Month: November 2014
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Obsolescence: Exiting the Market System
We have some readily accepted theories about how one good or service in the marketplace is replaced by another. The first theory is that some company providing some good or service X outcompetes another company (or companies) providing a like good or service. This victory may be owing, it is held, (i) to the improved quality…
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‘The unexamined life is not worth living for man’ (IV): On mental discipline
As I began re-reading the early Socratic dialogues, I initially thought that the Socratic way of life would have to be supplemented by philosophical and religious traditions that have devoted considerable thought to the cultivation of mental discipline. I presumed that in these dialogues there would be no explicit talk of training one’s attention on…
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‘The unexamined life is not worth living for man’ (III): Kinds of Socratic openness
When Socrates speaks of virtue or about virtuous living, his immediate point of reference is the ancient Greek virtues of temperance, courage, justice, and wisdom. Thus, one would be naturally inclined to ask questions about the relationship between Socratic discussion and virtuous living, about the definitions of each virtue, and about the defensibility of the ‘unity of virtue’…
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‘The unexamined life is not worth living for man’ (II)
‘[For Socrates,] A successful life of reason and philosophy will therefore also be a life of moral virtue at its highest. The truest philosopher will also be the most morally, socially virtuous person—precisely because only a philosopher can have achieved the reasoned, argued understanding of just why those (or rather, some philosophically improved version of…
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‘The unexamined life is not worth living for man’ (I)
I At Apology 38a, Socrates states, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living for man.’ It can be ascertained from his story about his life being spent in the pursuit of wisdom that the examined life just is the search for wisdom. The argument seems to be: if one spends one’s life in the pursuit of wisdom, then that person’s life…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 