WE ARE OPEN - WEEK 6 and 7 - ON POLITICS - CHAPTER THREE - Aristotle: Politics is Not Philosophy - (September 7, 2015 - September 20, 2015) - No Spoilers, please

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Martin wrote: "Boy, howdy. And every one of those fools typing faster than they can think has a vote. Hopefully, they're not exercising it, although the ascent of Trump, Cain and others who have been flavor of th..."

You have to be afraid when you see the field of candidates - it is not a field of dreams for a country - maybe a nightmare.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Martin wrote: "With all due respect, I am not so certain that there was a golden age of political discourse in this country, or anywhere else, that featured a politically enlightened populace that led the way to ..."

You are correct Martin - that political discourse can be quite nasty here - even from the beginning between Jefferson and Adams - what they called each other - was unbelievable. They did make up sort of and wrote to each other through the years and I think started to see a better side in each other but the campaigns were not pretty - and then the one with John Quincy was not too enlightened either.

But I do think that folks wanted somebody they could look up to as their leader and president. And what they looked up to was a lot different from what I am seeing folks look up to today.

I laughed at your example. But who knows what the future holds.

I am just hoping that all of us wake up and save the planet instead of our iPads, iPhones, iMacs, Samsung galaxies and SUVs. All of us have them and all of them are taking up a lot of time not saving it.

I think the problem is that I do not think the populace is really thinking about the issues aside from a few sound bytes and they are not spending the time muddling through their affairs - they are allowing others to do it without asking the right questions and act like they have gotten the monkey off their backs and it is somebody else's problems. I do not see this sad direction as being very much like what Aristotle or Plato or Socrates or what they had in mind.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

I thought this was an interesting article - given our conversation and given our times. I do not see Socrates and Plato as elitists but more worried about the intellect and questioning ability of the common man or woman. Are they more interested in the Kardashians or helping form solutions to big problems - our planet and the environment, immigration, terrorism, poverty, economic issues, etc. Socrates and Plato worried about the average man (in these days average man or woman). The founding fathers acknowledged these concerns as did Madison in the Federalist Papers and brought about those checks and balances which we live with today and frustrate us in some instances - but are the speed bumps installed by our forefathers to curb our natural tendencies. Your thoughts?

The Founding Fathers and Plato: The Challenge of Democracy
By CODY JACOB YASHINSKY on February 15, 2010 2:02 PM

In The Republic, Socrates discusses his perfect city ruled by a philosopher-king and begins to critique the four additional forms of government, each one more terrible than the last: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. According to Socrates, these are inevitable stages a just city undergoes over time. Socrates explains in his Ship Analogy, comparing the state to a complicated and large ship. In order for the ship to make safe passage it must have an experienced navigator who has knowledge of capacities of the ship, meteorology, water currents, navigational astronomy and the like. An ignorant person would not be able to guarantee safe voyage of the ship, the people in side, and its cargo. This metaphor can be applied to the head of a state, which should be someone knowledgeable on the matters of how to govern and run a state. Socrates explains that the problem with democracy is that it relies on ordinary people to run the government, people who may not be familiar with the necessary subjects essential to running the state. The masses will vote for politicians who entice them with rhetoric and vague speeches, only to find themselves at the mercy of incompetent administrations. People will be guided by emotions rather than rational analysis and thought. Socrates demonstrates these types of politics:

"Imagine then a ship or a fleet in which there is a captain who is taller and stronger than any of the crew, but who is a little deaf and has a similar infirmity in sight, and whose knowledge of navigation is not much better. The sailors are quarreling with one another about the steering--every one is of the opinion that he has a right to steer, though he has never learned the art of navigation." (488b)

The captain represents the people or demos, while the sailors represent the politicians trying to control the direction of the state. The criticism continues:

"[The sailors] throng about the captain, begging and praying him to commit the helm to them; and if at any time they do not prevail, but others are preferred to them, they kill the others or throw them overboard, and having first chained up the noble captain's senses with drink or some narcotic drug, they mutiny and take possession of the ship and make free with the stores, thus eating and drinking. They proceed on their voyage in such a manner as can be expected of them. Him who is their partisan and cleverly aids them in their plot for getting the ship out of the captain's hands into their own whether by force or persuasion, they compliment with the name of sailor, pilot, able seaman, and abuse the other sort of man, whom they call a good-for-nothing; but that the good pilot must pay attention to the year and seasons and sky and stars and winds, and whatever else belongs to his art, if he intends to be really qualified for the command of a ship, and that he must and will be the steerer, whether other people like it or not--the possibility of this union of authority with the steerer's art has never seriously entered into their thoughts or been made part of their calling." (488c)

These same concerns pervade our society today. Plato and his contemporaries had a strong distrust of the common man, since people tend to act on emotion instead of reasonable rational thought.

Centuries later The Age of Enlightenment brought an emphasis on rejecting the hierarchical structure of the past in favor of power coming from the governed, not the government. The idea of a democracy for the people and of the people was revisited through many writing during this period, often, and ironically, inspired by the ancient Greeks, even Plato's critiques of democracy. These critiques were acknowledged and confronted in Federalist Paper No. 49, in which James Madison writes that the Constitution will solve some of the problems Plato raises:

"As the people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived, it seems strictly consonant to the republican theory, to recur to the same original authority, not only whenever it may be necessary to enlarge, diminish, or new-model the powers of the government, but also whenever any one of the departments may commit encroachments on the chartered authorities of the others...If it be true that all governments rest on opinion, it is no less true that the strength of opinion in each individual, and its practical influence on his conduct, depend much on the number which he supposes to have entertained the same opinion. The reason of man, like man himself, is timid and cautious when left alone, and acquires firmness and confidence in proportion to the number with which it is associated. When the examples which fortify opinion are ANCIENT as well as NUMEROUS, they are known to have a double effect. In a nation of philosophers, this consideration ought to be disregarded. A reverence for the laws would be sufficiently inculcated by the voice of an enlightened reason. But a nation of philosophers is as little to be expected as the philosophical race of kings wished for by Plato. And in every other nation, the most rational government will not find it a superfluous advantage to have the prejudices of the community on its side."

It would seem that in the founding of the United States, the Founding Fathers did not necessarily share the same opinion on the people that Plato and his contemporaries did. It is important to acknowledge, however, that the Founding Fathers did establish institutions such as the Electoral College, which in theory would prevent the masses from electing a king or dictator into office. Separation of Powers, impeachments, and requirements for elected officials also serve as safeguards to prevent democracy from degrading into tyranny. It was through the rejection of Plato's view of man, while also acknowledging the tendency of man to act in his own self-interest, which led to the establishment of the greatest democracy the world has ever seen. Plato's contribution to the establishment of the United States was in his challenge of democracy, a challenge that was confronted in 1787 and one that continues to be challenged even today. Time will tell whether Plato will someday be proven correct, or if the United States, and every other democratic country, are exceptions to the rule.

Source: The Digital Dialogue

by Alexander Hamilton

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

This is a fun article from Biography on whether you are more like Plato or Aristotle. Have a go at it and let us know how you did. Your thoughts?

The Personality Divide: Are You More Like Plato or Aristotle?
By ARTHUR HERMAN
November 14, 2013

http://www.biographile.com/the-person...

Source: Biography

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

A nice high level synopsis on Aristotle by Eric Gerlach: (Your thoughts?)

http://ericgerlach.com/greekphilosoph...

Source: Eric Gerlach blog
http://ericgerlach.com/greekphilosoph...

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Plato & Aristotle on Social Justice (Your thoughts?)

http://study.com/academy/lesson/plato...

Source: study.com

Folks - the introductory part on Plato is good and you can get a free 5 day trial if you want to hear the rest. No cost for the first part and I think it explains a bit where Plato was coming from - of course Aristotle disagreed with his teacher.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Interesting on Khan Academy (The Ergon Argument - The Purpose of Human Life)

In this video, Monte explores an approach to the question “What is the purpose of life?” developed by the Greek Philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). Aristotle reasoned that just as artificial things (such as tools and workers) have characteristic capabilities with respect to which they are judged to be good or do well, so each kind of natural thing (including plants and humans) has characteristic capabilities with respect to which can be judged, objectively, to be good or do well. For plants and animals these mostly have to do with nutrition and reproduction, and in the case of animals, pleasure and pain. For humans, these vegetative and animal capabilities are necessary but not sufficient for our flourishing. Since reason and the use of language are the unique and highest capabilities of humans, the cultivation and exercise of intellectual friendships and partnerships, moral and political virtue, scientific knowledge and (above all) theoretical philosophy, was argued by Aristotle to be the ultimate purpose of human life.

Speaker: Dr. Monte Ransome Johnson, Associate Professor, University of California San Diego

https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-c...

Source: Khan Academy

Ergon = Work, Job, Product, Function f(x) - artifacts or skills
Arete - Excellence or Virtue
Aristotle's four classifications of living things - plants, animals, humans and gods
Aristotle's defines living things by their capabilities
Aristotle defined human beings as a rational animal - reason and language
The most godlike activity is philosophy according to Aristotle because it combines the pure exercise of reason and thought. According to Aristotle that is what the gods engage in.
Aristotle thought that doing philosophy was the ultimate end to human existence.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Alexander the Great

Rudimentary video - https://youtu.be/gtJoz743AyQ?list=PL-...

Alexander: The Ambiguity of Greatness

by Guy Maclean Rogers (no photo)

Synopsis:

For nearly two and a half millennia, Alexander the Great has loomed over history as a legend–and an enigma. Wounded repeatedly but always triumphant in battle, he conquered most of the known world, only to die mysteriously at the age of thirty-two. In his day he was revered as a god; in our day he has been reviled as a mass murderer, a tyrant as brutal as Stalin or Hitler.

Who was the man behind the mask of power? Why did Alexander embark on an unprecedented program of global domination? What accounted for his astonishing success on the battlefield? In this luminous new biography, the esteemed classical scholar and historian Guy MacLean Rogers sifts through thousands of years of history and myth to uncover the truth about this complex, ambiguous genius.

Ascending to the throne of Macedonia after the assassination of his father, King Philip II, Alexander discovered while barely out of his teens that he had an extraordinary talent and a boundless appetite for military conquest. A virtuoso of violence, he was gifted with an uncanny ability to visualize how a battle would unfold, coupled with devastating decisiveness in the field. Granicus, Issos, Gaugamela, Hydaspes–as the victories mounted, Alexander’s passion for conquest expanded from cities to countries to continents. When Persia, the greatest empire of his day, fell before him, he marched at once on India, intending to add it to his holdings.

As Rogers shows, Alexander’s military prowess only heightened his exuberant sexuality. Though his taste for multiple partners, both male and female, was tolerated, Alexander’s relatively enlightened treatment of women was nothing short of revolutionary. He outlawed rape, he placed intelligent women in positions of authority, and he chose his wives from among the peoples he conquered. Indeed, as Rogers argues, Alexander’s fascination with Persian culture, customs, and sexual practices may have led to his downfall, perhaps even to his death.

Alexander emerges as a charismatic and surprisingly modern figure–neither a messiah nor a genocidal butcher but one of the most imaginative and daring military tacticians of all time. Balanced and authoritative, this brilliant portrait brings Alexander to life as a man, without diminishing the power of the legend.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Alexander the Great History Channel Documentary

Synopsis:

https://youtu.be/ORrtZbEMbwY

Alexander the Great, History Channel Documentary. The true story of Alexander the Great (king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty) and the Macedonian Empire, which introduced the Hellenistic Period of ancient Greek civilization. Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, 356 BCE - 323 BCE: "Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Greece and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury. I have been appointed leader of the Greeks, and wanting to punish the Persians I have come to Asia, which I took from you."
(Alexander's letter to Persian king Darius in response to a truce plea, as quoted in "Anabasis Alexandri" by Roman historian Arrian, Book 2.14.4, Greek original: “οἱ ὑμέτεροι πρόγονοι ἐλθόντες εἰς Μακεδονίαν καὶ εἰς τὴν ἄλλην Ἑλλάδα κακῶς ἐποίησαν ἡμᾶς οὐδὲν προηδικημένοι: ἐγὼ δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἡγεμὼν κατασταθεὶς καὶ τιμωρήσασθαι βουλόμενος Πέρσας διέβην ἐς τὴν Ἀσίαν, ὑπαρξάντων ὑμῶν.” http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/t...)

"We must remember too that Philip and Alexander were Greeks, descended from Heracles, wished to be recognised as Greeks, as benefactors of the Greeks, even as Heracles had been." (Nicholas Hammond, British scholar and expert on Macedon, 'Alexander the Great', p.257)

“Afterwards he [Alexander] revived his father's League of Corinth, and with it his plan for a pan-Hellenic invasion of Asia to punish the Persians for the suffering of the Greeks, especially the Athenians, in the Greco-Persian Wars and to liberate the Greek cities of Asia Minor.”
(Victor Davis Hanson, “Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome”, Princeton University Press, 2012, p.119)

"They (ancient Macedonians) felt as Greeks, and they had no temptation to destroy what they claimed was their mother country. They had clearly no wish to swallow up Greece in Macedonia, but rather to make Macedonia, as a Greek state, the ruling power of Greece. Such was undoubtedly the aim of Philip and Alexander too."
(Theodore Ayrault Dodge, military historian, “Alexander”, p.187)

"His [Philip's] course seems to have been directed towards the establishment of stability in Greece, not conquest."
(Eugene Borza, “Shadows of Olympus”, p.230)

"Philip II of Macedon was anxious to pacify and unify Greeks at any cost."
(Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge, 2006)

“In the end, the Greeks would fall under the rule of a single man, who would unify Greece: Philip II, king of Macedon (360-336 BC). His son, Alexander the Great, would lead the Greeks on a conquest of the ancient Near East vastly expanding the Greek world.”
(Michael Burger, “The Shaping of Western Civilization: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment”, University of Toronto Press, 2008, p.76)

“To a certain extent the Macedonian monarchy had already been a unifying element in Greek history, even before the conquests of Alexander.”
(Michael Crawford, Fergus Millar, Emilio Gabba, "Sources for Ancient History", p. 12, Cambridge University Press)

“After Philip's assassination at Aegae in 336, Alexander inherited, together with the Macedonian kingdom, his father's Panhellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia.”
(Waldemar Heckel, Lawrence A. Tritle, “Alexander the Great: A New History”, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, p.99)

Yale University, USA: "We know the ancient Macedonians were fundamentally Greeks. That is to say they were Greek speakers and ethnically they were Greeks."
(Yale University Courses, Lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuOxG..., Introduction to Ancient Greek History, Philip, Demosthenes and the Fall of the Polis, 2007) on 01m 48s