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From: tfl@security.UUCP (Tom Litant)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: re:re:what evil IS
Message-ID: <342@security.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Jun-83 14:44:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: security.342
Posted: Thu Jun 23 14:44:49 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jun-83 19:22:14 EDT
Organization: MITRE Corp., Bedford MA
Lines: 14

Actually, it was Aristotle who claimed that evil arose from ignorance, and
not Plato.  If you look at the Republic more carefully, it is intended to be
an analogy between injustice in the state and injustice in the individual.
Both, according to Plato, arise from an imbalance of sorts.  Remember the
allegory of the two horses (the appetites, the spirited element) and the
charioteer (Reason)?  This is a case of balance, and not of pure intellect
(all three elements have their place in the individual, according to Plato,
just as all three elements: the workers, the soldiers, and the
philosopher/king have their place in society).
In academic philosophy today, more emphasis is placed on analyzing the nature
of moral judgements (`Meta-ethics') than analyzing particular instances for
moral properties (`Normative Ethics').  A very good text on metaethics is by a
guy named Hudson, and is called, I believe, MODERN MORAL PHILOSOPHY.  It got
me through my prelims just fine...