Platos Moral Psychology :: Argumentative Rationality Argument Papers

Platos Moral PsychologyI argue that Platos psychological theories atomic number 18 motivated by concerns he had about moralistic theory. In particular, Plato rejects the modern banknote of tenableness as the maximization of adequate to(p)ively evaluated self-interest because, had he adopted such an consider, his theory of justice would be subject to criticisms which he holds are fatal to the contractarian theory of justice. While formulating a theory to remain within ethical constraints sometimes violates the force outons of scientific theorizing, Plato avoids this mistake.The first serious account of justice Plato considers in the Republic is the contractarian account.(1) It holds that is always instrumentally rational for one to further her knowledge interests and in that certain situations (exemplified by the prisoners dilemma) it is more rational to forego ones own interests (providing others do so also) than to behave in a straight-forwardly rational way. The rules allow ing one to escape prisoners dilemmasthe rules it is rational to accept providing all others accept them alsoare exactly the rules of morality. Hence it is rational to be moral.(2)Plato agrees that reasonableness requires self-interested action. However, he distinguishes between perceived self-interest and actual self-interest and argues that any apparent conflict between rationality and morality is simply a conflict between ones perceived self-interest and the requirements of justice. Pursuing of ones actual self-interest never conflicts with the demands of morality. Since, for Plato, it is more rational to pursue ones real, than ones apparent, self-interest, rationality and morality do not conflict. It is rational to be moral.Plato rejects the contractarian reconciliation of morality with individual rationality primarily because the thinks that the contractarian conception assumes that a persons motives for being just are necessarily based her self-interest, while our concept of the just person holds that to be truly just one must value justice for its own sake. The contractarian account is also unacceptable because it has no foorce in the case of the Lydia Shepherd.(3) Finally, Plato holds that we must reject the contractarian account because a better account is available to us, viz., his own account of justice. that to show this Plato must establish each of the following 1. There really is a difference between perceived self-interest and actual self-interest, that there can be a difference between what one believes to be in ones interest and what really is in ones interest. 2. Provide an account of what ones actual self-interest is.(4) 3.