Life of a Philosopher - Essay Example

LIFE OF A PHILOSOPHER by The of the The of the School The and where it is located The Date Life of a philosopher Introduction It is beyond any doubt that the human civilization has a considerable number of characteristic features that differ it from any other group which can be found in the natural world. One of such aspects is the presence of conscience which allows people to rise above the daily matter and develop a broad understanding of the world. Philosophy is an area of human knowledge which allows people to find keys to some of the most crucial questions. That is why texts that were written by famous philosophers long ago are read in the contemporary society as well. Indeed, they focus on issues that have not lost their significance for the people over centuries. This paper will provide a detailed analysis of Plato’s Republic, putting emphasis on the claim according to which life of a philosopher is the happiest one. Three sorts of people To begin with, it may be useful to give some context for the discussion. Thus, in the second part of Book IX the philosophers discuss the nature of happiness and pleasure. After a brief description of life of a tyrant, they come to conclusion that there are three sorts of people that should be considered while trying to define the true pleasure. They are lovers of gain, lovers of honour and lovers of wisdom. As one can easily see, these categories reflect different parts of the population: the former ones include the majority of the people who think about financial matters more that morals and are willing to accumulate a considerable amount of wealth; the second ones are those who value not material resources, but fame and reputation, which is surely an abstract matter, but is closely connected to the world of people; the latter are philosophers who find particular pleasure in learning the wisdom, grasping the ideas and think about the fundamental aspects of the world. In other words, this distinction between the three men broadly reflects three kinds of values that matter to the people. Quantitative dimension of pleasure Thus, in other to prove that life of a philosopher is the one which features the biggest amount of happiness the philosophers address the issue from different points of view. The first one that is utilized by them is the quantitative dimension of pleasure (Benson 2006, 317). Indeed, when it comes to physical manifestation of happiness, it is quite obvious that one is able to name quite a few. They might include such simple things are eating and sleeping and up to more sophisticated ones, such as listening to music or reading a book. In any case, in the beginning of the second half of Book IX the philosophers try to develop a claim which would take into account pleasures that can be measured in order to prove that life of a philosopher features more happiness that life of a person who is preoccupied with gaining money or fame. Experience of all pleasures The discussion of the issue in question starts with a simple premise: it is being agreed that every of the three kinds of people will value more the pleasure which one is striving for (Irwin 1995, 304). For example, lover of gain will not be able to value the advantages of a good reputation unless it is able to provide any kind of financial benefits. In addition to that, one will see no value in knowledge if it does not bring money. On the other hand, a person may not care about money since they come and go and the same person may not interested in learning wisdom since it will not contribute to his reputation. The position of a philosopher with regard to money and fame is obvious. That is why in Book IX it is suggested that one can not simply compare happiness of one kind to another since people will simply reject its value. In other words, there should be a common ground that all will agree upon. This common ground is found in the number of pleasures. Indeed, lover of gain may enjoy accumulating money, but one can hardly become a person with a good reputation. In addition to that, such an individual never devote oneself to learning wisdom. On the other hand, lover of honour will most certainly reject the need to accumulate money in favour of gaining good reputation; moreover, difficult philosophical concepts will be of no use for him. Nevertheless, a philosopher is able to experience all the pleasures. This is how the text puts it: “[philosophers are people who have] always known the taste of the other pleasures from [their] childhood” (Plato n.d.). Indeed, as it is stated in the discussion, this “double experience” is what really makes life of a philosopher the happiest. In other words, from a mathematical point of view since lovers of gain or honour might enjoy only one kind of pleasure while a philosopher is able to enjoy all of them, life of the latter should be recognized as the happiest one. Objections to quantitative dimension In spite of the fact that the above mentioned approach does seem convincing, one is able to come up with several objections to it. To begin with, it is necessary to point out that the text was written in Ancient Greece where philosophers belonged to the top of the social ladder (Wright 2009, 136). Indeed, they had numerous slaves, lived in luxury and did not have to take care of any daily problem. That is why the assumption that a philosopher is able to experience all the pleasures in life including love of wisdom is heavily influenced by the realities of that period of time. For example, if one takes a look at the social status of the philosophers who lived in the latter centuries, one will be able to see that not many of them were wealthy and a considerable number of them had quite a moderate income. So, it would not be wise to suggest that a philosopher is able to experience all the pleasures. In addition to that, one would also argue that the logic behind division into three kinds of features a particular flaw: it is primarily based on the assumption that people who are preoccupied with gaining wealth or honour will not be willing to experience other pleasures (Seidel 2010, 28). Indeed, it is quite possible that a person who truly values honour and reputation was able to accumulate wealth as a result of various military campaigns that one participated in. In this case a person will also experience different kinds of pleasure. In addition to that, it may be so, that the above mentioned lover of honour is interested in philosophy as well. In this case, one would make no mistake suggesting that this person is experiencing all the kinds of pleasures that are thought to be available for philosophers only. As a result, the entire point that only the latter are able to live a life to its fullest in terms of pleasures is not completely wrong. Qualitative dimension of pleasure It must be noted that in the text in question the philosophers were satisfied with the results of their analysis and decided to address the issue from a different point of view, namely paid attention to the quality of pleasure (Posner 2010, 85). It is quite obvious that this approach towards defining whose life is the happiest one is more typical for philosophers since they would have to operate with abstract notions and support their position with the help of a theoretical framework. Indeed, in the text it is pointed out that since quantitative dimension was not able to provide them with an exhaustive answer to it, they decided to find a different definition of what truly makes a life happy. According to Book IX, if live of a person is full with real pleasure, then one may surely be regarded as a happy person. On the other hand, if an individual is striving for that the text calls a false pleasure, then one will never be happy. So, the fundamental criterion that the philosophers agree on is the nature of pleasure. False pleasure First of all, it may be useful to explain what the philosophers meant by calling a particular kind of pleasure a false one. Thus, it is thought that the latter is false because it may never be satisfied (Hampton 1990, 55). Indeed, the above mentioned lover of gain will always want to gain more and more, regardless of the amount of money that one had. What is more important is that, hypothetically, if one gathers all the money in the world, one will still feel a need for more. A similar kind of thinking can be traced in the case of lover of honour: a person might have a good reputation, but there will always be ways to improve it even more. In other words, for the lovers of gain and honour there is no way to satisfy their need absolutely. The latter can be easily explained by the following idea that is expressed in the text: a false pleasure is a kind of pleasure which simply eases the pain of wanting and does not allow a person actually gain something (Smith 1998, p. 214). Indeed, eating is a false please. A person eats when one feels hunger and the latter disappears as soon as the stomach is full. Nevertheless, it is inevitable that after some time hunger reappears. This means that eating was simply able to deal with a problem temporarily. Similar situation may be found in other instances. Thus, while receiving more money, a lover of gain is satisfied only because for a moment the pain of wanting is dealt with, but overtime the greed will appear again and one will have to satisfy it even more. A lover of honour feels happy when one is being praised or having achieved victory; nevertheless, this relief is temporary. As a result, their lives can not be called the happiest. Real pleasure Contrary to the previous kind of pleasure, the philosophers put emphasis on a different one. Indeed, on numerous occasions, Plato talks about the idea of pure pleasure which is supposed to be the opposite of false pleasure (Urwick 2012, 39). As one can easily see on the examples which were brought up in the paragraphs above, the characteristic feature of the latter is its inability to satisfy the needs of a person fully. So, one would make no mistake pointing out that real or pure pleasure will be able to satisfy this ability in full. Thus, lover of wisdom is preoccupied with knowledge and the ultimate knowledge about the world is the knowledge of God or the Idea. Theoretically speaking, it is absolutely possible for a person to widen one’s outlook so much that one will be able to understand the fundamental truth about the world. In spite of the fact that this is often rarely achieved in practice, but in the long run it will be able to satisfy the need of a person fully. As one can easily see, the conclusion which is made by the philosophers shows that out of the three kinds of pleasure that they defined, only one should be regarded as a real one, while all the other are false (Kraut 1997, 198). That is why lover of gain and lover of honour are doomed in their desire to pursuit the path that they chose since they will never be able to satisfy their demand. Contrary to that, a philosopher who is in the process of learning wisdom follows the path which leads one to ultimate satisfaction of his desire. So, unlike a lover of gain and a lover of honour, a lover of wisdom will be able to reach one’s goal which will surely have his life the most happiest of the three. This shows that not only from quantitative point of view, but from qualitative point of view life of a philosopher should be seen as more pleasant. Finally, there is one more point that should be mentioned when it comes to understanding the benefits of life of a philosopher. The very Book IX as well as the entire dialogue suggests that life of a just person is always better than life of an unjust one (Blitz 2010, 184). Indeed, if one takes a look at a lover of gain, a lover of honour and a lover of wisdom, one will be able to see that the former two are likely to be unjust, while the latter is sure a just person. In addition to that the philosophers argue that it is quite natural for a just person like a philosopher to pay attention to real pleasures and not to false one, since this is conditioned by the nature of one’s soul. Subjectivity of claims Nevertheless, one should note one particular point which is able to cast a shadow on the conclusions that are articulated in Book IX of The Republic. Thus, this is a dialogue between two philosophers about certain philosophical issues that is performed in a manner which is characteristic to philosophical investigations. As one can easily see, there is no wonder that in the course of their discussion, they decide that philosophers live the happiest life (Jordan 1990, 90). In other words, the evaluation of different life styles surely features a conflict of interests: the philosophers can hardly agree on the fact that somebody is living a life which is happier than theirs. One would make no mistake suggesting that it would have been quite surprising if they had found some flaws in their position or consider their position a false one. Indeed, if the discussion would be far more objective if it did not involve a lover of wisdom. In this case one could hardly doubt that personal opinion of the philosopher would distort the outcome of the analysis. However, since the philosophers have to make judgements about themselves, it is obvious that they will not be objective. Conclusion Having examined all the evidence which was analyzed in the previous paragraphs, one is able to come to following conclusions. First of all, Book IX of The Republic identifies three kinds of people, attributing a kind of pleasure to each of them and calling a lover of wisdom, namely a philosopher one who lives the happiest live. Secondly, the philosophers in the text prove that from the point of view of quantity of pleasures, life of a philosopher is surely the happiest one since a lover of wisdom is able to experience all the pleasures, while a lover of gain or a lover of honour are limited with their desires. Finally, a philosopher is able to satisfy his needs entirely, unlike other people who crave for money or reputation. This can be explained by the fact that the former was able to choose real pleasure, while the latter chose false pleasure that simply ease the pain of wanting. References Benson, H 2006, A companion to Plato, Blackwell Pub, Malden, MA. Blitz, M 2010, Platos political philosophy, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. Hampton, C 1990, Pleasure, knowledge, and being an analysis of Platos Philebus, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY. Irwin, T 1995, Platos ethics, Oxford University Press, Albany, NY. Jordan, R 1990, Ancient concepts of philosophy, Routledge, London. Kraut, R 1997, Platos Republic: Critical essays, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham. Plato n.d., The Republic. Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.10.ix.html Posner, E 2010, Law and happiness, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. Seidel, A 2010, Immortal passage philosophical speculations on posthuman evolution, Lexington Books, Lanham. Smith, N 1998, Plato: Critical assessments, Routledge, London. Urwick, E 2012, The Message of Plato (RLE Plato): A Re-Interpretation of the Republic, Routledge, London. Wright, M 2009, Introducing Greek philosophy, Acumen, Durham. Read More