I haven't singled out cases. I have said that the morality of actions is determined by the extent to which they lead to consequencesthat protect or restrict/violated the ability of persons to understand and make their own choices. — Dan

As I've shown, "the ability of persons to understand and make their own choices", as explained by you, is not a reasonable principle. This is because you fail to properly account for the meaning of "understand" in your explanation. So you make that principle into something which neglects the moral value of understanding one's choices.

For example, you might be able to choose to leave the house if you're locked in a room. You might be unable to choose to go for a walk if you've had your legs broken by local mobsters. You might be unable to choose to sell your car if it's been stolen. Lots of things might prevent you being able to make those choices that belong to you. — Dan

None of these restrictions provide the force required for your claim. I can still choose to leave the room if I am locked in. Whether or not I am locked in the room only changes the probability of success or failure in carrying out my choice. Likewise, I can still choose to take a walk after my legs are broken. And I can still choose to sell my car even after it's been stolen.

This is what I've been telling you, these physical restrictions which might restrict one's freedom to act do not restrict one's ability to choose. This is very important to understand because it is fundamental to the advancement of science, that we can use our imaginations to hypothesize ways to get around things which appear to be physical restrictions. Look, we can now fly in airplanes, and human beings have gone to the moon. A few centuries ago these things would have seemed impossible due to physical restrictions.

Your examples simply display your failure to recognize the distinction between making a choice, and carrying out the chosen activity. As I told you, it is necessary to maintain this distinction to account for the fact that we often make mistakes or for some other reason do not succeed in carrying out the choices we make. Because of this we must conclude that the choice to act is distinct and separate from the act itself.

Another proof of this separation is the fact that I can choose today, what I will do tomorrow. The act does not necessarily follow directly and immediately from the choice. And in the meantime I might even change my mind, so the original choice is never even acted on. This clearly indicates that there is a separation between the choice, and the act which follows from the choice.

This is all very strong evidence that you misrepresent what it means to understand one's own choices.

The circumstance is not of people dying. The majority are souls about to return in another life. Human or animal. They have no physical body. Er's soul seems to have departed his body on the cusp between life and death. Just as the river can be seen as a border to cross. He is there in the Myth as an observer to return and tell the story, of the Myth. — Amity

That's very clearly not the case. Er's soul did not depart his body, otherwise the body would have started the decomposition process. These experiences are known as "near death". Er went on the trip with the others, without his soul leaving his body. The adventure occurred within that context. We can conclude therefore that this is the context of that trip, it is the process of dying, not the condition of being dead. This is prior to the returning in another life, which only occurs after the drinking of the water, which Er did not partake of.

The drinking symbolizes finality for Plato. It is the finality of Socrates when he drinks the poison. And, the will power to resist drinking non-potable water, when a man is thirsty, is the example Plato uses to demonstrate, that it is necessary to conclude, that the mind rules the body. This argument, concerning the will power of a thirsty person to resist the desire to drink, when the water is known to be likely unfit for drinking, is a very strong argument for the idea that the mind can rule over the desires of the body. Therefore drinking is a very powerful symbol in myths like this, and being forced to drink is very significant as representative of that moment when the body overpowers the soul, and puts an end to that rule. This is when the harmony of the parts, which is the effect of the soul ruling the body, is lost, and decomposition of the body begins.

It does not follow that the words are 'best understood' as having bad or negative connotations. Or as 'bad passions' which do as you suggest. — Amity

Again, this is clearly not the case. The situation described by Er is a situation in which the rule of the soul, over the body is being lost. By Plato's principles this is explicitly bad. Therefore the terms used here "forgetfulness", and "heedlessness" or "carelessness", mean that something bad is occurring. It would constitute misunderstanding, to deny the bad connotations of these words. This is undeniably a bad situation.

However, there are different ways to see 'carelessness'. As 'free from care' - having no worries, problems or anxieties. I can accept this as being necessary and welcome for the souls about to start a new life. They don't want to worry or about events in the past, present or future. — Amity

You appear to have an irrational inclination toward glorifying death. Death ought not be represented as freeing oneself from the problems of life. In no way does the myth of Er imply that this is the case. Notice, the souls in the final stages of dying are presented with the most difficult decision, what sort of life would be better than the one I just had. And, the souls are bound by fate to be subjected to the consequences of that final choice. Therefore, rather than being freed, the souls at this point are bound and sentenced to a lifetime of living out the consequences of that one, most important choice. That 'most important choice' is, 'what is the best possible life which a soul could have?'. Notice, the possibilities are restricted to those handed out by fate, and "having no worries, problems or anxieties" is not an option.

I am viewing this in its literary context. The perspective of the individual souls in the Myth of Er.
The need to drink from the river of Lethe as a way to progress, without care or anxiety, to a new life as a new-born. To blankly go where they haven't been before. Well, as far as they know... — Amity

Again, you are neglecting the essence of the myth. Read 618 please. The message concerns the 'all important', most significant, choice which must be made, "the greatest danger of all" 618b. That is the choice, to choose from the available options, the best possible life a soul could have. To the extent that we all have regrets, and no one would ever choose to live a life exactly as one has, the choice is "To blankly go where they haven't been before". But, as indicated in the translation below with " But there was no determination of the quality of soul, because the choice of a different life inevitably2 determined a different character", we need to decide which will be the best life. This is the problem, we must choose a life which is different, but by what principles will we know that the different will be better rather than worse.

However, this going forward which is presented, this proceeding, or "way to progress" is irreversibly conditioned (because the nature of time) by that all important, primary choice, which is forced upon the soul. Refusing to choose would mean a lifetime in purgatory. And if one is overcome by forgetfulness, or haste, the soul will be punished with suffering. Therefore a lifetime of experiences, in the future life, is dependent on this one choice, "what is the best possible life a soul could have". So it's completely opposed to the message of the myth, to say that the souls proceeds "without care or anxiety". If you believe that you can progress without care or anxiety, you will surely choose the life of tyranny.

[618a] And after this again the prophet placed the patterns of lives before them on the ground, far more numerous than the assembly. They were of every variety, for there were lives of all kinds of animals and all sorts of human lives, for there were tyrannies among them, some uninterrupted till the end1 and others destroyed midway and issuing in penuries and exiles and beggaries; and there were lives of men of repute for their forms and beauty and bodily strength otherwise [618b] and prowess and the high birth and the virtues of their ancestors, and others of ill repute in the same things, and similarly of women. But there was no determination of the quality of soul, because the choice of a different life inevitably2 determined a different character. But all other things were commingled with one another and with wealth and poverty and sickness and health and the intermediate3 conditions.

—And there, dear Glaucon, it appears, is the supreme hazard4 for a man. [618c] And this is the chief reason why it should be our main concern that each of us, neglecting all other studies, should seek after and study this thing5—if in any way he may be able to learn of and discover the man who will give him the ability and the knowledge to distinguish the life that is good from that which is bad, and always and everywhere to choose the best that the conditions allow, and, taking into account all the things of which we have spoken and estimating the effect on the goodness of his life of their conjunction or their severance, to know how beauty commingled with poverty or wealth and combined with [618d] what habit of soul operates for good or for evil, and what are the effects of high and low birth and private station and office and strength and weakness and quickness of apprehension and dullness and all similar natural and acquired habits of the soul, when blended and combined with one another,6 so that with consideration of all these things he will be able to make a reasoned choice between the better and the worse life, [618e] with his eyes fixed on the nature of his soul, naming the worse life that which will tend to make it more unjust and the better that which will make it more just. But all other considerations he will dismiss, for we have seen that this is the best choice, [619a] both for life and death. And a man must take with him to the house of death an adamantine1 faith in this, that even there he may be undazzled2 by riches and similar trumpery, and may not precipitate himself into tyrannies and similar doings and so work many evils past cure and suffer still greater himself, but may know how always to choose in such things the life that is seated in the mean3 and shun the excess in either direction, both in this world so far as may be and in all the life to come; [619b] for this is the greatest happiness for man. — Perseus Digital Library

I suppose someone is at some threat of being drowned in the future if they don't know how to swim. There are quite a few differences between that and the case of someone pointing a gun at you and saying 'your money or your life' though, don't you think? — Dan

Sure, each case has a number of differences from every other. That is why I think your procedure of singling out specific cases and claiming "morally relevant" , and claiming others as "not morally relevant" is unjustified. You have not provided any reasonable principles for making that distinction.

Yeah, I don't think any of that is right. Finding a choice difficult to make because you aren't sure which option will be best for you is not the same thing as being unable to make it. — Dan

I do not see any other possibility for being unable to make a choice, other than that it is too difficult. How else could someone be unable to make a choice?

There is idolatry, which is a case people praying to something other than God. If God can answer prayers why not something else as well?

You can pray to anything, it need not be God, it's called idolatry. So one might believe, that if you simply pray, in general, to no specific divinity, you'd have the highest probability of having your prayers responded to, because you are not limiting the possible respondents to one particular divinity.

As already mentioned, I think the meaning matters as to the best fit in the context and circumstances. I won't rehash my view again. — Amity

I think we need to consider "context" as the entire work, "The Republic". This is what I said earlier, we look at the whole, and try to see how the part fits into the whole, and this is how we ought to understand, or interpret, that part. That is why multiple readings is the best course for understanding a philosophical piece. The first reading gives an overall, general idea about what is going on. This allows one to go back and reread, and better understand each part, in relation to how it fits into that understanding of the whole. Then, the person can develop a better understanding of the whole, and be prepared for a repeat.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'emotion based concepts'.
Is it that one can be seen as 'bad', the other 'good'?
So, I prefer 'forgetfulness' to 'heedlessness' or 'carelessness'. Other translators or readers prefer 'carelessness' which in my view has a negative connotation. — Amity

The translation to words with bad or good connotations is something which needs to be determined in relation to the overall context. Plato has separated mind from body, throughout the text, and has proposed a third aspect of the being, passion, or spirit, as the medium between these two. This conception is known as Plato's tripartite soul. In a healthy human being, the mind rules over the body through the means of the passions. This is the same way that the rulers rule over the working class through the means of the guardians, in Plato's proposed republic. In the case of an unhealthy, or corrupted soul, the situation is reversed, the passions are responding to the body, with the result being the suffering of the mind.

Now, in the situation described by the myth of Er, the people are dying, so the circumstance is one of unhealthiness. I believe it is better to consider them dying than dead, because Er managed to come back from this near death experience to tell the story. And, since it is a circumstance of unhealthy souls, the words are best understood to have bad connotations. So these words, "forgetfulness", "heedlessness", or "carelessness", are all best understood as the bad passions which are completely extinguishing the mind's rule over the body, and this will result in death.

The image of "thirst", I believe is very significant, because thirst is the example which Plato uses to show how in the case of a healthy soul, the mind can rule over the desires of the body. In the described circumstance of the myth, the mind is losing that capacity, and the soul is "forced" to drink, and this is what finalizes the end of the mind's rule over the body. This is also the death of Socrates, being forced to drink poison. So these words, heedlessness etc., are the words which are used to refer to those passions which overcome the mind, and lead to the end of the rule of mind over body.

This combines all of Plato's 3 parts of the soul: reason, spirited emotion and appetitive desire.

It seems that reason should be given the higher power but is this 'just'?
Isn't desire one of the main motivating factors. The desire to be healthy and well.
And fear - or concern - is the other. It is prudent not to die, if it can be helped. — Amity

The important point about the tripartite soul, is that the middle part, what you call "spirited emotion", is fundamentally neutral. You can think of it as power, and power can be used for good or for bad. If the emotions are directed by reason, the mind uses the emotions to control appetitive desires, and the soul is happy and good. Conversely, the appetitive part may use the emotions to overpower the mind. This relationship is best seen in the corresponding three parts of the state. The guardians are the median group. Corresponding with "spirited emotion", they are bred to be like watchdogs, serving their masters, the rulers, with honour. But when the state starts to corrupt, the guardians become more interested in money than honour, and they switch allegiance, from rulers to the ruled, the tradespeople.

In summary then, desire must be ruled by reason to avoid all sorts of moral problems. In this way, "the desire to be healthy and well" is given priority over the desire for instant gratification. There must be some kind of power there, as a motivating force, but it cannot be desire itself, or else reason would not have the capacity to overcome desire (Plato's example of thirst). So motivation, as power is assigned to the middle aspect, this allows that reason can overcome desire, or desire can overcome reason, depending on the disposition of the emotions.

Because of the heat and harsh conditions of the Plain of Forgetfulness it is necessary for the souls to drink from the River of Heedlessness. (621a) In his closing comments Socrates refers to the river as the river of Forgetfulness rather than the river of Heedlessness. What is the connection between heedlessness and forgetfulness? — Fooloso4

I would not attach too much specific importance to these words. These are generally emotion based concepts, and the words for feelings are used in a variety of ways, and ways which are rapidly changing as the days pass by, making them not well-defined. Furthermore, we have a second layer of ambiguity created by the word employed by the translator, and it being not well-defined in the same way.

It might be important though, to note that "thirst" is an important symbol to Plato, in his example of how the body is distinct from the soul, and very clear proof that the body is directed by, or ruled by, the soul. Thirst drives a man with a hard and fast desire to drink, which is extremely difficult to overcome with will power, when the water in front of one is known to be in some way not safe for human consumption. The capacity for a thirsty person to resist the desire to drink water which is known to be unsafe, is Plato's principal example of how reason, as a property of the soul, has the power to rule over the body. Notice in the myth, that the souls are forced to drink, as they are ruled by a power which is even higher than human reason.

So you are saying that your prayers might still be answered even if God does not exist? So that an atheist could be justified in praying? — Leontiskos

The inverse fallacy is the perfect example of the need for skepticism. When we establish a cause/effect relationship between two types of events, A and B, this is based on either noticing that the first brings about the second, or in the case of the op, assuming that the first brings about the second. When the relationship is well known, and well documented, we get accustomed to it, and this produces a corresponding certitude surrounding those events.

The problem is that we never know for sure whether or not something other than A might bring about the occurrence of B. Because some degree of uncertainty lingers, even though we might say with a great degree of certainty that A always produces B, we cannot validly conclude that if we have B there must have been A.

There are many very good examples of this. For instance, the boiling point of water. We see that 100 degrees Celsius causes water to boil. But we cannot say that if water is boiling its temperature has reached that point, because pressure plays a role to decrease boiling temperature.

This is why ancient skeptics like Socrates and Plato were so persistent in warning us about how the senses mislead us. It is through this process whereby our inductively produced customs are held to high esteem. You can see that in those days it was assumed that the sun orbiting the earth caused the appearance of sunrise and sunset. If we do not allow the skeptic's premise, that possibly something other than the sun orbiting the earth could cause sunrise and sunset, we deny the possibility of advancements to scientific knowledge.

None of that matters. Just assume that the premise is true. The conclusion is still (superficially) counterintuitive. — Michael

The occurrence of a counterintuitive conclusion is the argument which Aristotle used against sophistry. This is why he placed Intuition as the highest form of knowledge. The sophists, such as Zeno, could use logic to produce absurd conclusions. When a conclusion produced from valid logic is strongly counterintuitive, this indicates the need to address the premises. It is very likely that there is hidden falsity, and that's what Socrates and Plato were demonstrating was the trick of sophistry, to veil falsity within the premises.

The issue concerns making sense of the argument's validity, not proving or disprove its soundness. — Michael

Nah, that's boring, Benkei went through that already on the first page, and as far as I'm concerned nothing more needs to be said. The real issue is the question of how this form of logic can produce seemingly absurd conclusions. And that was demonstrated by Hanover, it separates the form from the content.

This, I've argued in other places is the problem with "formalism" in general, it is an attempt to separate form from content, and this cannot actually be done without rendering the logic as totally meaningless and useless. So what happens is that little snippets of content get hidden within the logical form of the argument, or else there's be no argument. And, content always contains some degree of uncertainty. Then the form, being the logical process itself, has room for error inherent within it, rendering this a less than perfect form of logic. That is how formalism contaminates logic with uncertainty, in its attempt to do the impossible, remove all uncertainty (content).

They’ve done things that nobody thought was even possible.”

I'd say that's quite the feat. The envy is showing.

The argument is valid but its first premise is false (or at least hasn't been proven to be true). — Michael

The first premise is the product of an inversion fallacy which I explained on the first page of this thread. There is an assumed cause/effect relation between God's existence and prayers being answered. We say that prayers being answered is the effect, and God's existence is the cause of this effect. God's existence causes prayers to be answered. However, it's an inverse fallacy to say that if prayers are answered then God exists. And saying "if God does not exist my prayers will not be answered" is another way of representing that same fallacious conclusion. So, the first premise, "If God does not exist, then it is false that if I pray, then my prayers will be answered" is a convoluted representation of that very same inversion fallacy.

The first premise is the product of a logical fallacy, and therefore can be considered to be false on that basis. I believe this is the fallacy which Hanover refers to as making the argument "inductively false".

For example, if you provide the location of an assassin's target and I provide the asssassin with a sniper rifle (assuming they couldn't get either of these things otherwise), and the assassin then assassinates said target with said rifle, surely we all bear some responsibility here. — Dan

OK, so now you accept that teaching someone something (providing the location in your example), actually is causal in a morally relevant way. I'm glad you've come to understand that.

Now, you need to justify the boundary you impose between some acts of teaching, and others. Why, for instance is the person who taught the assassin morally responsible, yet the person who taught the arsonist how to light a fire, is not. Your principle of understanding one's own choices seems completely inadequate. The difference to me seems to be a difference of intention.

It is different because in the case of coercion it leaves the person with the choice to do as you say or have their freedom violated in some way. — Dan

I don't see the difference. A threat involves the possibility of having freedom restricted. Likewise,
when someone offers to teach you how to swim, there is the possibility that your freedom will be violated in the future, by drowning, if you choose not to accept the offer. Your claim of a difference is unsubstantiated. The forces of nature are all around us, violating our freedom in many different ways, and learning helps us to make choices which avoid these violations. So I really believe your claim of a difference is completely unjustified.

I do not employ an arbitrary division. The divison I employ is whether the communication in question restricts/violates the ability of persons to understand and make their own choices. — Dan

As I said, if these are your claimed principles, you obviously do not know what "understand" means, or you are using the word in a very unusual way.

You could grab someone and carry/push/otherwise bundle them into a car. That would be forcing them into a car and different from persauding them to get in. I was thinking more that kind of thing, rather moving someone like a puppet. — Dan

Kidnapping a person is not forcing them to do something. You were talking about forcing a person to do something, as distinct from persuading or threatening them to cause them to do it. I do not see how anyone could force someone to do something other than by some form of persuasion, such as a threat. But all these are instances of using communication to tell people something. By what principle do you distinguish some cases as morally relevant and others as not?

You can decieve and educate people on a lot of things that aren't the nature of their own choices. — Dan

It's not a matter of learning about the nature of one's own choices, it's a matter of how education effects one's ability to make one's own choices. You seem to have no respect for how a difference in the number of possibilities present to one's mind, at the time of making a decision, affects the person's ability to make decisions. This is what I've been telling you about since the beginning, and why habit makes a significant difference to one's decision making ability. Lack of relevant knowledge makes a choice difficult, decreasing one's ability to make choices. Increased knowledge which is relevant to the situation makes the choice easier, increasing one's ability to make the choice. This has nothing to do with whether the knowledge is about the nature of making a choice.

You need to take a good look at what "the ability to make a choice" means. Clearly the degree of knowledge which is relevant to the circumstances at hand, affects that ability. This is a principle which is applicable to any type of decision making. Now you propose a special type of decision making, making one's own choice, and my principle, "the degree of knowledge which is relevant to the circumstances at hand, affects that ability", is clearly applicable, just like it is applicable to any other type of choosing.

This is knowledge which is relevant to the circumstances, it is not knowledge about the special type of choice you are proposing. Further, there is another type of knowledge which aids a person in determining which knowledge is relevant to the circumstances, and this is where habit is very important. If the person's mind goes only toward some specific information, avoiding other information which is actually relevant, excluding it as irrelevant, this severely restricts the person's ability to make the choice. Therefore, if one were to apply the principle (or habit) that only knowledge about the nature of making one's own decision is applicable, in any set of circumstances where the person wants to make one's own decision, this would actually be extremely restrictive to a person's ability to make one's own decisions. That is what you are proposing, a severe restriction to one's ability to make one's own choices.

Okay, pretty much all of that is wrong. — Dan

Of course it is all wrong. You described for me specific things, like a distinction between "free will" and "freedom", and I proceed on that basis to show inconsistency in your thesis, so now you must take back what you said, as "all of it is wrong".

So let's go back then, and you can try again. Please define "free will", and "freedom", so that I can have some sort of understanding of what you are talking about.

I believe we can take modern usage of "necessity", and divide it into two principal categories. We have on the one hand, what is said to be "necessary" as determined by the physical forces of the universe, or the laws of nature. This is the sense which is at the base of determinism. On the other hand we have what is "necessary" as determined by the needs of a free willing being. This is the sense when people desire something as the means to an end, it is needed for that purpose.

We can see, that in much of common, modern usage, it is usually not hard to distinguish the two, it's a pretty straight forward analysis which is required to make that judgement. However, then we have a type of necessity which can be understood as "logical necessity". This is what forces logical conclusions. A thorough analysis will show that this sense of "necessity" is really a subdivision of the sense which is based in the needs of a free willing being, "the means to an end". However, many people will not accept this designation, wanting to assign "logical necessity" more force, making it closer to the sense of "necessity" which is at the base of determinism. However, they generally find that it doesn't quite qualify as a determinist "necessity" because it cannot be shown to be driven by the laws of nature. So they propose another distinct sense of "necessity", a third principal type.

The acceptance of this third type of "necessity" produces a lot of confusion, making the judgement of a specific instance of usage much more difficult. Instead of seeing logic as the means to an end, we now have to distinguish the use of logic as distinct from other decision making practises, to place it in a distinct category which some want to portray as closer to being "necessity" in the sense of being driven by the laws of nature than to being "the means to an end". Furthermore, since decision making generally involves some form of logic, it pulls the whole model of "choice" away from the "means to an end" portrayal toward the determinist portrayal.

In reality, a complete and very thorough analysis of "the concept", "necessity", shows that the opposite is what is the case. The "necessity" of determinism is just a special type of "logical necessity", which is a special type of "means to an end" type of "necessity".

We can see, that in Plato's day these distinctions were even less clear than they are today. The concept "|necessity" was young and underdeveloped. But we have to keep in mind, that since the "means to an end" sense is the overarching sense, it is the other sense, the highly specialized determinist sense of "necessary by the laws of nature" which is not yet developed at Plato's time. It is portrayed as "fate". So we see a recognizable representation of "the means to an end" sense of necessity, but the determinist "laws of nature" sense is not well portrayed at all. It is presented as "a lottery". What we call "the laws of nature" present us with one's "lot in life", the circumstances of one's being, and this is presented by Plato as random chance, with some sort of "necessity" lurking beneath it, which drives it. That sense of "necessity" is some how comparable, or related to the "necessity" which is "the means to an end", but the relation is not really intelligible to those people involved in that discussion because they have a primitive understanding about the laws of nature and determinist forces.

As depicted in the story, the options are listed as what the lottery offers. Some are left scrabbling for the last bits. — Paine

The point though, is that the order in which the souls get to choose, is dictated (necessitated) by the lottery, which as a lottery, appears as random chance. So those who have the number of possibilities available for their choices, severely restricted (scrabbling for the last bits), suffer from a necessity which is imposed by chance, the lottery.

Compare this lottery to the one Plato proposes earlier, the lottery which selects breeding partners. The breeding order is necessitated by the lottery. Just like in the case of the souls whose order of choosing is determined by the lottery, to those involved in the selection process, the necessity appears to be imposed by chance. In both cases, to those being selected from, it appears like the order is produced from a purely random, chance lottery. However, we see that in the one example, there is really intelligence behind the scene which creates the appearance of random chance for all those being selected from, and only a distinct class of people are privy to that information. Plato has guided us to allow for the possibility that what appears as a chance lottery, which is behind the necessity that imposes itself on us, there might really not be a chance lottery at all.

I don't think it has to be quite so all or nothing. I'd be open to the idea that certain preceding events were necessary but not sufficient causes of some action being undertaken. — Dan

We could take that route, but I think it would prove disastrous to consequentialism. Consider that if we maintain such principles, that there are necessary conditions for an effect, but none of these can suffice as the cause of the effect, then we do not have what is required to tie the voluntary act to the consequences, as the cause of those consequences. The circumstances which a human being finds oneself in, are all equally necessary for the resulting consequences, and "causation" has been reduced in this way, such that the voluntary act cannot be said to suffice as "the cause" of the consequences, it is necessary but not sufficient.

Persuading someone to do something is not forcing them to do it. Coercing someone by threatening them could plausibly be considered forcing. What you are doing in such a case is restricting their choices through a threat (for example, give me your money or I will shoot you). This is not inconsistent with thinking that one's actions are not wholly determined by preceding factors or in-principle predictable with 100% accuracy. — Dan

The issue is that threatening is a matter of persuading someone through the use of communication. The question for you, is how is this substantially different from any other form of persuading someone through the use of communication, teaching and deceiving in general?

My criticism is that you employ an arbitrary division whereby sometimes the use of communication is morally relevant, and other times it is not. And the principles you employ in making this division are not based in whether the use of communication is good, bad, or indifferent, as they should be for a true determination of "morally relevant". Your principles are based in harm or benefit to body and property, with complete neglect for harm or benefit to one's mind, even though your claim is that the principles are based in the ability to understand and make one's own choices.

This is also fairly obvious in the case where you are literally forcing someone to do something, such as by grabbing them and physically making them do it. This is not the same thing as persauding someone or educating someone. — Dan

This is nonsense. You cannot grab a person and make them act out a procedure. How could they be performing the request while they are being held? What are you insinuating, that you could grab a person and move their arms and legs like a puppet, making them carry out an act? You are slipping into nonsense Dan.

Some actions restrict someone's ability to understand and make their own choices and some don't. The use of force is often in the former category, and the use of deception or education is often in the latter. — Dan

You really haven't taken a look at what the word "understand" means. If you truly believe that deception and education do not, in general, effect one's ability to understand one's own choices, you have a lot of reading, and thinking, to do.

But, again, this is consequentialism. The type of action is not what is important. It is the consequences which determine an actions morality. In cases where education restricts someone's ability to understand and make their own choices (generally this would involve teaching them something incorrect about the nature of those choices or about some threat etc) then that education is morally bad. But, for example, teaching someone how many wives Henry the 8th had does not restrict their ability to understand and make their own choices. — Dan

You've fallen into a trap. Just last post, you distinguished between "free will" and "freedom". And, I explained how "free will" as you defined it related to decision making, choice, (which is mental), and "freedom" as you separated it from free will, related to (physical) actions in the world. Then, to avoid having to deal with causation in the realm of the mental, decision making, and free will, you proposed a distinction between sufficient and necessary. Now you want to focus on consequentialism, and the world of physical actions, but your proposed distinction between sufficient and necessary, in the terms of causation, completely undermine your consequentialist principles.

I see what you mean. Your explanation shows the argument to be invalid though, because it puts a second instance of the same fallacy, in the second part. And that fallacy is required to carry out the procedure.

I'm not sure why the inversion fallacy is considered a separate fallacy from the fallacy of denying the antecedent. It only seems to differ in the assumption that if "If P, then Q" is true that therefore "if not P, then not Q" must also be true. But you get there if you analyse it as denying the antecedent as well. — Benkei

I think it actually is the same, just different names for the same problem.

The quote I took from Wikipedia concerns what happens when the problem is carried into inductive premises which are naturally probabilistic. It throws a skeptic's curveball at the problem, by making the relation not "necessary" in either direction, because there is not the required relation between the two, in either direction. I think that's what says. In reality, there is no necessary relation between God's existence and prayers being answered, in either direction, because "fate" might answer the prayers, instead of God, and God could choose not to answer prayers. That's where freedom of choice throws the curveball at cause/effect relations.

If not P, then not Q (if R, then S)
Q equals if R, then S
Not R
Therefore, not S
Therefore, Q (through double negation)
Therefore, P

But not "R" therefore not "S" is denying the antecedent in the secondary argument "if I pray, then my prayers will be answered". So this is still invalid if you ask me. — Benkei

Thank you, that's a very nice, clear explanation as to why it is a case of "denying the antecedent", sometimes called an inversion fallacy. The issue is that the assumed necessary relation does not carry in both directions, and this is very significant in cases of cause/effect. We see that A causes B and we establish the necessary relation "if A then B", assuming A does not have freedom of choice in the matter. But we might be fooled if we do not allow that B could be caused by something else, therefore to prevent that possibility of being misled by the inversion, we cannot say if B then A.

So the issue here is that there is an assumed causal relation between God and prayers being answered, such that God causes prayers to be answered, The necessary relation is that God is the cause of prayers being answered, if G then PA. Where the fallacy lies, is in the assumption that this can be turned around, to say that if prayers are answered, then God must exist. We must maintain the possibility that the effect could have another cause. So the fallacy inheres within the claim "if God does not exist my prayers will not be answered". That primary premise, as an inversion of "God is the cause of prayers being answered", already has within it, the fallacy. According to the nature of cause/effect relations we must maintain the possibility that the effect can occur without the known cause.

The myth is concerned with decision making and I think the big issue is the relation between possibility and necessity, and the role of each in the art of decision making. Each soul is free to decide its own destiny by choosing the life which it wants, from the vast multitude of possibilities. However, the drawing of the lots is the necessity which forces the decision.

The premise states a conditional concerning "if God does not exist". We cannot proceed logically, from that premise to make any conclusions about what would be the case "if God does exist". Such a conclusion would be an "inverse fallacy".

Here's Wikipedia:
"Confusion of the inverse, also called the conditional probability fallacy or the inverse fallacy, is a logical fallacy whereupon a conditional probability is equated with its inverse; that is, given two events A and B, the probability of A happening given that B has happened is assumed to be about the same as the probability of B given A, when there is actually no evidence for this assumption."

In other words, once you understand the relation between the antecedent and the consequent, in this type of conditional, as a relation of probability, you will see the argument in a completely different way. The relation between "if God does not exist", and "my prayers will not be answered" is a relation of probability.

I am going to be slow to respond to the other parts of the Er story because I am a slow reader. — Paine

You might notice the basic principle of Aristotle's doctrine of the mean at 619a:

"And we must always know how to choose the mean in such lives and how to avoid either of the extremes, as far as possible, both in this life and in all those beyond it. This is the way that a human being becomes happiest."

This section deals with the art of decision making. And, it's interesting that those who have had a good life are portrayed as being bad decision makers because they are rash in thinking that they already know what's best, but those who have had to suffer take their time to deliberate, grasping the importance of avoiding a repeat of suffering.

Sorry, sloppy mistake, or a strange sort of typo, in my last post. The question was meant to be, how do you proceed from the premise "if God does not exist..." to "therefore God exists" without an inversion fallacy?

If God does not exist, then it is false that if I pray, then my prayers will be answered. So I do not pray. — Banno

How do you conclude "God exists" from this? Since the premise is "If God exists..", doesn't the conclusion of "God exists" involve an inversion fallacy?

The myth is excellent for bringing out the juxtaposition of necessity and possibility, and ultimately how this relates to choice or selection. The assumption is that there is always some sort of necessity behind every act of selection, but the necessity is often veiled so that the selection appears as chance. This is the hidden nature of intention, and Plato's assumption that what appears to be random chance, is really guided by an underlying, unveiled necessity. That is the principle employed by the fixed lottery proposed as the selection lottery for breeding, and the use of the noble lie. Selection appears like random chance, an idea propagated by the lie, but only to those who are not privy to the reality of the underlying necessity.

Now, apply these principles to Darwinian natural selection as juxtaposed with Darwinian artificial selection in husbandry, and go have some fun.

Fair enough. I would suggest that for an agent to have libertarian free will, it must be the case that their actions are caused by the agent themselves and not wholly determined by preceding events (I think I'd also add that they aren't random but that's maybe a debate for another day), and that their actions are in-principle not wholly predictable with 100% accuracy prior to their occurance (Lapse's demon is impossible). — Dan

OK, so the key phrase is "not wholly determined by preceding events". I would say that "determined" is the type of concept where we would say that an action is either determined by preceding events, or it is not. That's my understanding of "determined". It wouldn't make sense to say that an act was partially determined, because determined is an all or nothing sort of concept. So, I will assume that by "not wholly determined by preceding events" you mean not determined by preceding events.

I mean, I think freedom and free will are different things. As I have said before, I would say that freedom is the ability to understand and make choices (and I would say that the kind of freedom that we should care about morally is the freedom to make one's own choices). — Dan

I would not make the distinction in this way. What I described earlier, is a difference between choosing and acting. I would say that "free will" involves choosing freely, and "freedom" involves acting freely. Notice that this distinction is necessary to account for the reality of cases where people choose to do something, and it ends up that they cannot do it, or they fail for some reason. So for example, if I choose to steal your car, that's a freely made choice, of my own free will, but if you shoot me, or if I'm arrested, then obviously I did not have the freedom to carry out that act.

Having free will is not the same as being able to use it to make your choices (since those choices might be restricted in some way). — Dan

This seems to be similar, to what I said, but I think you really need the distinction between choosing and acting. We need to recognize that distinction because choices are made within one's mind, and the factors which restrict one's choice, lack of education, inattention, rashness, desires, and all sorts of emotional things, are completely different from the factors which restrict ones actions. The things which restrict ones actions are those things which are expressed by the laws of the physical world, the activities in that world.

Because of this difference, one can choose all sorts of fantasy things, which might never come true. So there is often an inconsistency between what one chooses and what one actually receives from the world. But this facet of free choice is very important to theoretical thinking, like pure mathematics, and the creation of scientific hypotheses. The physical world is full of things which appear to us as restrictive, but our ability to transcend all those restrictions, with our minds, allows us to dream up ways around the apparent restrictions. That is the essence of problem solving. This ability to "dream" is what lifts us beyond things which appear to us as physical restrictions to our freedom, but which we may ultimately find a way around because the free will of our minds, to choose, is not restricted by those "apparent" restrictions. Here we have technology.

When I talk about a "free agent" I mean an agent possessing free will. I am not making a claim about how restricted or unrestricted their freedom is. — Dan

I believe this distinction between "free will", which which refers to the capacity of the mind to understand and choose, and "freedom", which refers to the capacity of the human being to act in the world, is very important to maintain in moral philosophy. Once we clearly define this boundary, we see that "freedom" is inherently restricted in many ways which "free will" is not. And since in moral philosophy we must start from the most base level of restriction, the restrictions to free will, as restrictions to the mind's capacity to understand and choose, we need to start with those things I've mentioned, education, deception, and even genetic disposition which is a form of restriction more base than learning.

The most base restrictions are the strongest and most influential restrictions. After this, we can move to the higher levels of restrictions, the restrictions to our freedom. And, the reason for maintaining a distinction between the two, is to allow for interactive relations between them, as a true model needs this separation to allow for reciprocation. These interactive relations are well exemplified by the process known as "trial and error". The mind comes up with an idea (a choice) and has to try it out in the physical world. In science, this is experimentation. Notice how this is representative of different types of free will choices, ones which are based in untried and very uncertain speculations, and ones which are based in proven and very certain principles.

Yes, because "forcing" someone to do something means something different than the "forces" of the universe, and I was very confused that you seemed to be using them interchangably. — Dan

The "forces" which a person applies to another, in forcing that person, are the "forces" of the universe. There is no other type of "force" available to the person, to use when "forcing" another, so the word has the very same meaning. The difference is as I explained, we can be restricted by force, or we can use force to our advantage. In the case of "forcing another", the person is manipulating the forces of the universe to take advantage of another.

However, you use an ambiguous and deceptive phrase, "forcing someone to do something", in order to veil your underlying inconsistency. When a person persuades or coerces another into carrying out an act for them (forces someone to do something), they use words, gestures, or other actions, to influence a person's decision making (to get them to decide to do the thing), they "cause" the person to decide on that act. But your stated principles of libertarian free will do not allow that a free agent's choices can be caused in this way.

Therefore you propose that "force" has a different meaning. This is a type of meaning which allows that a freely willed choice can actually be caused, "forced", by another person. But it's really nothing but contradiction. The free agent's choice is not caused, and cannot be caused. That's what being a free agent means. The proposed use of the word "force" is to signify a cause, which does not qualify as a "cause" because that would negate "free agent". So the word "force" is used instead of "cause", because if you said that a person could cause another person to do something, the contradiction between this and the principles of libertarian free will would be blatant.

This I believe is the most significant problem you've shown to me, in your principles, the above inconsistency. You dismiss all sorts of communications, teaching, deceiving, etc., as not able to have any causal effect on another's choices, because people have "libertarian free will", which means that their choices are not caused. However, then you allow that one person can "force" another to do something. But this proposed type of "force" is nothing other than persuading or coercing through teaching or deceiving, and it's really just an instance of communicating with another.

The glaring problem is that you deny the moral relevance of all sorts of communicative activities, saying that the agent is free, and these activities are not causal. Then, you cannot help but notice the reality that communicative activities really obtain the highest level of moral relevance, so you give this a special name "force someone", and separate it off, as completely distinct. Then you argue as if there is no similarity, no continuity between them, not allowing for some sort of scale of degrees of difference, between teaching, deceiving, and "forcing", all being activities of the same category. This is because of that above mentioned inconsistency. You really want "forcing" to qualify as "causing", and the others not to qualify as "causing". But "causing" cannot be provided for by libertarian free will, so you give it a different name, "forcing", and you speak as if it is something in a completely different category, when really it's nothing other than a matter of influencing a person through the means of communication.

I understand that there are many specific notions and fictions tied together in different books of the Republic. And yes, it does lead to confusion. — Amity

I believe, that it is this way of looking at things which is what leads to confusion. Instead of looking at the work as one united fiction, parts tied together in unity, building a cohesive conception, you are looking at a number of different fictions, which are somehow, supposed to be tied together.

This way of looking, which you describe, removes each section from the context of the whole, understands that section on its own, then attempts to establish a relation between it and other sections. Since the separated section cannot be adequately understood on its own, out of context, it is misunderstood. Then the attempt to relate it to other sections is very confusing, filled with the appearance of incoherency and contradiction between the distinct sections, due to that misunderstanding of the sections.

The proper way to understand a work of philosophy like this, is to take the whole as that which gives context, and then understand each section according to the context it is in. This will assist greatly in preventing you from giving a faulty interpretation to an individual section, i.e. an interpretation which does fit with the rest of the whole. That type of faulty interpretation is a great cause of confusion.

Please point me to where it tells of the 'selection process' in this fiction.
The males don't go through the travails of repeated pregnancies. — Amity

In Bk 5, the males are subjected to a false (fixed) lottery to determine who gets to breed. The true selection process is not revealed by the rulers. The males go through the travails of repeatedly losing the lottery.

Pregnancy is a fact of nature, which is irrelevant here. Since Plato was strongly into eugenics, I'm sure that if he could have conceived of a way to have laboratory babies instead of having women pregnant, he would have jumped on that opportunity.

At this point, I think the class system as imagined by Plato is a fiction within a fiction tied up in a bow of confusion and contradiction. — Amity

The entire proposal is imaginary, that's pretty clear. To say that one particular aspect is a fiction within a fiction is not really meaningful. You are just isolating it as a separate part of the overall fiction. It's generally not very helpful to attempt to completely separate aspects of a conception like this, because the various aspects tie together, and rely on each other for meaning. Analyzing a specific aspect, in isolation, usually will lead to confusion, because the ties, associations, required to develop the intended meaning are dropped.

Given that one of the roles of women is to have sex with select males on a temporary basis, it's clear that they are seen as baby producers. — Amity

If you consider the selection process, you'll see that the men are selected as "baby producers" just as much as the women are. This selection process is known by us as eugenics. In agriculture it is a very important part of what is called husbandry. Notice, Plato compares the guardians to dogs, and makes an analogy with the breeding of dogs. Advances in science have brought us into a new realm of husbandry known as GM.

I am not convinced that many women of wisdom would be happy or healthy in such a state. — Amity

Health ought not be a problem. There is nothing to indicate that a person would be less healthy in Plato's type of state. In fact, Plato describes the means to physical health through gymnastics, and mental health through music. And happiness, in relation to the breeding program, is ensured by the "noble lie".

This sounds like equivocation to me. Surely you don't mean to equate "force" as in to force someone to do something with "forces" as in the physical forces of the universe. — Dan

I define "free agent" with reference to free will. I feel like I already explained what I mean by free will but I can do so again if you would like. — Dan

Yes, that would be a good idea. I cannot follow what your saying now, so maybe a definition, or even a description of what you think free will is. You said something about libertarian free will, but to me that doesn't seem at all consistent with the principles you are arguing. But maybe you have a different idea from me, about what constitutes libertarian free will.

First, freedom is not meaningless, it is simply different from being a "free agent" in the sense of an agent with free will. To have free will and to have the freedom to express it are different things. — Dan

So are you saying that the "free" in "freedom" has a different meaning from the "free" in "free agent"? I assume also, that since you assert that defining "free agent" with "free will" is not self referential, then the "free" of "free will" has a different meaning from the "free" of "free agent". This is getting very confusing to me, and the likelihood of equivocation is looming large.

I mean, aside from the fact that someone has acted wrongly in this case, I am generally inclined to agree. But I don't think I ever suggested or implied that someone's freedom being restricted or violated by another person was in some way more significant than it being violated by something else. You said that restrictions were inherent to the person, and I was simply pointing out that this seems like a silly way to conceptualize restrictions. In this case, there was another person involved, but there need not be. We might imagine a similar case where a rock has fallen on your leg and trapped you under it, thereby restricting your freedom. It would be very strange to categorize the rock on your leg as an restriction that is inherent to you or in some sense internal. It is a thing that has happened to you that is restricting your freedom. — Dan

You were attempting to make a distinction between the physical forces of the universe, and the force someone uses to force a person to do something. You said: "This sounds like equivocation to me. Surely you don't mean to equate "force" as in to force someone to do something with "forces" as in the physical forces of the universe."

Now, when we analyzed your example, of when a person uses "force" on another, by locking one in a room, there is no significant difference between the restrictions applied by the forces of the universe, and the restrictions applied when someone is locked in a room. In each case, the restrictions are the same, and it is generally insignificant that in one case the force is intentional imposed.

Now that we seem to agree (somewhat) about the nature of restrictions, and "force", we might be able to go back and start from the principal restriction I mentioned, that of the passing of time, and the nature of the past. Do you think so? I'll wait until I see how you define "free will", and "free agent". This might give me an idea of how you understand "free". Your ideas seem totally foreign to me.

At what cost are they regarded as equal? What are the criteria? Temporary sexual relations to perpetuate the guardian class. Children to be cared for, communally. Equality is based on abstract political principles. — Amity

The guardian class is the middle class. Philosophers are the ruling class. Do you think that the ruling class is supposed to be male only?

Unlike the poetry that Socrates criticizes, the purpose of the story of Er is not to bring pleasure to the listener. (607c) It may bring hope to some, but fear to others. It may not be the truth of what happens in death but it could be considered leading rather than misleading, for:

What’s at stake is becoming good or bad, and so we should not neglect justice, and excellence in general (608b) — Fooloso4

Or, as mentioned above, it may be typical Platonic irony, taken to the extreme, the boundary of hypocrisy.

Found the reference to Homer's muse, a little later, but alas it's the "pleasure-giving Muse" (607a-c), not the "true Muse -- that of discussion and philosophy" (548b).

Not question-begging at all.

Carry on. — Srap Tasmaner

I think that's an important point. Plato was not advocating an all out ban on the creative arts. Music actually plays a very important role in his proposed state. But the reason it plays a very important role is that it has a certain power over the soul. This type of power can do both, culture good character, or corrupt character. That is simply the nature of "power". As is explained earlier in the book, the person with the capacity to do the most good, has also the capacity to do the most harm. The "power" in and of itself is neither good nor evil, it is how it is used which is good or evil.

Plato grasps the power of the creative arts, and understands that art can have a good influence or a bad influence over the culturing of human disposition. The problem is, that due to the nature of human intention, and free will, the specifics of this type of influence are very hard to get a handle on. So Plato approaches with a very general attitude, starting with the very broad principle, that all imitative type art, which is presented by the artist in a way that makes it appear like it is telling a true story, in the mode of narrative, ought to be banned, because it is actually not telling a true story. That's why Plato deemed it deceptive, it appears to be representing truth when it is not.

However, Plato is very heavy handed in his use of irony. You'll notice that right after he gets finished explaining how this type of art needs to be banned outright, he proceeds into telling such a myth, to end the book. There's irony all through Plato's work, and much of it is quite humorous to the prepared sense of humour. But this particular example is probably better described as hypocrisy, the division between irony and hypocrisy being the seriousness of the intended message.

At the end, 621c, Socrates says, "But if we are persuaded by me, we'll believe that the soul is immortal and able to endure every evil and every good, and we'll always hold to the upward path, practising justice with reason in every way." If the myth presented is meant in seriousness to be believed as "the truth", if Socrates is actually intending to persuade anyone with that story, then Plato is practising what he say's ought to be banned (that's hypocrisy). But if it is presented as obviously false, a humorous presentation of irony, Socrates knowing that he's not going to persuade anyone with that story, therefore it's not meant as an imitation or narrative of any real occurrence, then that story is simply presented as an ironic way of exemplifying what he is talking about. Which is it, irony or hypocrisy? Could it be both?

But this is just denying that divine inspiration is a thing. It was already clear what your view on the matter is.

And maybe it's Plato's too. — Srap Tasmaner

Right, I was trying to clarify Plato's argument. If you don't agree with it, maybe you could provide an argument for the other side, attempt to refute Plato or something.

But it's not the Forms that would matter here, but the Muses. And he doesn't seem to mention them. Maybe I overlooked it.

But as near as I can tell no one is bothering to present an actual argument against the efficacy of the Muses in the production of Homer's poetry.

Your incredulity is not an argument. — Srap Tasmaner

I've explained the argument. It's you who has not provided a counter argument. I suggest you go back and read what I wrote. But here's the gist of it:

Now, to understand how this relates to good and bad, and Homer's representation of the divine, we are guided to take the analogy one step further. So, consider the following. The carpenter makes a physical bed. This physical bed is a copy of the carpenter's idea (form) of a bed. The carpenter's idea of a bed is itself a representation of the ideal bed, the divine Form of bed or best bed. The carpenter attempts to produce the ideal form of bed. Notice how the carpenter's material bed suffers the same problem of "imitation" that the painter's bed suffered. Rather than being based on the divine Form of bed itself, it is based on the carpenter's representation of what he believes is the divine Form. So it's an imitation produced from a perspective, and therefore lacking in truth. — Metaphysician Undercover

Again, you seem to want words to only mean one thing, and they don't. — Dan

That is because I want premises for the purpose of proceeding logically. If we allow the ambiguity of words meaning numerous different things, then we open ourselves to equivocation and logic becomes useless. Then there is no point to proceeding. That's why I'm now looking for some clearly defined terms to provide for us some agreeable premises for logic.

A free agent is one that has free will — Dan

This is self-referential. You define "free agent" with "free will", but nothing tells us what "free" means.

Their freedom (their ability to understand and make their own choices) might be restricted, or it might not. — Dan

Now "freedom" becomes totally meaningless. "Free" to me, as the common dictionary definition indicates, means unrestricted. Now you say freedom might be restricted, or it might not. That leaves "freedom" itself as nothing.

And as I've shown, the "ability to understand and make their own choices" is not freedom at all. Because you qualify "their own choices", with moral principles, this phrase, as you define it, just refers to a type of restriction. And as far as I understand "free", restriction is opposed to "free".

I'm not really sure what point you are making in your discussion of the person locked in the room. — Dan

The point is that you have named a special type of restriction, one which is imposed upon a person by another, and you have singled this out as if it has special moral significance. What my explanation of your "locked in the room" example shows, is that whether or not a restriction is imposed by another person is usually very insignificant relative to the required decision making at that time. If you find yourself locked in a room, the issue of whether or not someone imposed this upon you intentionally ought to have very little significance over the choices you need to make at that time. And in general, in cases where we find ourselves confronted with unwanted restrictions, whether these restrictions are natural, or artificially imposed, ought not have a serious affect on our decisions making. We must work to understand the restrictions, and free ourselves from them, not worry about who, why, or if, someone laid them on us. Therefore "imposed by another" is not a species of "restriction" which is important to distinguish at this time. We need to first understand what "free" and "restricted" mean, in their basic sense.

And if the poet is inspired? — Srap Tasmaner

Being "inspired" does not equate with being able to represent the divine. The principal force of Plato's criticism of Homer is related to how Homer represents the divine. He uses the argument concerning "imitation" to attack Homer's credibility on the subject of the divine.

Are these two claims the same:

(1) The poet expresses his ideas about the divine.
(2) The divine expresses itself through the medium of the poet's ideas. — Srap Tasmaner

No, clearly these two are very different. In (1) the poet is the active agent. In (2) the divine is the active agent. The improper assigning of "activity" is what Plato demonstrates to be the deficiency of the theory of participation. By the theory of participation, beautiful things partake in the Idea of Beauty. Notice, the beautiful things are active in partaking, and the Idea is passively partaken off.

So Plato grasped a very difficult problem, which was the question of how forms, or ideas, could be causally active in the creative process. In modern days we have a simple representation of this problem, known as the interaction problem. Plato introduced the idea of "the good" as a causal principle, and Aristotle provided the term "final cause", defined as "that for the sake of which". This is provided as the means toward understanding how ideas are active in the creative arts.

But what if it is not the poet reaching out toward the divine ("Ah, but a man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"), but the divine taking hold of the poet? — Srap Tasmaner

The whole point is that this, "the divine taking hold of the poet", is the false representation which Plato wants to rid us of. What Plato points out is that the human mind is a medium between the divine and the poetry produced by the human being. That's the point of the three layers. Further, the human mind provides only one perspective, and therefore truth is lacking. And instead of being guided by "the truth", the human perspective is guided by "the good". This renders the human being, with one's own free willing mind, as the agent in the creative act, the good is the object aimed for. So the claim that "God has taken a hold of me" and makes me do such and such (He came to me as a burning bush, and gave me this tablet of ten commandments, for example), is the deceptive claim. Would you accept "the devil made me do it" as an excuse for acting poorly? Why would you accept "God made me do it" as an explanation for the quality of one's poetry? The human being is a medium, an agent with free will, and is really speaking one's own opinions about the divine. The divine is not appearing to others, through the medium, no matter how the divine appears to the medium.

He viewed it as a critical part of Plato's philosophical argument, particularly regarding the relationship between reality, imitation, and the nature of truth. — Benkei

I agree with this. What Plato's describes here is the logical procedure toward the separation between human ideas, and the separate or divine Forms, which Aristotle and Aquinas followed up on, to a much more significant degree. This is the means by which traditional "Platonism" or Pythagorean idealism is dispelled. The principal issue is the deficiency of the human mind, in its attempts to grasp "the ideal", as the best, most perfect, divine ideas. The human mind naturally comes up short, and this creates a separation between human ideas, and the divine, perfect, ideal "Truth".

The separation extends throughout all of humanity's mental enterprises, from the most vague ideas about beauty, good, and just, to the most precise ideas about numbers and logic. The cold hard reality is that the human mind cannot produce perfection in any of its conceptions, therefore there is always a separation between human ideas, and any supposed "independent Forms" such that Platonism, which holds human ideas to that high esteem, is necessarily incorrect. This separation, through its development by Aristotle and the cosmological argument, is fundamental to Thomism.

Again, to be a free agent is to have free will, even if your freedom is restricted. — Dan

OK, but since "freedom is restricted" is a blatant contradiction, and you seem to believe that "restricted" represents the truth in this matter, we need to start with the premise that the agent is not free. The agent is restricted. Whether or not you believe in free will is irrelevant now, what you believe is that the agent is restricted, and therefore not free. Now we can proceed to outline the nature of the restrictions.

I believe, as I said earlier, the most important and significant restriction is the nature of time. It is impossible to alter the past. And, it's not the case that this type of restriction is not morally relevant, because this restriction affects everything we do, that which is morally irrelevant, as well as that which is morally relevant.

If someone has locked you in a room, that is not a restriction inherent within you. — Dan

That's a good example. What you signify is that something has happened to the person, "someone has locked you in a room". This past act has created a describable situation now, the person is locked in a room. No one can change the past, so as much as "you" dislike the situation you are in, you cannot change it. The restriction is a feature of time.

However, going forward in time, such restrictions can be dealt with. "You" can pull out your phone and call someone. "You" can look around the room for a tool to get you out. "You" can look at leaving through a window. "You" can try to kick a hole through the door, or wall. These are all possibilities, choices which the person who is locked in the room might consider, and many others depending on the particulars of the situation.

Now, notice that all the choices reference the future. They all concern what the person might do in the future. Also, notice that in this specific example, what is indicated is a desire to be rid of a particular restriction. That is a key point in relation to freedom, as much as we premise that the agent is not free, (is restricted), there is a desire for freedom. This desire is reflected in the agent's intentions. So, having a desire for freedom, the agent makes choices from a multitude of future possibilities, with the intention of ridding oneself of various restrictions, in the quest for freedom.

The other significant point is that most thoughts about the past, "I wish I hadn't done this or that", "I wish so and so hadn't done this or that, are completely useless in relation to this desire for freedom. This is not to say that they are all useless, because a few select ones are extremely useful. These are the ones that indicate something important about how the restrictions were applied to the restricted person. Therefore another selection process is required from the agent. From one's past experience, memories etc., the agent must select from a vast multitude, a very few select thoughts which are applicable to the present situation, and the quest for freedom.

That is a restriction that someone has imposed upon you. — Dan

This qualification, "that someone has imposed upon you" such and such restriction, is generally insignificant, and unimportant. Consider that you suddenly find yourself locked in a room. And, your desire is to be free. Look at the possibilities for the means to freedom, which I mentioned above. That someone has imposed the restriction on you is completely irrelevant. However, when we look at the memories from the past experience, this qualification may be significant. If you think you might call the person on your phone, and get them to let you out, then it would be important. But this is unlikely, so the qualification that it "is a restriction that someone has imposed upon you", is probably completely irrelevant to your desire for freedom.

Socrates makes a three-fold distinction:

1) Beds and tables as they are by their nature, the singular forms.
2) Beds and tables as they are made by the craftsman with an eye to the form
3) Beds and tables as they are made by a maker of images, whose model is the beds and tables made by the craftsman. — Fooloso4

I believe the best representation of this three-fold distinction is like this.

The basic example consists of three beds, one made by God, one made by a carpenter, and the third being a painting of one made by the carpenter. You can see how the third is an imitation, and not even a real bed. So artists, poets, and playwriters who imitate (sometimes translated as narrate) like this are frowned upon, for producing something less than real. The point is that there are different perspectives, and the artist's imitation is from a perspective, therefore lacking in truth, and inherently deceptive.


Now, to understand how this relates to good and bad, and Homer's representation of the divine, we are guided to take the analogy one step further. So, consider the following. The carpenter makes a physical bed. This physical bed is a copy of the carpenter's idea (form) of a bed. The carpenter's idea of a bed is itself a representation of the ideal bed, the divine Form of bed or best bed. The carpenter attempts to produce the ideal form of bed. Notice how the carpenter's material bed suffers the same problem of "imitation" that the painter's bed suffered. Rather than being based on the divine Form of bed itself, it is based on the carpenter's representation of what he believes is the divine Form. So it's an imitation produced from a perspective, and therefore lacking in truth.

This is how we are instructed to look at Homer's representation of good, bad, and the divine, as opinion. There are three levels, the divine, the poet's ideas of the divine, and the poetry. We are inclined to believe that the poetry is a representation of the divine. But this leaves out the very important medium, which is the poet's own ideas of the divine. So the poetry really only represents the divine through the medium, which is the poet's ideas.

This sounds like equivocation to me. Surely you don't mean to equate "force" as in to force someone to do something with "forces" as in the physical forces of the universe.
11 hours ago — Dan

When someone forces someone to do something, they are using the physical forces of the universe to their advantage. So from the perspective of the person who is said to be forced, the two are the same in principle. In the first case, the person being forced by physical forces has to understand and deal simply with those forces of the universe. In the other case, the person has to deal with the forces of the universe being directed by another's intent. This makes the latter type of force more complex, therefore more difficult to understand and deal with, because intention is an integral part of it and intention is difficult to understand.

This is why I say that you need to look closely at the relationship between the free agent, and force, to understand that force cannot actually restrict the free agent. And this is regardless of the type of force. So if the free agent is restricted, this is a feature of the agent itself, making it not truly free. And this feature creates challenges for the agent in dealing with forces (that includes all types of forces, including physical and the intent of another). It is not the case that a specific type of force restricts the agent, it is the case that the agent has restrictions inherent within (making it less than free), which renders it vulnerable to specific types of forces.

But if this is the case, then we must drop the premise that the agent is free, and adopt the premise that it is inherently restricted. Then we would need to analyze the nature of the agent to see what sort of restrictions inhere within.

In Plato's cave the prisoners refuse to listen to the escapee. — Dan

That's human nature, people hold fast to the beliefs they have. Because of this, I think moral philosophy is the most difficult field You are not listening to me. I am not listening to you. I think the analogy is good.

No, the point is that you claimed that one thing does not cause another. I pointed out that it often does. — Dan

Are you not listening, in denial, or do you seriously not understand this point? The fact that force often appears to restrict freedom does not justify the proposition "force restricts freedom".

Exceptions to the rule indicate that the rule is faulty. What is required is a comparison of cases where force does restrict freedom to cases where it does not restrict freedom, and this will reveal what really restricts freedom, and why there is the appearance that it is force which restricts freedom.

What I suggest, is that if you look closely at the relationship between force and freedom, you will first see the inherent contradiction, (which I referred to earlier), inhering within the idea that force restricts freedom. "Free" implies a state of being unrestricted, yet we are surrounded by forces. So if forces are restrictions, we could not be free. Therefore, if our primary premise is that the agent is free, we need to assign freedom to the agent, and then develop the relationship between the agent and forces from this premise.

That the agent is free implies that it is impossible that forces restrict the agent, because this would contradict the agent's freedom. Therefore we must conclude that the free agent's response to forces, (which create the appearance that the agent is being restricted by the forces), are really free choices made by the agent, decisions made as to how deal with the forces.

See how the contradiction is resolved? The agent remains free. Forces surround the free agent. The agent responds to the forces freely. The free response of the agent to a force creates the appearance that the agent is being restricted by that force. This is the first lesson from Plato's cave allegory, to learn how to distinguish appearance from reality. The sensible world which we observe is the realm of appearance. We need to look into the mind to access the real.

I think calling intentions a final cause might be quite different from how that term is generally used. — Dan

Final cause is defined by Aristotle as that for the sake of which. The example given is that health is the final cause of the man walking. Why is he walking? To be healthy. The reason he is walking is to be healthy, he is walking for the sake of his health. That really seems like "intention" to me. It's what Plato called "the good".

It seems we're very far apart as to what moral philosophy is. I think its principal function is to teach, you think it's principal function is to learn. I suppose it must involve both, because learning is necessary for teaching, but until you recognize the importance of teaching, there's not much for us to discuss.

In Plato's cave allegory, the philosopher escapes the cave out into the sunlight, and recognizes the sun. The sun is analogous with "the good", as that which makes visible objects visible, in the same way that the good makes intelligible objects intelligible. After seeing the light, the philosopher does not just sit around and bask in its glow, he must return to the cave, and teach the others what has been revealed to him. That, I believe is the position of moral philosophy.

I am fairly sure that what I said, and what I meant, was that force very often restricts freedom. You were the one that suggested that force does not restrict freedom, I was simply pointing out that this is not the case because it often does. I need not show that it always does to show that you are wrong, only that it sometimes does. In this case, it often does. — Dan

The point is, that we cannot proceed from this proposition "force restricts freedom", as a premise, because it is a false proposition. Therefore if we want to understand how freedom is restricted, and proceed with a true premise about this, we really need to look elsewhere.

I think the principle of plenitude actually is important to Aquinas' version of the cosmological argument. Basically, if all existence is contingent existence (coming into being from a prior possibility), then it would be possible that there was a time with no existence. By the principle of plenitude, an endless amount of time prior to now would necessitate that there was a time prior to now when there was nothing. But if there was ever nothing, nothing could ever have come from that, so there would still be nothing. However there is something now. Therefore not all existence is contingent existence, and necessary existence is real.

The effort you have put into placing me outside of the conversation does not address the distinctions that Aquinas also understood. — Paine

I didn't see any need to comment on the Aquinas quote. He was explaining what you and I both agreed upon, that Aristotle said we understand the meaning of actuality in its relation to potentiality. The aspect of the passage from Aristotle which I was interested in, what I would call the content, or substance of that chapter, was the distinction between the two different senses of "actual". This is what I said is the key to resolving the problem you indicated earlier here:

Ζ.13 therefore produces a fundamental tension in Aristotle’s metaphysics that has fragmented his interpreters. Some maintain that Aristotle’s theory is ultimately inconsistent, on the grounds that it is committed to all three of the following propositions:

(i) Substance is form.
(ii) Form is universal.
(iii) No universal is a substance. — SEP Aristotle's Metaphysics

I replied, that the way to resolve this issue is to understand that Aristotle distinguishes two senses of "form". "Form" is understood as "actual", and in Ch 6, Bk 9, Aristotle is clearly distinguishing two distinct senses of "actual". Understanding this is the way toward resolving the problem which you quoted from SEP.

The passage in question is not claiming that result. — Paine

That's right, as I said, after finishing that chapter, with the clear conclusion and distinction made between "movement" and "actuality", as the two types, "movement" being related to the type of potential known as "potency", and "actuality" being related to the type of potential known as matter, he proceeds from that conclusion. So the result which you refer to follows later in Bk 9, when he demonstrates that actual is prior to potential in an absolute sense.