Arendt You Glad You Picked this Category?
What is the Vita Activa? What should be the highest category within it, and what currently IS the highest category within it?
Labor- Activity that helps fulfill biological needs
Work - Activity that creates the artificial world of things
Action - Only activity that occurs directly between men. Speech & action
Labor is currently valued most but action should be the highest category
Go off, King! What is Plato's concept of the Philosopher King in the Republic?
Plato believes philosophers are the most enlightened men in society and have a duty to share their knowledge with others (who are presumably in the darkness of the cave), whether they want to or not.
Why does Hobbes think life in the State of Nature is nasty, brutish, solitary, and short?
"War of all against all"
Every man can use his liberty to preserve himself, even if that means hurting others
Constant state of fear
Rousseau says that Hobbes got the State of Nature wrong because...
Natural pity/compassion
Men have no conflict in the SON because there is nothing to fight over
He projected civil society onto SON
Give the rationale for the following claim of Socrates:
I should not escape from prison even though I am innocent.
Socrates compares the state to one's parents and says that just like a parent, the state raised him and provided for all his needs. Therefore, it would irreverent/ungrateful to go against its laws and bring it ruin by setting the precedent that one does not need to buy into the implicit contract one agrees to when one decides to stay in a place.
What is the social sphere for Arendt and why does it have negative associations?
Social sphere is an unfortunate blend of private and public that arose in the modern era (1700's).
Society ruled by conventions, treats people like "one big human family," and blurs the distinction between the traditional categories of the household and the public.
The escaped prisoner from the cave literally touches grass. What is the significance of his experience outside the cave and what happens when he returns? What is the point of the allegory as a whole?
The forms are abstract, unchanging ideals to which real particulars aspire. They are more perfect than things found in the physical realm. The sun represents the form of the good and is the light towards which men should strive. The escaped prisoner gradually learns about the world outside the cave and returns with this knowledge.
The escaped prisoner can be read as an allusion to Socrates
In the prologue of The Human Condition, Arendt explains her fears re: Sputnik. What are her fears, how is Sputnik significant and why is any of this relevant?
1. First time humans have wanted to "escape" Earth
2. Desire to transcend human limits can be dangerous
3. The power of speech has been lost, and so scientists and others are talking past each other
4. Technology can master us rather than the other way around.
5. We should think what we are doing.
DAILY DOUBLE
Arendt targets Marx with her Labor vs. Work distinction. What is the distinction and why is it important?
Products of labor are devoured as quickly as they are produced. (ex: food)
Products of work are lasting and have a real impact on the world.
By defining labor as the most human quality, Marx limits humanity to an activity that does not reap its own fruits in any enduring way.
Give the rationale for the following claim of Arendt:
Emotions do not belong in politics.
Emotions are too strong for politics and overwhelm political matters. Can devolve quickly into violence
Emotions are just as easily replaced by solidarity, which is grounded in respect and mutual interest, rather than passionate feeling
Ex: French Revolution
What is natality for Arendt and how is it related to the human condition of plurality, as well as to politics?
1. Birth of new people with potential to change the world
2. Potential for new beginnings
Socrates compares himself to a ___ in Apology. Why does he do this?
Gadfly, he stings the "horse" of Athens to rouse it
Glaucon, representing Thrasymachus, uses the Ring of Gyges example as ultimate proof for the claim that...
(Explain the example and why it matters)
The Ring of Gyges is a hypothetical magical ring that grants its wearer the power of invisibility.It's a thought experiment used by Plato's character Glaucon to argue that people only act justly out of fear of punishment and that, without fear of consequences, most people—even the just—would act unjustly to pursue their own self-interest
Socrates tells the jury most of them don't really know the basics of their own fields.
Why is he wise comparatively?
He knows that he knows nothing. (Socratic paradox)
Intellectual humility, able to acknowledge limits of his knowledge but retain curiosity
Give the rationale for the following claim of Rousseau:
Medicine is great and all, but people living in the state of nature are mostly okay without it.
In the SON, people don't get sick as often bc they don't have access to all the luxuries that can actually worsen our health (ex: exotic foods)
What are social issues for Arendt?
What about purely political issues?
Social issues: Economics, psychology, housing, gay marriage, education, discrimination etc.
Political: Founding of a state, writing laws and constitutions, revolutions
What is the Socrates-Plato problem?
Why is it nearly impossible to escape an echo chamber?
(Explain what an echo chamber is, first)
An ‘echo chamber’ is a social structure from which other relevant voices have been actively discredited.
An echo chamber is something like a cult. A cult isolates its members by actively alienating them from any outside sources. Those outside are actively labelled as malignant and untrustworthy. A cult member’s trust is narrowed, aimed with laser-like focus on certain insider voices.
Rescue from the outside usually the only option.
Crito calls out his friend Socrates for accepting the Athenian court's verdict. Why?
1. Children will be orphaned
2. Friends could have helped him and others will think badly of those friends
3. Wrong to accept the verdict when he knows he is innocent
4. Cowardly
Give the rationale for the following claim of Socrates:
There's no reason to fear death.
Fearing death means I am arrogant enough to believe it is worse than life even though I have no clue what it will be like
What is the subtle distinction between the public and political spheres for Arendt?
Political space is a space of appearance, where you can be seen and heard by others and your action and speech leave their mark through others' remembrance. Public spaces can become political if action and speech are done there
What is the difference between an intrinsic, instrumental, and higher good?
Intrinsic Goods: Those goods which we value for their own sake
Instrumental Goods: Those goods which we value for the sake of their consequences
Higher Goods: Those which we value for their own sake and for their consequences
DAILY DOUBLE
The improper use of shoes leads to much worse issues. What is Aristotle's problem with "usury?"
There is the function of the shoe (to provide comfort and security for the wearer) vs. the use-value of the shoe (as an exchange item or to be sold for money)
Making money off of money & being too obsessed with "wealth getting" can lead to excessive greed and hoarding. Unvirtuous behavior.
What is Adeimantus's critique of religion in Book 2 of Plato's Republic?
With religious rituals, we can "wash away" our sins, so why bother being just in the first place?
Give the rationale for the following claim of Aristotle:
For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient.
Natural slavery is justified for Aristotle because some people are fit to be rulers and others to be ruled. Natural slaves do not have much virtue or intellectual capability and thus, would have to be ruled anyways.