How Did Aristotle Contribute To Plato's Crito
Virtue and the Laws: The Parent Analogy in Plato's Crito.
Sandrine Berges
Instructor in Philosophy
Department of International Relations
Bilkent University
Bilkent
06533 Ankara
Turkey
Berges@bilkent.edu.tr
Virtue and the Laws: The Parent Analogy in Plato's Crito.
1. Introduction.
One noticeable omission in the otherwise ever flourishing literature on Plato's Crito (and one might say on the early Platonic dialogues in general) is the recognition that Plato is presenting a problem from a virtue ethical angle. This is no doubt due to the fact that Aristotle, rather than Plato is regarded as the originator of Virtue Ethics as a branch of philosophy.1 Plato's own contribution to the discipline is more …show more content…
First a virtue ethics perspective is not incompatible with rules of thumb, which help those who are not fully virtuous.9 If this were not the case, one would wonder at the needs for laws in the Republic. There Plato makes it clear that the laws are needed to compel non-virtuous agents to lead a life which will help them become as virtuous as they are capable of being. This is similar in spirit to Aristotle's discussion of laws in the last book of the Nichomachean Ethics. Secondly, the role of laws may be perceived, even from a virtue ethics perspective, as guaranteeing the conditions necessary for citizens to live virtuous lives, e.g. peace, education. This claim seems to motivate one of the Personified Laws' arguments in the Crito, i.e. that Socrates owes his education, and his opportunity to live the philosophical life to the Athenian laws (50d-e). However, both considerations are relevant only if the laws in question are not incompatible with virtue and if they do indeed facilitate, rather than hinder, the virtuous life of citizens. Although this may be the case in the cities described by Plato and Aristotle, there is no evidence that the Athenian laws do have this
Sandrine Berges
Instructor in Philosophy
Department of International Relations
Bilkent University
Bilkent
06533 Ankara
Turkey
Berges@bilkent.edu.tr
Virtue and the Laws: The Parent Analogy in Plato's Crito.
1. Introduction.
One noticeable omission in the otherwise ever flourishing literature on Plato's Crito (and one might say on the early Platonic dialogues in general) is the recognition that Plato is presenting a problem from a virtue ethical angle. This is no doubt due to the fact that Aristotle, rather than Plato is regarded as the originator of Virtue Ethics as a branch of philosophy.1 Plato's own contribution to the discipline is more …show more content…
First a virtue ethics perspective is not incompatible with rules of thumb, which help those who are not fully virtuous.9 If this were not the case, one would wonder at the needs for laws in the Republic. There Plato makes it clear that the laws are needed to compel non-virtuous agents to lead a life which will help them become as virtuous as they are capable of being. This is similar in spirit to Aristotle's discussion of laws in the last book of the Nichomachean Ethics. Secondly, the role of laws may be perceived, even from a virtue ethics perspective, as guaranteeing the conditions necessary for citizens to live virtuous lives, e.g. peace, education. This claim seems to motivate one of the Personified Laws' arguments in the Crito, i.e. that Socrates owes his education, and his opportunity to live the philosophical life to the Athenian laws (50d-e). However, both considerations are relevant only if the laws in question are not incompatible with virtue and if they do indeed facilitate, rather than hinder, the virtuous life of citizens. Although this may be the case in the cities described by Plato and Aristotle, there is no evidence that the Athenian laws do have this