Phil 30301
First Paper -- Due September 19
Papers will be 7 pages in length, double spaced and in
an
11-point
or 12-point proportional font.
Read carefully both the Meno and pp. 110-115 of the Phaedo
(72e-77a). In the middle of p. 69 of the Meno (80d), we find
the
following exchange, which states the so-called "paradox of
philosophical
analysis":
Meno: How will you look for it [e.g., virtue, piety,
moral uprightness,
equality, etc.], Socrates, when you do not know at all what it is? How
will you aim to search for something you do not know at all? If you
should
meet with it, how will you know that this is the thing that you did not
know?
Socrates: I know what you want to say, Meno. Do
you realize
what a debater's argument you are bringing up, that a man cannot search
either for what he knows or for what he does not know? He cannot search
for what he knows--since he knows it, there is no need to search--nor
for
what he does not know, for he does not know what to look for.
The problem suggested here (and adumbrated again at Phaedo
(72e-73a))
raises doubts about the very possibility of gaining knowledge through
philosophical
analysis as I defined it in class. Either, it seems, (i) we already
know
what say, moral uprightness, is and must use that knowledge to assess
the
adequacy of a proposed philosophical analysis of virtue, in which case
the analysis is superfluous; or else (ii) we do not know what it is, in
which case we have no criterion for evaluating a proposed
analysis.
Your task is:
- (a) to lay out this problem clearly;
- (b) to show what role Socrates's conversation with the
servant boy at Meno
82b-85b and his discussion with Simmias about equality at Phaedo
74a-75b play in his resolution of the problem;
- (c) to make clear the relevance of the notion of recollection;
- (d) to explain why Socrates believes that the preexistence
of the human
soul is necessary in order to solve the problem; and
- (e) to suggest how the problem might be solved
without
invoking a belief
in the preexistence of the human soul. (This may involve either
claiming
that the problem is a pseudo-problem--though you'd better have a really
good argument for this claim!--or else suggesting an alternative
solution.)
NOTE: YOUR NAME SHOULD APPEAR ONLY ON THE BACK OF THE
LAST PAGE,
WRITTEN IN PENCIL. THIS WILL HELP TO ENSURE THAT I DO NOT HAVE MY MANY
GRIEVANCES AGAINST YOU CLEARLY IN MIND AS I GRADE YOUR PAPER.
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