Euthyphro
Euthyphro's Goal
Claims to be an expert on religious matters he and socrates set out to define "the holy/pious" - 2 terms used largely interchangeably
Basic Assumption: For a term to apply to a wide range of things, all things must share a future in common—Search for an Essential Property.
Socratic Irony
Pretending to know less than one actually does
Opposite of boastfulness
Bill Gates
-Cofounded Microsoft along with Paul Allen in 1975.
-Current net worth ~ 120 Billion
-Established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with his ex-partner Melinda in 2000.
-3rd largest nonprofit in the world, with an endowment of $70.2 billion.
Plato's "Seventh Letter"
"Therefore, I said, there will be no cessation of evils for the sons..... and true philosophy receive sovereig power in the States"
Socialism
Using political mechanisms instead of market mechanisms to determine allocations of resources. (Friedman's definition)
Euthyphro Characters
Socrates and Euthyphro
Socrates (470-469-399 BCE)
Son of a sculptor and a midwife
Simple men with few possessions, Refused to charge for his teachings and was a veteran of 3 major battles in the Peloponnesian War.
Fought without shoes or a cloak, cloud drank all night, not very handsome, marriednto Xanthippe.
Freedom
When participation is done by choice
-Unanimity instead of conformity
"The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits"
-Published in NYT Magazine in 1970
-Targeted a CEO's
-Central Claim: Executives acting with social responsibility amounts to theft from shareholders.
*Taxation without accountability is fundamnetally undemocratic.
Single Most Important Question of the Dialogue
Is the holy loved by the gods because it is holy? Or is it holy because it is loved?
Euthyphro Problem Shares Two Main Principles:
Moral Rationalism and Divine Command Theory
Trial and Death of Socrates
2 Charges: Corrupting the youth and impiety
Found guilty by a close vote and sentenced to death by a landslide vote.
Spent a while in prison chatting with his buddies -execution cannot be performed because until a religious festival concludes.
Refuses numerous offers of escape, eventually executed by drinking hemlock.
Milton Friedman
(1912-2006) NeoClassical Economist
-Rejects Keynesianism in favor of monetarism
-Proponent of economic liberalism, libertarianism, and deregulation.
- Advisor of ROnald Reagan and Margaret Thratcher
Friedman's definition of Socialism
Using political mechanisms instead of market mechanisms to determine allocation of resources
5 Definitions of the Holy
1. To be holy is to prosecute wrongdoers, to be unholy is to fail to do so.
2. The holy is what is loved by gods and the unholy is what is hated by the gods.
3. The holy is what is loved by all the gods and the unholy is what is hated by all gods.
4. The holy is part of justice having to do with ministering to gods.
5. Holiness is expertise in asking from the gods and giving to the gods.
Ending of Euthyphro
Appear to have gone full circle - Euthyphro, started to catch on to Socrates' irony, gets annoyed and leaves. - Dialogue ends in aporia (blockage or impasse)
The Sophists
-Itenrant tutors hired by wealthy Athenian families to prepare their sons for careers in politics.
-Most prized skill: To make the weaker argument the stronger, Was most interested in manipulating rhetoric for personal gain than in seeking truth, insisted on receiving payment for their teachings.
-Would embark on a lifelong mission to vindicate Socrates and demonstrate that he represented something truly different.
Criticisms of Milton Friedman
-Market Failures, Information scarcity/complexity/asymmetry
-Monopoly, public goods (non-excludable), externalities, bounded rationality, paternalism, inequality, market freedom, political freedom
2 Approaches to "Making Capitalism More Creative"
1) Encourage companies to explore markets that had been previously considered "nonlucrative"
-"Tierced pricing" (i.e. price discimination)
2) Use incentives from governments and nonprofit organizations to make tackling poverty more attractive.
Euthyphro: Setting the Stage
Socrates and Euthyphro bump into each other
Socrates: There to face his indictment for corrupting youth and impiety
Euthyphro: there to prosecute his father for killing a loaborer.
All in all, Socrates is horrified
The "Socratic" Problem
-Socrates was deeply suspicious of writing, thought it was bad for ur memory, so he never wrote a thing.
-All we have are accounts of his conversations from other Athenians. Earlier Platonic dialogues are likely relatively faithful historical accounts.
-Later Platonic dialogues see Socrates evolve into a mouthpiece for Plato's own mature philosophical views. Euthyphro is an early dialogue, Phaedo and Republic are middle dialogues.
Republic
Plato's major work on political theory/education
Characters:
-Socrates
-Glaucon
-Adeimantus
-Cephalus
-Polemarchus
-Thrasymachus
The Peloponnesian War: Aftermath
404 BCE: Athens is defeated by Sparta
404-403 BCE: Athens ruled by the Thirty Tyrants, a pro-Spartan puppet regime.
Murders 5% of Athenes in less than a year
Led by Critias, a former student of Socrates and relative of Plato
403 BCE: Exiled pro-democracy genrals lead a successful rebellion
-30 tyrants deposed and executed
-Democracy restored
-Despite a blanket pardon, paranoia and witch-hunters agaisnt supposed collaboratrs follow.