The Ethics of Self-Knowledge in Platonic and Buddhist Philosophy
01 Jan 2018-pp 21-72
TL;DR: The role of self-knowledge in the Socratic and Buddhist ethical traditions is explored in this article, with a review of an apparent tension between the goals of embodied social virtue and world-transcendence.
Abstract: This chapter explores the role of self-knowledge in the Socratic and Buddhist ethical traditions. Socrates (in Plato’s “early” dialogues) and the Buddha (in the Pāli Canon) diagnose the primary cause of human suffering as a widespread misunderstanding of the self. They recommend a radical reconceptualization of selfhood as a necessary step toward their ultimate concerns of human well-being (eudaimonia) and liberation (nirvāṇa). In particular, they argue, we wrongly identify bodies, physical states, social status, or possessions as self. But Socrates endorses a view that the Buddha rejects, namely, that certain conscious states of mind (psychē) are self. Buddhists would object that the irreducible complexity and impermanence of mental states render them implausible candidates for selfhood. Similar concerns motivated Plato to advance the metaphysical theory of Forms, which may offer resources for a reply. The chapter closes with a review of an apparent tension, shared by both traditions, between the goals of embodied social virtue and world-transcendence. The Platonic philosopher and the Mahayāna Bodhisattva both experience a liberating insight which motivates them to return to the “cave” of social service or saṃsāra: both motivations are susceptible to consequentialist, deontological, and virtue-ethical interpretations, and I suggest that the two traditions are mutually illuminating.
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TL;DR: The Pythagorean number theory of the Pythagoreans according to the Platonic theory of ideal numbers is discussed in this paper, where the authors also discuss the role of number symbolism in the development of Greek mathematics.
Abstract: * Introduction I. Platonic and Pythagorean Number Theory * The Platonic Theory of Ideal Numbers * The Philosophy of the Pythagoreans according to Aristotle * The Later Non-Aristotelian Tradition and Its Sources, Speusippus, Xenocrates, and Heraclides Ponticus * Pythagoreanism in Plato and the Origin in Platonism of the Pythagorean Tradition II. Pythagoras in the Earliest Tradition * Source Problems * Historical Background * Metempsychosis and \"Shamanism\" Acusmata Acusmatici and Mat hematici * Early Evidence for Pythagoras as a Scientist? III. Philolaus * The Special Position of Philolaus' Book in the Pythagorean Tradition * The Spurious and the Genuine in the Philolaus Fragments * Reflections of Pythagorean Philosophy in the Fifth Century B.C.? IV. Astronomy and Pythagoreanism * The Structure of the World and the Planetary System * The Theory of Planetary Movements * The Cosmos of Philolaus * Harmony of the Spheres and Astral Immortality V. Pythagorean Musical Theory * Speculation, Experimentation, and Fiction * Number Symbolism and Calculation of Proportions in Philolaus VI. Pythagorean Number Theory and Greek Mathematics * Did the Pythagoreans Lay the Foundations of Greek Mathematics? * Pythagorean Arithmetic * Pythagorean Geometry and Mathematical Secrets * Number and Cosmos * Abbreviations * Bibliography * Greek Words Discussed * Index of Passages * General Index
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TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that people are sometimes unaware of the existence of a stimulus that influenced a response, unaware of its existence, and unaware that the stimulus has affected the response.
Abstract: Evidence is reviewed which suggests that there may be little or no direct introspective access to higher order cognitive processes. Subjects are sometimes (a) unaware of the existence of a stimulus that importantly influenced a response, (b) unaware of the existence of the response, and (c) unaware that the stimulus has affected the response. It is proposed that when people attempt to report on their cognitive processes, that is, on the processes mediating the effects of a stimulus on a response, they do not do so on the basis of any true introspection. Instead, their reports are based on a priori, implicit causal theories, or judgments about the extent to which a particular stimulus is a plausible cause of a given response. This suggests that though people may not be able to observe directly their cognitive processes, they will sometimes be able to report accurately about them. Accurate reports will occur when influential stimuli are salient and are plausible causes of the responses they produce, and will not occur when stimuli are not salient or are not plausible causes.
10,186 citations
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01 Jan 1984
TL;DR: In this paper, the author claims that we have a false view of our own nature and that it is often rational to act against our own best interests, that most of us have moral views that are directly self-defeating, and that when we consider future generations the conclusions will often be disturbing.
Abstract: This book challenges, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity. The author claims that we have a false view of our own nature; that it is often rational to act against our own best interests; that most of us have moral views that are directly self-defeating; and that, when we consider future generations the conclusions will often be disturbing. He concludes that non-religious moral philosophy is a young subject, with a promising but unpredictable future.
4,518 citations
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3,835 citations
TL;DR: This article describes a procedure for the study of destructive obedience in the laboratory, ordering a naive S to administer increasingly more severe punishment to a victim in the context of a learning experiment, which created extreme levels of nervous tension in some Ss.
Abstract: This article describes a procedure for the study of destructive obedience in the laboratory. It consists of ordering a naive S to administer increasingly more severe punishment to a victim in the context of a learning experiment. Punishment is administered by means of a shock generator with 30 graded switches ranging from Slight Shock to Danger: Severe Shock. The victim is a confederate of the E. The primary dependent variable is the maximum shock the S is willing to administer before he refuses to continue further. 26 Ss obeyed the experimental commands fully, and administered the highest shock on the generator. 14 Ss broke off the experiment at some point after the victim protested and refused to provide further answers. The procedure created extreme levels of nervous tension in some Ss. Profuse sweating, trembling, and stuttering were typical expressions of this emotional disturbance. One unexpected sign of tension — yet to be explained — was the regular occurrence of nervous laughter, which in some Ss developed into uncontrollable seizures. The variety of interesting behavioral dynamics observed in the experiment, the reality of the situation for the S, and the possibility of parametric variation within the framework of the procedure, point to the fruitfulness of further study.1 OBEDIENCE is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to. Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living, and it is only the man dwelling in isolation who is not forced to respond, through defiance or submission, to the commands of others. Obedience, as a determinant of behavior, is of particular relevance to our time. It has been reliably established that from 1933–45 millions of innocent persons were systematically slaughtered on command. Gas chambers were built, death camps were guarded; daily quotas of corpses were produced with the same efficiency as the manufacture of appliances. These inhumane policies may have originated in the mind of a single person, but they could only be carried out on a massive scale if a very large number of persons obeyed orders. Obedience is the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose. It is the dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authority. Facts of recent history and observation in daily life suggest that for many persons obedience may be a deeply ingrained behavior tendency, indeed a prepotent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct. C. P. Snow (1961) points to its importance when he writes: When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. If you doubt that, read William Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The German Officer Corps were brought up in the most rigorous code of obedience . . . in the name of obedience they were party to, and assisted in, the most wicked large scale actions in the history of the world [p. 24].
3,647 citations
01 Jan 1951
3,173 citations