Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site security.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!security!tfl 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...