I detest glib talkers Confucius Analects 9 24

惡夫佞者 I detest glib talkers. - Confucius (Analects, 9. 24) Euthyphro and the “philosophical” enterprise 1. Making thinking parallel Reality 2. “Universals” as the subject matter of Philosophy 3. The search for inherent, defining qualities 4. Language as a Truth Tool 5. Truth as the set of really existing Universals Contrasts with China 1

Review: Differences between China & West (Greece) • different cultures • different languages ( different ontologies) • different historical conditions Agenda of Chinese phil. determined by history: Crisis in values (c. 500 BCE) Agendas of Greek philosophy arise out of more leisured reflection – Aristotle: “Philosophy alone of the sciences is free, since it alone is pursued for its own sake. ” 2

Early Greeks • Milesians (Ionians) – inquiry into substratum/substance – search for underlying reality • Italians (from Pythagoreans) – quest for certainty; model of math – Parmenides & Zeno • Commitment to Reason over Experience 3

The Euthyphro • Socrates encounters Euthyphro, a man whose certainty arises from knowledge of certain truths. . . – theological truths Why pick Euthyphro? 4

Authority vs. Reason • knowledge Euthyphro has is knowledge from authority vs. • knowledge philosophy seeks is knowledge from reason What is “Reason? ” “Reason” has not always been used in one sense. For us: Discursive thinking guided by rules (logic) The rules of reason parallel (in some way) reality Reason is a GROUND for knowledge 5

Axiom I THE RULES OF THINKING (logic) PARALLEL REALITY test of rationality is Proof (like math QED) • Socrates: – I know zilch till I know it with certainty; So I demand of every claim: Proof 6

First course of argument • Euthyphro is planning to pursue a course of action which breaches contemporary ethical intuitions on grounds of “knowing the holy. ” • He is using “knowledge of the holy” to attack ordinary intuitions – Socrates asks, What is “holy? ” • = asking: divide all things into 2 classes: – things that accord with holy as “standard” – things that do not 7

Euthyphro’s 4 definitions 1. 2. 3. 4. Loved by the gods Loved by all the gods Ministering to the gods Prayer and sacrifice 8

#1 Holy = Loved by the gods • Founders on the issue of particularity: the particularity of Greek gods why is this important? antagonism between particular vs. universal for philosophy: Truths are universal physical realm – realm of particulars – significant only because it gives ACCESS to universals 9

Axiom II THERE EXIST in some sense UNIVERSALS There is significance outside the world of entities: that is philosophical significance ultimately, Truth is found at the level of METAPHYSICS Euthyphro is an intellectual enemy of philosophy because the ground of his knowledge is all about ACCIDENTS divine personalities, mythical tales, blah. . . 10

#2 Holy = Loved by all the gods • Euthyphro abstracts gods by claiming that diversity is irrelevant to this issue • Socrates reveals key issue of his inquiry search for defining INHERENT ATTRIBUTE Xthing is Yattribute = Xthing possesses Yattribute signals a class identity X is a member of the set of things possessing Y attribute 11

What common attribute is shared by all red X’s such that they are what they are? x x x x xx x x REDNESS x x X x x xx x x x x x 12

• What common attribute Y can be abstracted from all “holy” X’s such that it renders any X holy? What is the universal: “Holy? ” • “Loved by all gods” does not work. Why not? • It does not inhere in substances; – It cannot stand as a possessed attribute It is relational, not intrinsic. 13

Axiom III WHAT IS “REAL” ABOUT A THING IS A PROPERTY OF THE THING ITSELF • Aristotle: “Relatedness is, as it were, an offshoot or logical accident of substance. ” 14

Interlude • mathematical analogy • illustrates how philosophical quest for certainty was conceived as parallel to certainty of math 1 2 even : number : : Holy : Just • rule 1 generates: equal sides (geometric example) • rule 2. . . ? 15

#3 Holy = ministering to the gods • Founders on term analysis • “Minister, ” in other senses: – to aid • gods cannot be aided 16

Axiom IV LANGUAGE IS A PRIMARY TRUTH TOOL • Philosophy clarifies language • Philosophy shapes that tool – structures lang. to fit reality • Language reveals ontological structures • vs. “language creates ontology” 17

#4 Holy = prayer and sacrifice “Prayer & sacrifice” meant as a rephrasing of “ministering” Socrates forces Euthyphro back to “loved by the gods. ” ARGUMENT can expose flaws in language & logic (“dialectic”) Thematic throughout: search for universals/laws (of thought; of reality) Universals can ground knowledge 18

Axiom V “TRUTH” = THE SET OF REAL UNIVERSALS From set of universals, a structural picture of the universe can arise The rational nature of universe revealed (assumed: Nature is rational) Goal: Architecture of theory paralleling architecture of Reality Ideal model of philosophy: Euclidean geometry: AXIOMS, COROLLARIES, THEORIES 19

Philosophy is discovery • Truth exists independently; disclosed through language • Language (spoken/subverbalized) an adequate “truth tool” [logical reasoning is an intrinsically discursive] “Knowledge” a function of real structures – People are, in a sense, incidental to philosophy – Philosophy is a-historical Truth does not change or evolve: eternal 20

CONTRASTS Philosophical enterprise in West (vastly oversimplified!): • • Agenda analysis of terms through dialectic search for universals by analysis of particulars structuring of rules by which universals relate (logic) building a theoretical architecture to parallel Reality Based on picture of universe as rational structure governed by causal laws (which are reflected in logic) 21

Early Chinese philosophy Some similarities, but ideas guiding essential enterprise different undertaking/project. . . start with Confucianism 22

Confucianism 1. ALLOWS AUTHORITY OF HISTORY (particulars of history embody one type of universal, but not general laws: truths about this one, historical universe) 2. DENIES ADEQUACY OF LANGUAGE (knowledge derived from PRACTICE not reason) 3. VIEWS RELATEDNESS AS ESSENTIAL (reflected in portrait of self) 4. PHILOSOPHY “EMBODIED” IN PHILOSOPHERS (“knowledge” not knowledge of facts but of skills: not objective reality, but “possessed” truth) 23

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