PHL105Y October 6, 2004

1. PHL105YOctober 6, 2004 • No class next Monday; for next Wednesday’s class, read to the end of chapter 6 of the Republic. • Also: your first draft of the essay is due next Wednesday (October 13, 2004) at the start of class. It doesn’t have to be very good, but it does have to be on time (unless you are sick and have a note, or something).

2. Do you see your student number here? • 994027441 • 993806672 • 993154108 • 993971948 • 994045948 • 993931974 • 994131765 • If so, you have registered for a tutorial numbered TUT01xx instead of TUT02xx. This is bad. See me after class or during office hours TODAY to fix the problem.

3. Tutorial homework for Friday • Write a page on one of the following passages in the text: • 415a-d • 420c-421c • You don’t have to recap everything that goes on; focus on something interesting and controversial – agree or disagree with something, and say why.

4. About the essay • You will receive two handouts in class today. If you ever lose them, they are available on our website as well. • 1. A handout on the topic, together with some tips for getting started on it. Read this handout closely. • 2. General guidelines for writing a philosophy paper.

5. A note about deception(can there be censorship without deception?) • Look carefully at the explanation of a ‘true falsehood’ (382a) • How is a genuine lie different from a mere spoken lie? (382c) • In what circumstances is a spoken lie acceptable? (Keep that in mind…)

6. More censorship • No scary stories about the afterlife; we don’t get to talk about ‘the vile, dank halls, which even the gods hate’, the shrieking bats… etc.. (386e-387d) • No stories in which leading men ‘weep and wail in mourning’ (387d) • (Why?)

7. Lying in the ideal community • The rulers ‘can lie for the good of the community, when either an external or an internal threat makes it necessary’ (389b) • No one else is allowed to lie

8. More censorship • No stories of heroes being overcome with desire, or lacking self-discipline • Stories are not to portray immoral people as happy, or moral people as unhappy • No stories about the rewards of secret immorality, or the disadvantages of being moral

9. More censorship • There is to be little playacting; a guardian can tell a narrative, but he or she can’t take on the role of a dishonourable character • A Jim Carrey could visit our community and put on a show, but he can’t stay and live among us (398ab)

10. More censorship • Music is censored. Plaintive, sappy stuff is forbidden. • Music should “perfectly capture the tones of self-disciplined and courageous men in failure and success” (399c) • Note: in the course of the discussion, they trim out some of the original luxuries they had imagined in the community (399e)

11. More censorship • We are also going to censor painting, weaving, embroidery, pottery, topiary, architecture – everything must be elegant and harmonious • We want a cultural education that will make young people graceful, and ready for rationality (401e-402a)

12. Primary education: the physical side • Our future leaders will eat roasted meat without sauce • No Corinthian lady friends! • No Attic pastries!

13. Primary education: the physical side • It’s a bad sign when there are many doctors and lawyers in a community; a sign that people are inactive, not eating a healthy diet, and failing to exercise self-control • We should have doctors for serious injuries and illnesses only (405cd) • Cultural training (which is to result in self-discipline) is supposed to protect the future guardians from needing much legal expertise

14. The (first) purpose of education • Cultural and physical education, together, are supposed to ensure that one has a balanced mind • The future guardians are supposed to be cultured and philosophical, but also brave and passionate

15. Chapter 5:The Guardians’ Life and Duties • Who shall rule? • Those who are most devoted to the community • Prospective rulers are to be tested for the strength of their devotion to the community

16. Selecting the guardians • “We must watch them from childhood onwards, and set them tasks which maximize the possibility of their forgetting a belief like this [the belief that they must always work for the advantage of the community] and being misled; those who bear the belief in mind and prove hard to mislead are the ones we should select, while excluding the others.” (413c)

17. The Noble Lie • “with a single noble lie we can indoctrinate the rulers themselves, preferably, but at least the rest of the community…” (414bc)

18. The Noble Lie • The community is to be convinced their upbringing and education was a kind of dream; really, they were being ‘formed and nurtured deep inside the earth …. When they were finished products, the earth, their mother, sent them up above ground’ (414de) • Why are people told that their education is unreal?

19. The Noble Lie continued:The myth of the metals • We are all ‘earth-born brothers’, but, while we were being formed under the earth, God has placed… • --gold in the minds of the rulers • --silver in the minds of the auxiliaries • --iron and copper in the minds of the farmers and workers

20. The Noble Lie continued:The myth of the metals • -each person is to do work appropriate to his or her nature • -a silver or iron child may be born to a golden parent; and vice-versa; children are to be raised according to their natures and not according to the class of their parents

21. The Noble Lie continued:The myth of the metals • The Guardians are, above all, to watch over the ‘mixture of metals’ in the community • People are to be told that it has been foretold that ‘ the community will be destroyed when it has a copper or iron guardian’ (414c) • Why the lie? Why not tell people the truth? • How false is the lie? Is it a ‘true lie’? (See 382a)

22. The lifestyle of the rulers • They are to have virtually no private property (since they have gold and silver in their minds, they are told they do not need earthly gold and silver) • They are to live in public barracks, and eat in common dining halls. • (Will they be happy?)

23. Money and war • Extremes of wealth and poverty are going to be avoided in the community • But how can a society that is not rich defend itself in wartime?

24. Laws in the ideal community • Cultural education is supposed to cover many aspects of life; the rulers will not pass laws concerning manners, hairstyles, footwear, etc. (425b) • General idea: people of good character need fewer laws