking. Men concur. Leibniz’ (莱布尼兹的) calculus of thought. --Not a personal immortality but a share in God’s immortality. If we succeed completely we cease to exist as a separate person.

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• Immortality (cont.d) Mind versus soul. Mind is

• higher than the soul less bound to the body and has the higher function of thinking

• an independent substance implanted in the soul and incapable of being destroyed

• the part of us that understands mathematics and philosophy

• timeless as its objects are timeless

• possessed by few people

• incapable of causing movement because it never thinks of what is practicable.

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Aristotle (cont.d) Ethics (Nichomachean Ethics 尼各马可伦理学 )

• Reflects the prevailing opinions of educated and experienced men of his time• None of Plato’s mystical religion or unorthodox social theories of the Republic (国家篇 ) on family and

property. • Appeal to respectable middle-aged people, to repress the ardours and enthusiasm of the young.• The good is happiness, an activity of the soul. Open only to the philosopher

happiness consists in successful activity perfect happiness lies in the best activity which is contemplative, for reason defines man and man shares in the divine life

insofar as he is contemplative

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Aristotle (cont.d) Ethics (Nichomachean Ethics 尼各马可伦理学 )• The good is happiness, an activity of the soul. Open only to the philosopher (cont.d)

contemplation is preferable to war or politics or other practical career because it requires leisure essential to happiness. Objection: Thought versus action. Can man seek labor versus leisure: creative self-realization through intellectual work which is more than contemplation?

• Marx (labour theory of value), Nietzsche, versus • Cybernetics and the disappearance of work (leisure society).

• Optimism. Scientific importance of final causes; so, purpose governs the universe’s development toward more organization or “form”, and virtuous actions favor this tendency. Hegel’s (黑格尔的 ) dialectic.

• Agrees with Plato in dividing the soul into rational and irrational parts. The irrational appetitive part may be rational when what it seeks is approved of by reason, leading the rational contemplative part to practical activity.

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• 2 kinds of virtue: intellectual (from teaching) and moral (from habit), corresponding to the rational and irrational parts of the soul By being compelled to acquire good habits, we come to find pleasure in performing good actions. Doctrine of the Golden Mean: every virtue is a mean between 2 extremes each of which is a vice.

• Examples: courage between cowardice & rashness, proper pride between vanity & humility• Russell’s objection: truthfulness doesn’t seem to be a mean, any more than justice is a mean between partiality and impartiality (except, in my

opinion, between over-criticism and over-praise)• Applies to the practical virtues. Intellectual contemplation, the highest activity, is not subject to the Golden Mean• Justice involves not equality, but right proportion (aristocracy)• Friendship with a slave is possible, with him as a man but not as a living tool with whom there is nothing in common• In unequal relations everyone should be loved in proportion to his or her worth, and the inferior should love the superior more than vice versa.

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• 2 kinds of virtue: intellectual (from teaching) and moral (from habit), corresponding to the rational and irrational parts of the soul (cont.d) Doctrine of the Golden Mean: every virtue is a mean between 2 extremes each of which is a vice. (cont.d)

• The best individual should have proper pride, not underestimate his own merits, and he or she should despise whoever deserves to be despised.• The magnanimous man

depends on an exceptional social position for his virtue is positioned in the mean between the unduly humble man and the vain man moderately pleased with great honours conferred by good men utterly despises honour from casual people on trifling grounds desires power & wealth only for honour does not run into trifling dangers

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• 2 kinds of virtue: intellectual (from teaching) and moral (from habit), corresponding to the rational and irrational parts of the soul (cont.d) Doctrine of the Golden Mean: every virtue is a mean between 2 extremes each of which is a vice. (cont.d)

• The magnanimous man (cont.d) is inclined to confer benefits but ashamed of receiving them confers greater benefits in return so as to create a debt asks for scarcely anything but gives help readily is dignified to those of high position but unassuming to middle-class people considers lofty bearing over humble people to be as bad as display of strength against the weak should not conceal feelings, because concealment is cowardice. Not Confucian (儒教 ). is not given to admiration because for him nothing is great possesses beautiful and profitless things rather than profitable and useful ones has a deep voice and level utterance

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• Ethics is a form of politics with monarchy the best form of government and aristocracy the next best, in a community that confines the best things to a

few. Most men are merely means for the production of a few sages and rulers who are comfortable men of weak passions. • Nietzsche (尼采 ) agreed.

• Kant (康德 ) disagreed: every human being is an end in himself. But Kant leaves no means of “justice” to solve disputes, which must be applied in a community, not just to individuals. Bentham (边沁 ) used greatest total happiness among equals as the criterion for resolving disputes.

• Greek concept of justice: men in virtue of their character and aptitudes have their proper sphere of behavior, some a wider sphere than others, and there is no injustice if they enjoy a greater share of happiness.

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• Ethics is a form of politics (cont.d) the aim is the good community (run by the highest-virtue few), not the good individual. Virtue is

action tending to produce the good, and a means to an end (the end being happiness).

Inspired German philosophers. The social good belongs to the whole, and is not the sum of goods enjoyed by individuals. Holism versus methodological individualism

It is less mistaken to attribute good to a State than to an individual Hegel: whatever quality is good is an attribute of the universe as a whole (category mistake) ethical attributes therefore only derivatively belong to individuals

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• Difference with Stoic and early Christian ethics: Stoics and early Christians: did not seek a just social system because they thought social injustice affects unimportant matters. preached “love your neighbor as yourself” that Nietzsche criticized as slave-morality considered virtue to be as possible for a slave as for a master disapproved of pride which Aristotle thinks a virtue, and praised humility which Aristotle thinks a vice rejected the intellectual virtues so that the poor and humble could be virtuous. Pope Gregory the Great

(大格雷高里 ) reproved a bishop for teaching grammar.

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• Difference with Stoic and early Christian ethics: Stoics and early Christians: (cont.d) attributed moral merit (to individual acts of will), not social, intellectual, or aesthetic merit narrowed virtue to avoidance of sin instead of anything positive. Merits of great social importance were

shut out unlike Aristotle, did not first define the good to see what actions ought to be to realize it. virtuous actions are more valuable for themselves rather than for what they achieve. The end does not

justify the means.

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• Friendship perfect friendship is possible only among the good it is impossible to be friends with many people there should be no friendship with a person of higher station a good man can be a friend of himself, but a wicked man cannot because he often hates himself friends are a comfort in misfortune but their sympathy should not be sought friends are also needed to share happiness

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Aristotle (cont.d)

Ethics (Nichomachean Ethics 尼各马可伦理学 )• Pleasure

necessary to happiness all pleasures are not bodily. Things have something divine and therefore a capacity for higher pleasures the pleasure proper to man is connected with reason

• Emotional poverty: no benevolence or philanthropy• Ethics has not made definite advances as science has. But human behavior has progressed.

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Aristotle (cont.d) Politics

• No mention of Alexander• City-states were a laboratory for experiment. No such experimentation available for next 1500 years• State is the highest level of community.

State is an organism Individual is an organ that cannot peform its purpose detached from the State Law depends on the State & avoids animal existence. No freedom in chaos.

• Family is the originating level, built on man & woman, master & slave. Slaves are part of the family but should be not Greeks but an inferior race If men do not submit, war is justified to make slaves of the conquered

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Aristotle (cont.d) Politics (cont.d)

• Economy The natural way to generate wealth is not retail trade but skilful management of home and land Denounces lending for interest (usury) for making gain from money itself rather than the natural object of money.

• Objection: ignored time-value of money, and opportunity cost.

• Landowners (who supported philosophers) have been debtors and traders have been creditors. Later European legacy: The Catholic Church’s property was land. Anti-Semitism. Jews were migrants and traders. Protestant Reformation changed this: --protestants were businessmen (growth of cities and commerce in the Renaissance) --Calvin sanctioned interest Philosophers now favor interest because their universities earn it.

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• Economy (cont.d) Private property

Plato’s utopia gives too much unity to the State, --makes the State into an individual --everyone respectively greets each other as “son” and “father” --what is common to the greatest number receives the least care. Example: dilution of love. is a monastery but without celibacy leads to anger against lazy people

Better for each person to mind his or her own business Private property enables virtues of benevolence and generosity which, by the golden mean, would allow property use to be virtually common No need for equality. While revolutions turn on property, the greatest crimes have been due to seeking excess rather than just enough.

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• Economy (cont.d) Good men acquire moderate income. Export and import trade

Good government government is good when it aims for the good of the community rather than its own good good or bad depends on ethics of leaders not on kinds of government

3 good kinds: monarchy, aristocracy (rule by the virtuous), & constitutional. Moderate competence and wealth are associated with virtue (golden mean).

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Aristotle (cont.d) Politics (cont.d) Good government (cont.d)

good or bad depends on ethics of leaders not on kinds of government (cont.d) 3 bad kinds (most actual governments):

Tyranny, worst. Corruption of the good kinds, to acquire excess. Tyrant --desires riches (versus monarch who desires honor) --has mercenary guards (versus monarch who has citizen- guards) --promise to protect people from notables --prevents the rise of anyone of exceptional merit --prohibits common activities likely to produce hostile sentiments --no literary assemblies or discussions --compels people to live in public to prevent them from knowing each other well --sows quarrels among his subjects, impoverishes them, and keeps them occupied in great works --gives power to women & slaves to make them informers --make war to keep subjects busy and in need of a leader.

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Good government (cont.d) good or bad depends on ethics of leaders not on kinds of government (cont.d)

3 bad kinds (most actual governments): cont.d Oligarchy. Rule by the rich. External goods do not facilitate the acquisition of virtue [compared to Aristocracy where virtue & happiness

(pleasure) do facilitate the acquisition of external goods] Democracy, least bad. --Rule by the needy, who disregard the interests of the rich. --In extreme cases ----citizens’ assembly is above the law ----law courts composed of numerous citizens chosen by lot and subject to eloquence or party passion.

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Good government (cont.d) War. Foreign conquest is only a means, not an end of the State except

for conquest of “natural slaves”, i.e. wars against barbarians, who should be from

southern races who are intelligent, versus from northern races who are spirited. Spirited is inconvenient Greeks are both spirited and intelligent.

Size of State. Large enough to be self-sufficing (defendable in war) but small enough for citizens to know each other’s characters.

Citizenship. Not to people who work for a living. Life of mechanics or tradesmen is inimical to

virtue Required for property ownership.

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Aristotle (cont.d) Politics (cont.d) Revolutions

due to conflict between excessive democracy where people with equal freedom expect equality in all respects, and excessive oligarchy where men superior in some respect seek superiority in all respects

more likely in oligarchies than democracies because oligarchs can fall out with each other.

are best prevented by government propaganda in education exhaustive respect for law justice in law and administration (in proportion to a person’svirtue, for each man to enjoy

his own). Objection: outside of hereditary aristocracy which lasts only as long as land is the only source of wealth, virtue tends to be measured by income (Calvinism加尔文派 --predestination where worldly success reflects divine favor). Only democracy avoids this problem.

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Education Purpose is virtue, not usefulness. Purpose of the State to

produce cultured gentlemen who combine the aristocratic mentality with love of learning and the arts.

• Highest perfection in the well-to-do of the Athens of Pericles (白里克里斯 ). Subsequently

• until the Roman Empire of Cicero’s (西塞罗的 ) time, power was held by rough soldiers while culture belonged to powerless Greeks, often slaves;

• after the Roman Empire of Marcus Aurelius (马尔库斯 ·奥勒留 ), gentlemen were northern barbarians and men of culture were southern ecclesiastics.

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Education (cont.d) Purpose is virtue, not usefulness. Purpose of the State to produce cultured

gentlemen who combine the aristocratic mentality with love of learning and the arts. (cont.d)

• from the Renaissance until the 18th century the Greek conception of cultured gentleman reemerged. Ended by

industrial revolution using scientific technique different from traditional culture, and by

popular education to read and write without culture enabling demagogues to establish dictatorships.

Only for children going to become citizens Slaves to be taught useful arts like cooking Athletics only in moderation because Olympic boy champions are rarely

Olympic men champions

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Aristotle (cont.d) Logic

Subject of his greatest influence for 2000 years. Mostly false, except for the unimportant formal theory of the

syllogism. Developed at the very end of the creative period of Greek thought. Doctrine of the Syllogism (三段论 ) in The Prior Analytics (分析前篇 ): General form of the syllogism: Major premise （大前提） Minor premise （小前提） Conclusion（结论）

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Aristotle (cont.d) Logic (cont.d) Doctrine of the Syllogism in The Prior Analytics:(cont.d)

“First Figure” has 4 forms to which Russell says the forms in the other 3 “figures” are reducible

“Barbara” syllogism form (1st version)

(x)(Mx ---> Dx) , where Mx : “x is a man” ; Dx : “x is mortal” Ms s : Socrates ; Ms:“Socrates is a man” Ds Ds : “Socrates is mortal”

M D s M . s D

DMs

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Aristotle (cont.d) Logic (cont.d)

Doctrine of the Syllogism in The Prior Analytics:(cont.d)

“First Figure” has 4 forms to which Russell says the forms in the other 3 “figures” are reducible (cont.d)

“Barbara” syllogism form (2nd version)

x)(Mx ---> Dx) , where Mx : “x is a man” ; Dx : “x is mortal” (x)(Gx ---> Mx) Gx : “x is Greek” (x)(Gx ---> Dx)

M D G M G D Aristotle did not distinguish the two different forms of “Barbara”

DMG

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“Celarent” syllogism

x)(Fx ---> Rx) , where Fx : “x is a fish” ; Rx : “x is rational” (x)(Sx ---> Fx) Sx : “x is a shark”

(x)(Sx ---> Rx)

F R S F S R

RFS

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Doctrine of the Syllogism in The Prior Analytics:(cont.d) “First Figure” has 4 forms to which Russell says the forms in the other 3 “figures”

are reducible (cont.d) “Darii” syllogism

x)(Mx ---> Rx) , where Mx : “x is a man” ; Rx : “x is rational” (x)(Ax Mx) Ax : “x is an animal” (x)(Ax Rx)

M R A M = O . A R = O

M R M A . A R = O

UU

RM

A

v

v

RM

A

U

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Doctrine of the Syllogism in The Prior Analytics:(cont.d) “First Figure” has 4 forms to which Russell says the forms in

the other 3 “figures” are reducible (cont.d) “Ferio” syllogism

x)(Gx ---> Bx) , where Gx : “x is Greek” ; Bx : “x is black” (x)(Mx Gx) Mx : “x is a man” (x)(Mx Bx) G B M G = O . M B = O

BG

M

UU

BM

G

v

v

M

BG

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1 remaining possible Venn diagram cannot depict syllogisms. Syllogism requires at least one premise (x), or set-inclusion

x)(Gx Mx Bx) G M B = O

v v

U U

BG

M

)(

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Supposed to display all valid deductive inference

Formal defects assumed but did not specify that the subject of a premise exists, in other words, that all sets are non-empty. Consequently allows the following to appear to be a syllogism:

(x)((Gx Mx) ---> Mx), where Gx : “x is golden”; Mx :“x is a mountain" (x)((Gx Mx) ---> Gx)

( x)(Gx Mx) ( x)(Gx Mx) <---> ( x)Gx & ( x)Mx Russell overlooks that this conclusion is just a statement of the existence assumption. Also, each premise is a tautology, an “addition rule”: any combination of statements implies any one of the statements (G M) M (G M) G M G = O M G = O <---> M = O & B = O

p

• G t

O

v

v

UUU U

v v

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Formal defects (cont.d) confused subject “s” (Socrates) in Ms (Barbara Form 1) with “(x)(Gx --->” (all Greeks) in (x)

(Gx ---> Mx) (Barbara Form 2), nor does “(x)(Gx --->” figure in the faulty assumption ( x)Gx .

The truth of Ms is easily verified empirically, physically The truth of (x)(Gx ---> Mx) is verified in the dictionary The truth of (x)(Mx ---> Dx) is only probable as long as living men exist and we have not

found a man old enough to suspend it. This caused metaphysical error: --“All men” was supposed to denote the same kind of entity as “Socrates” --Accordingly Aristotle confused a species with a substance.

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Doctrine of the Syllogism in The Prior Analytics:(cont.d) Formal defects (cont.d)

confusion between names (of particulars) and universals (predicates), in this case between “Socrates” and “all Greeks” as both the subjects of “human”

In Hs (“Socrates is Human”), a particular (Socrates) denoted by a name s is the subject of predicate human denoting a universal and denoted by adjective H

Instead of (x)(Gx ---> Hx), Aristotle misinterprets “all Greeks are human” to be HG, where a universal (Greek) is denoted by a predicate G is the subject of another predicate human denoting a universal and denoted by adjective H.

This allowed the confusion of a class, say A = {a} having only one member a, with that one member, I.e. A = a .

This made it impossible to have a correct theory of the number one and led to endless bad metaphysics about unity.

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Overestimation of the syllogism as the prototype of all deductive argument. Objection:

Syllogism has no logical priority over other valid forms of reasoning, such as “A horse is an animal; therefore a horse’s head is an animal’s head”, depicted as

(x)( (Mx ---> Ax) (x)((Mx Hx) ---> (Ax Hx)) , where M is “horse”, A is “animal”, and H is “head”. This is one of the “addition

laws” in logical inference. Such overestimation misled Kant into believing in extra-logical principles as

certain as logical ones to explain mathematical reasoning that he correctly observed was not syllogistic.

v v

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Overestimation of deduction as a form of argument. Greeks attached more importance than modern philosophers to deduction as a

source of knowledge. Aristotle less at fault than Plato by admitting the importance of induction to

support knowledge of the first premises.

• All important inferences outside logic and pure mathematics are inductive (except for legal or theological reasoning from statute books and scripture):

They give new knowledge, unlike deduction. They are probabilistic, not certain Rather than “All men are mortal” we say “Almost all men born more than

100 years ago are mortal”.

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The Categories (范畴篇 ): Words whose meanings are not compounded of the meanings of

other words. Undefined “primitives”, or “first concepts”? Ten categories:

substance: what is not predicable of a subject nor present in a subject. “present in a subject” means, though not part of the subject, cannot

exist without the subject primarily an individual thing or person or animal secondarily a species or genus. Objection: confusion of an individual

with a class or group.

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The Categories: (cont.d) Ten categories: (cont.d)

quantity quality relation place time position state action affection

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Aristotle (cont.d) Logic (cont.d) The Posterior Analytics (分析后期 ):

How first premises are obtained Deduction must begin with something

unproved known otherwise than by demonstration (deduction).

A definition is a statement of a thing’s essential nature. Essence is an intimate part of every subsequent philosophy until modern times.

Essence Those among a thing’s properties which it cannot change without losing its identity. Is

identity “name calling”? As a verbal convenience, we apply the same name on different occasions to somewhat

different occurrences regarded as manifestations of a single thing or person. Those properties in the absence of which we should not apply the name to a thing. Objection: a word may have an essence, but a thing does not.

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The Posterior Analytics: (cont.d) Substance

A mere transference to metaphysics of what is only a linguistic convenience, a classifier. A metaphysical mistake due to transference of sentence structure (subject, name) to the

world structure Something that persists in a thing and that is more solid and real than the events (like

illnesses) that happen to him. Supposed to be the subject of properties. Take away the properties to examine the

substance and there is nothing left. Two substances can’t be distinguished by differences in properties which presuppose

numerical diversity between the substances concerned. Two substances are distinguishable as just 2, without any other distinguishing features. Merely a convenient was of collecting events into bundles. What is something apart from occurrences of events. A country name is a mere linguistic convenience; there is no country over and above its

parts. Otherwise substance denotes something completely unknowable

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Aristotle (cont.d) Physics

Dominated science until the time of Galileo (伽利略 ) Mechanical view of motion not popular Physics (物理学 ):

Teleology. Science of physis {natural growth toward an “end” [目的 ] which is the “nature” [“ ” 自然 (“ ”性质 )] of a thing}.

Animism. Will as the source of all movement. Root of 19th century German philosophers Fichte (费希特 ) & Schopenhauer (叔本华 ).

Two naturally moving bodies seemed important: animals (plus plants and elements)

moved by capricious will. apparently lifeless motions assimilated to them exist by nature with an internal principle of “motion” which includes change

of quality or size besides locomotion.

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Aristotle (cont.d) Physics (cont.d)

Physics: (cont.d) Two naturally moving bodies seemed important: (cont.d)

heavenly bodies regularity of motion due to superior perfection Greek philosophers in childhood taught to regard the sun and moon as Gods. Anaxagoras was prosecuted for teaching they were not alive Moved by the unchanging will of a divine being with a Hellenic love of order and

geometrical simplicity. Nature

(the end or purpose) is the source (internal principle) of being moved or at rest. is in form rather than matter: a thing is more what it is when it has attained fulfillment. Things are “natural” when originated by a continuous movement from an internal

principal, and arrive at some “completion”. does not work of necessity, without purpose. Empedocles’ survival of the fittest

cannot be right because things happen in fixed ways, when completion makes all previous steps have been for its own sake.

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Physics: (cont.d) Nature (cont.d)

Application of this view was suited to study of animal and plant growth, but a great obstacle to the progress of physical science, and a source of much that was bad in ethics

Motion Fulfillment of what exists potentially. Conception of an “end” is incompatible with the relativity of motion of dead matter: it fixes the end

as a reference. Rejection of relative motion prompts rejection of the void. Time

is motion that admits of numeration. cannot exist without motion cannot exist without the soul to do the numeration somethings, like numbers, are eternal and outside of time is uncreated --contrary to Plato --counters Christian followers for whom the universe had a beginning

122

Aristotle (cont.d)

Physics (cont.d) Physics: (cont.d)

Motion (cont.d) Unmoved mover

directly causes circular motion, which is --the primary kind of motion, and --the only motion capable of being continuous and infinite had no parts or magnitude is at the circumference of the world

123


On the Heavens (论天 ) Below the moon

everything is subject to generation and decay and composed of the four elements earth, water, air and fire

whose natural movement is rectilinear (a projectile fired horizontally will move horizontally for a time, then suddenly begin to drop--contrary to Galileo’s parabolic motion) and which are

generated from each other --fire is absolutely light, with natural motion upward --earth absolutely heavy --air is relatively light --water is relatively heavy

comets were assigned until discovered in the 17th century to trace orbits around the sun and very seldom near the moon.

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On the Heavens (cont.d) From the moon upwards everything is

ungenerated and indestructible and composed of a fifth element whose natural movement is circular

The earth is spherical and at the center of the universe.

The heavens are perfectly spherical, with upper regions more divine than lower movements of stars and planets are due to spheres to which they are attached eternal and incorruptible. Product of pagan worship of sun, moon and planets.

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On the Heavens (cont.d) Incompatible

with Newton’s (牛顿的 ) first law of motion first expressed by Galileo every moving body will continue to move in a straight line with

uniform motion required outside causes for change of motion. circular motion of heavenly bodies, thought “natural”, actually

requires continual change of direction and therefore a force directed to the center of the circle as in Newton’s law of gravitation.

with the birth of stars from nebula, and death by explosion or cold. with the change and decay throughout the visible world

Documents

1 Presented at Central University of Finance and Economics 中央财经大学 Beijing by 卜若柏 Robert Blohm Chinese Economics and Management Academy 中国经济与管理研究院